Arterial Disease, Myocardial Ischemia and Structural Damage

Introduction

Program 2 focuses on cardiovascular alterations that can cause premature death and disability either by inducing secondary myocardial remodeling or through rupture of cardiovascular structures, thromboembolic events and infection.

These alterations include the following: arterial diseases such as ischemic heart disease, the first cause of death and loss of quality of life years throughout the world; aortic disease, which results in acute complications with high mortality; and structural diseases of the heart such as acquired valve disease and congenital heart abnormalities.

Lines of research

The program is organized into three major research lines:

1) Myocardial Ischemia and Reperfusion. The objective of this line is to reduce the loss of quality of life years and social impact of ischemic heart disease by generating knowledge to prevent plaque progression and complications leading to myocardial ischemia and to reduce myocardial damage when myocardial ischemia occurs.

2) Aortic Valve Diseases. The central aims of this line are to identify the biomolecular and biomechanical mechanisms that determine aortic dilatation and complications and to develop accurate methods to define predictors of complications and new treatment strategies to improve disease progression and survival.

3) Valvular and Congenital Heart Disease. The objective of this line is to increase our knowledge of the etiology, pathophysiology and natural history of valvular and congenital heart disease, identifying predictors of poor outcome, and improving the role of imaging in this setting, with the ultimate goal of designing therapeutic strategies to reduce morbidity.

Program coordinators

Research groups