Sudden cardiac death due to cardiac arrhythmia is one of the most common causes of death in Norway. In young people it is often caused by a hereditary heart disease.

The group is researching methods which can contribute to further mapping and treatment of patients suffering from hereditary heart disease.

Prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major challenge in cardiology. Mechanical Dispersion (MD) assessed by speckle tracking echocardiography can predict risk of SCD in several cardiac diseases.

Young individuals with cardiac genetic diseases are predisposed to SCD, and risk stratification is vital in these patients. Ongoing research is focusing on characterization of cardiac function and prediction of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias in patients at risk of SCD.

Better risk assessment will provide a stronger selection of patients with high risk of death. At-risk individuals may receive preventive drug treatment, and those at high risk may receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Visit also: ProCardio Center for Innovation
ProCardio is a center for research-based innovation, lead by professor Kristina Haugaa. 

Er du interessert i klinisk fysiologi og gjennomføring og tolking av arbeidsbelastningstester? Da bør du delta på dette tverrfaglige seminaret som arrangeres av Forum for klinisk fysiologi (FFKF). 

FFKF 2024 arrangeres 11. og 12. januar på Scandic Nidelven i Trondheim. For mer informasjon se facebooksiden til arrangementet. Link til påmelding: https://axacoair.se/go?uflafzmC

Foreløpig program (åpne som PDF)

ProCardio was well represented at Innovation conference as part of the Oslo Innovation Week 2023.

Giving the right care, to the right patient, at the right time. The importance of collaboration between academia, the institute sector, the private sector, start-ups and industry when heading into the future of cardiac health care. These were among the topics that were discussed when the UiO Growth House invited to an Innovation conference as part of the Oslo Innovation Week 2023.

In the parallel session “- How to keep the heart healthy?”, several short talks and pitches on innovative work in the areas of better diagnostics, treatments and follow up of cardiac patients were presented.

We’ve summarised 12 hours in a less than 2 min. video and published on the conference webpage http://www.uio.no/scienceimpact.

The ESC Congress is the largest medical congress in Europe, gathering over 30.000 participants on-site and online. This year's theme was Heart Failure, relevant to all areas of cardiology and beyond.  One of the most important highlights was the presentation of the Guidelines for the management of cardiomyopathies. These are the first European guidelines on cardiomyopathies. 

Read complete article from the ProCardio Center for Innovation home page

The 21st Annual Norwegian Symposium on Heart Research, organized by Department of Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital in collaboration with ProCardio and Norheart, took place at the end of August, lining up tightly after European Society of Cardiology Congress with its final day on the 28^th.

The expressive frame of Holmenkollen hosted a consistent group of young and senior cardiologists, researchers and PhD students, who presented their projects during the abstract sessions.

Four fellows from ProCardio - Isotta Castrini, Christian Five, Marianne Forså and Journn Tangen -displayed their work with abstracts on three different topics, including “Genetics and arrhythmias", “Cardiac function" and “Exercise and prevention". 

In the opening session of the symposium “New therapeutic strategies" in cardiomyopathies and heart failure, Dr Nina Hasselberg, Center Director of Cardiological Research, Cardiologist, PhD, MD presented “Mavacampen; finally a breakthrough?"

Read comlete article from the ProCardio Center for Innovation home page

All patients with suspected cardiomyopathy are recommended genetic testing in order to find a cause for the symptoms. This is one of the main messages in the first comprehensive European guidelines in the field.
This applies not least to dilated cardiomyopathy, where possible genetic causes may go under the radar, even though they can be present in up to every other case, says Kristina Haugaa, head of the Cardiogenetics and sudden cardiac death group at OUH, professor of cardiology at the University of Oslo and senior consultant at Karolinska University Hospital. She is co-author of the new guidelines on cardiomyopathies presented at the ESC Congress in Amsterdam, and has been interviewed about the findings for the newspaper "Dagens Medicin".

Kristina Haugaa is the second most publishing female researcher in Norway for the period 2019-2022, and is number 29 in total. The ranking is based on publication points, and has been published by the research and education news site Khrono.
Haugaa, who researches hereditary heart diseases, is consultant cardiologist at OUS, professor at the University of Oslo and heads a center for researchbased innovation, ProCardio.
As center manager and supervisor for research fellows and postdocs, she is involved in many projects, which results in many publications.