Series Name | Department of Cardiovascular Sciences |
---|---|
Speaker | Professor G Andre Ng |
Type | Lectures & Talks |
Starts at | Oct 15, 2013 05:30 PM |
Ends at | Oct 15, 2013 06:30 PM |
Venue | Ken Edwards Building, Lecture Theatre 1 |
Open To | Public |
Sudden cardiac death remains a major unsolved clinical problem as a
result of malignant heart rhythm disturbances, such as ventricular
fibrillation. During fibrillation, electrical conduction pattern of the
heart chamber becomes chaotic and the heart pump ceases to function. The
mechanisms underlying ventricular fibrillation are poorly understood
but there is strong evidence to suggest an important link with disturbed
autonomic nerve system function. The first part of the lecture will
detail results from work carried out over a decade both to characterize
the link between the nervous system and ventricular fibrillation and to
develop novel treatment to prevent this lethal heart disturbance in
patients at risk. Translational work based on these data developed to
improve the way by which “at risk” patients are identified will also be
described.
In the atria – the top chambers of the heart – fibrillation can also
occur. Atrial fibrillation is the commonest sustained heart rhythm
disturbance seen in clinical practice. Whilst not immediately lethal,
the arrhythmia is associated with a five-fold increase in risk of stroke
and increased risk of heart failure and death. Catheter ablation has
provided a cure to many other types of heart rhythm disturbance over the
past 20 or so years but the application of this therapy in atrial
fibrillation (often regarded as a ‘Cinderella’ arrhythmia in this
respect) is less than ideal with variability in results despite
significant technological advancement over the past decade in both
mapping systems and robotics. The second part of the lecture will cover
research work in this important area.
With these exciting research developments, it is hoped that we can truly solve the last two arrhythmia puzzles of Ventricular and Atrial Fibrillation in the very near future.
Source: University of Leicester