A partnership of the Dutch Heart Foundation (NHS), British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung (DZHK) has granted over 5 million euros to four new research consortia. One of the consortia is co-coordinated by ACS professor Frances de Man, and aims to understand genetic causes of right heart failure in relation with pulmonary hypertension.
Professor Frances de Man, program leader of ACS program Pulmonary Hypertension & Thrombosis, received funding for the PROMETHEUS consortium to study genetic causes of right heart failure. In patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, right heart failure is the main cause of death. When the blood pressure in the pulmonary artery rises, the right heart chambers have to adapt in order to overcome the pressure and still be able to pump blood to the lungs. In some patients, the heart fails to adapt, leading to right heart failure. The PROMETHEUS consortium aims to identify genetic causes of this adaptibility failure of the right heart chambers.
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Source: Dutch Heart Foundation