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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

GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) announces the launch of CardioVisio for Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), a digital tool designed to assist clinicians in visualizing longitudinal data relevant for disease progression from multiple data sources, and driving evidence based clinical decision support directed by up-to-date AFib guidelines.

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.

Postdoctoral fellow at ProCardio, Marit Kristine Smedsrud, received the Marie Spångberg Prize on 6 June for the most valuable original scientific article published by a Norwegian female doctor in 2022.

The article was published by the ProCardio Center for Innovation at HLK and Professor Kristina Haugaa was the last author of the article. The distribution took place during the Medical Association's national board meeting in Bodø.

Read news article from the home page of Oslo University Hospital (in Norwegian):
Marit Kristine Smedsrud er tildelt Marie Spångberg-prisen

The graduating class of the medical program distributes the teaching prize every semester. The honor goes to a teacher whom the students have particularly appreciated.
In the spring of 2023, the award will go to clinical fellow August Stensrød Flø and professor Kristina Haugaa, both from the Department of Cardiology. They received the same number of votes and therefore share the prize.

Read the news article from UiO web site:
Kardiologene vinner studentenes undervisningspris

I joined GE HealthCare, because I found that it is the best way for me to have a positive impact on healthcare. -Says Chief Technology Scientist in GE Healthcare Cardiology Solutions, Eigil Samset.

- As a researcher and a supervisor of PhD-students, I contribute to uncover new knowledge, disseminated to other researchers and contribute to the education of tomorrow's engineers and developers.

In this session (YouTube link), we will focus on the management of Coronary Artery Disease. I will walk you through the pathway, from early detection, diagnosis and treatment to follow-up. We will take a look at each step of the pathway and discuss the role and value of GE's cardiology product portfolio. 

Impaired heart function does not seem to be the reason why it takes a long time for some to recover after undergoing COVID-19.

One of the complications you can get due to COVID-19 infection is inflammation of the heart muscle. This condition is called myocarditis, and can cause symptoms such as palpitations, difficulties breathing, disturbance of the heart rhythm and pressure on the chest. However, a new study provides good reason for optimism regarding cardiac function after undergoing COVID-19. In a new study, researchers found that heart function was normal in most people a few months after having been hospitalised with COVID-19 infection.

The 20th Annual Norwegian Symposium on Heart Research was arranged by NORHEART and the Department of Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital.  The scientific program covered the latest news in cardiac research and invited lecturers represented the impressive field of cardiovascular research in Norway.

Six members from ProCardio presented their abstract in the "rapid fire” abstract sessions and Dr. Marianne Inngjerdingen Forså won the best abstract in the Exercise, prevention and diagnostics session with her abstract "Cardiac remodelling in adolescent athletes – sex differences progress through adolescence".

Dr. Eivind Westrum Aabel won the best abstract in the Genetics and arrhythmias session with his abstract "High incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in arrhythmic mitral valve syndrome - an implantable loop recorder study".​​

EuroEcho is the annual congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI). Every year they highlight some of the brightest young researchers and in the category clinical science, ProCardio member, Dr. Christine Rootwelt Norberg was announced as the winner.

Mitral annular disjunction is a gap between the mitral ring and the ventricular myocardium, and is associated with mitral valve prolapse. A minority of these patients experience life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias, but the incidence of such arrhythmias is largely unknown and estimating risk is challenging.

PhD-fellow Christine Rootwelt-Norberg, professor Kristina Haugaa and co-authors have published a paper validating the existing LMNA-risk VTA calculator for prediction of malignant arrhythmias in patients with cardiac laminopathies. The study was a multicentre collaboration with Rigshospitalet University Hospital in Copenhagen, including 118 LMNA genotype positive patients followed for 6 years. Twenty-three (19%) of patients experienced first-time life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias during follow-up. The previously published LMNA-risk calculator (https://lmna-risk-vta.fr/) showed high sensitivity for detecting forthcoming ventricular arrhythmias, but low specificity, and overpredicted arrhythmic risk particularly in male patients. 

Arrhythmic mitral valve syndrome is linked to life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. The incidence, morphology and methods for risk stratification are not well known. This prospective study aimed to describe the incidence and the morphology of ventricular arrhythmia and propose risk stratification in patients with arrhythmic mitral valve syndrome. 

