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The Center for Heart Failure Research (CHFR) was established in 2002 and has since then promoted the integration of high quality research from bench to bedside. Center members have a broad range of expertise; covering state-of-the-art gene technology, protein function, integrative physiology in pathophysiological models of heart failure and clinical studies. This collective knowledge and active research collaboration has resulted in more than 200 scientific publications each year.

Several members from Myocardial function and cardiac imaging research group and the collaborating researchers presented interesting results from their recent studies. Two PhD fellows were awarded with the best poster prize; Eystein Skjølsvik for his work on “Exercise is a marker of impaired left ventricular function in patients with Lamin A/C mutations” and Monica Chivulescu for her work on “High penetrance and similar disease progression in probands and family members with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy”.

Previous best poster prize winner in the session Diagnostic and therapeutical strategies for cardiac disease postdoctoral fellow Øyvind H. Lie, was among the speakeres at this year's Symposium. Lie talked about Cardiac arrest in sports: Knowledge and misconceptions. Øyvind H. Lie has also written about the subject in, among others, Indremedisineren and Aftenposten.

Several researchers presented their latest studies at the annual Congress of European Society for Cardiology, the largest get-together of its kind. Elevating the Congress further this year was its conjunction with the World Congress of Cardiology, putting the spotlight on global cardiovascular health, highlighting differences in prevalence, clinical manifestations, prevention strategies, diagnostic modalities and management of cardiovascular diseases around the world, as stated on the ESC webpage.

PhD fellow Christine Rootwelt, MD, presented the study Apparent sex differences in risk of life-threatening events in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy are related to exercise habits, which concluded that sex differences in arrhythmic risk in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) were attributable to higher exercise doses in male AC-patients. This highlights the importance of exercise assessment in these patients, and challenges the current opinion of male sex as a risk factor in itself. Risk stratification based on sex may underestimate the risk of physically active female AC-patients.

PhD fellow Monica Chivulescu, MD presented the study “Structural progression increases the risk of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy”. The study concluded that disease penetrance was fairly high in family members both at inclusion and during follow-up. Rate of progression was similar in probands and family members with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy and structural progression was associated with higher incidence of severe arrhythmic event in arrhythmia free patients during follow-up.

The study was simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal (https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz570)

Prof Perry Elliott from University College, London, United Kingdom and Benjamin Meder, University of Heidelberg, Germany talk about the study in a ESC Cardio Talk podcast available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, The Podcast App. (https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/What-we-do/news/ESC-Cardio-Talk)

GE Vingmed Ultrasound together with Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo, KU Leuven, University of Maastrich, Jessa Hospital in Belgium and Medaphor were recently awarded 1.6 million euros for a Marie Curie project that will utilize artificial intelligence to diagnose a number of heart disorders. Several of the international partners in the new project have previously been central to CCI's international research collaboration. Over the years, the network and the exchange of skills have been strengthened through joint workshops, studies presented at both national and international conferences and, not least, the exchange of students and professionals.

Email: thor.edvardsen@medisin.uio.no