Norway Life Science is the leading conference for life sciences in Norway. We connect leading researchers with industrial innovators, visionary leaders and strategic minds.

We want to showcase excellent research and inspire to the development of new ideas. With ground-breaking technology and collaboration, we aim to stimulate to the emergence of a new Norwegian health industry, and support Nordic solutions to global challenges.

Seven years after it was established, the University of Oslo relaunches the conference as an Oslo Science City Arena event together with our partners.

This study describes the cardiac phenotypes and markers of adverse outcome in athletes with ventricular arrhythmias with no other discernable etiology than high exercise doses. 

We aimed to describe competitive athletes with ventricular arrhythmias by a multimodality approach including electrocardiogram (ECG) and novel imaging techniques and compare them to matched healthy athletes. Furthermore, we wanted to identify possible risk markers of life-threatening arrhythmic events in competitive athletes and hypothesized that tools that have been useful in risk stratification of patients with AC may be useful in athletes with a possible acquired AC-like phenotype.

Little is known about the cause of death (CoD) in patients with transposition of the great arteries palliated with a Mustard or Senning procedure. The aim was to describe the CoD for patients with the Mustard and Senning procedure.

Cardiac laminopathies are highly malignant and arrhythmogenic variants of familial dilated cardiomyopathy, with a lifetime penetrance of nearly 100%. The LMNA gene encode nuclear envelope proteins lamin A and C.  LMNA mutations cause a variety of phenotypes, including cardiac and skeletal muscle disease. Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) are common, and implantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is most often necessary. However, ICD implantation at young age may result in long-term complications, highlighting the importance of correct timing to avoid premature implantation of device.

Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy is a genetic cardiac disease associated with high risk of life-threatening arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, and many arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy patients end up with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Cand.med. Christine Rootwelt-Norberg from ProCardio defended the thesis “Disease manifestations and predictors of arrhythmia in patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy” for the degree of PhD (Philosophiae Doctor) on the 15th of December. The trial lecture was titled “Personalized exercise prescription in GUCH patients”.

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is common, and the prognosis is good. However in autopsy materials of sudden death in the young, MVP is disproportionally common. Mitral annulus disjunction (MAD) is a pathological atrial displacement of the mitral leaflet hinge-point. MAD may exist alone, but it's commonly associated with MVP and sudden death. We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics of MAD, explore the anatomy and its relation to MVP and severe ventricular arrhythmia.

Cardiac involvement is the main cause of decreased survival in patients with genetic cardiac diseases. Fatal arrhythmias at young age are a recognized cause of death in these patients. Better characterization of the outcome and identification of prognostic markers are necessary for early intervention and prevention of fatal events in these patients. 

More exercise training during childhood and adolescence was associated with favorable LV diastolic function in both HCM LVH+ and G+ LVH- groups, regardless of presence of hypertrophy at the time of examination. These results indicate that exercise training initiated during childhood and adolescence has positive effects on cardiac function later in life for individuals with HCM or an HCM-causative genotype. 

This study aimed to explore the incidence of severe cardiac events in paediatric arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) patients and ARVC penetrance in paediatric relatives. Furthermore, the phenotype in childhood-onset ARVC was described.

Moderate hypothermia has been used to improve outcomes in comatose out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors during the past two decades, although the effects remain controversial. We have recently shown in an experimental study that myocardial electrophysiological and mechanical relationships were altered during moderate hypothermia. 

Kristina Haugaa received the Norwegian Cardiology Society's research prize for 2020. The prize is usually awarded at a cardiological autumn meeting which this year took place in a live TV studio. Haugaa gave a keynote address summarizing her research.

We aimed to assess the association between number of pregnancies and long‐term progression of cardiac dysfunction, arrhythmias, and event‐free survival in women with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants of gene encoding for Lamin A/C proteins  (LMNA+).  
In our cohort of women with LMNA+, pregnancy did not seem associated with long‐term adverse disease progression or event‐free survival. Likewise, women with LMNA+ generally well‐tolerated pregnancy, with a small proportion of patients experiencing arrhythmias.

Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) is diagnosed in patients with ventricular fibrillation of which the origin is not identified after extensive evaluations. Recent studies suggest an association between mitral annulus disjunction (MAD), mitral valve prolapse (MVP), and ventricular arrhythmias. The prevalence of MAD and MVP in patients with IVF in this regard is not well established. We aimed to explore the prevalence of MAD and MVP in a consecutive cohort of patients with IVF compared with matched controls.

EHRA 2022, the annual meeting of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) brings together scientists, healthcare professionals and other players involved in arrhythmia management from all around the world. This year's theme was Back to the rhythm including updates on atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias, focusing on new techniques.

Several ProCardio members attended the EHRA congress in Copenhagen in early April (3rd to 5th). 

Each year the European Society of Cardiology hosts the largest gathering of cardiologists around the globe in what can only be described as the most important meeting within the field of cardiovascular science. This year in Barcelona the focus was on cardiac imaging and its importance in clinical decision-making, diagnosis, guidance and follow-up and perhaps the ultimate; prevention of cardiac disease.  An additional highlight was the release of new ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines, including the 2022 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular assessment and management of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery (NCS), that focus on the pre-operative CV risk assessment and peri-operative management of patients in whom cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a potential source of complications during NCS.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects 2%–4% of adults. It reduces quality of life (QoL) and is associated with an increased risk of heart failure, stroke, and mortality. Antiarrhythmic drugs have moderate efficacy and possible bothersome side effects. Catheter ablation with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) has been increasingly used in the past 2 decades to reduce AF symptoms and reduce the need for antiarrhythmic drugs.

Our second year as ProCardio was successful. We have worked on our projects with engagement and skills, and we achieved considerable results in 2022. Thank you to every single one of you.

The center was established to create a clinically driven, validated ICT platform for cardiology that will enable a major change in individualized healthcare, providing the best possible treatment and risk prevention by using big data and artificial intelligence. Based on leading edge research, this platform will facilitate fusion and analysis of rich and diverse data, integrating a wealth of available information into the workflow of clinical cardiology, and tailor individual care to prevent over- and under-treatment. 

Our first annual report is reporting on only one month, December 2020. Nevertheless, we have a lot to report. Workplans, meetings, employments and even some disseminations. I am very happy that we have come closer and started to know each other. In particular, I am happy about the start of employments and the skilled people we have employed so far. I am sure we will make a great team. For 2021, I wish for face to face meetings. We have managed well with our virtual meetings, and we have been flexible to adapt to whatever situation. Nonetheless, nothing can replace the joy and contact with in person meetings. I want to thank every single one of the team for your positive input, good spirits and good ideas. I look very much forward to a productive, exciting, and joyful collaboration for the next years to come.

- Center Director Kristina Haugaa

Center for Research-based Innovation, ProCardio will develop, test and validate new tools that can reliably predict an individual patient’s disease progression, and provide a longitudinal view of past and future care pathway options, enabling optimal disease treatment and prevention of disease progression.

Creating new digital solutions, which are necessary to more effectively exploit the wealth of data produced in modern cardiology, will require integrating rich patient data across all levels of healthcare, while harnessing clinical expertise combined with cutting edge ICT solutions. ProCardio will build on the achieved world-leading research and previous cooperation by developing novel machine learning methods to overcome the «black-box» nature of artificial intelligence. Linking these to physiological cardiac computer models will pave the way to reaching ProCardio’s ambitious goals.

In order to stimulate excellent research and draw attention to the hospital's research activity, Oslo University Hospital reward outstanding publications every half-year. Six research groups were awarded for their excellent papers published during the second half-year of 2019 on May 29th. Each group received NOK 50.000 for use in further research. The prize winners then gave short presentations of their important findings.

The six selected articles are of especially high quality, and they present important finding on both-short and long-term scales. The works reflect the good quality and the interdisciplinarity that characterises several research environments at Oslo University Hospital. The research is a fundamental condition for the institution to maintain and strenghten the quality in the patient treatment.

Three scientists received awards for their outstanding research at a ceremony taking place at Oslo University Hospital June 8th.

The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to professor Arne Klungland.

Kristina H. Haugaa and Lars Tjelta Westlye both received the "Early Career Award".

The prize money - 300.000 and 150.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities. This prize is distributed anually in order to honour excellent scientific work.

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 and clinical studies. This collective knowledge and active research collaboration has resulted in more than 200 scientific publications each year.

Several members of the Cardiac genetic diseases and sudden cardiac death research group 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”.

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.

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.