Research and innovation are important elements of what we do at Health Sciences North.
Dr. Andreas Kumar is the Director of Non-Invasive Cardiology at HSN and the recently appointed President of the Canadian Society of Cardiovascular MRI. He is also part of an international team of researchers and a senior co-author of a paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Heart attacks are the leading cause of premature death worldwide,” explains Dr. Kumar. “When a person has a heart attack, the blood vessel is blocked, preventing oxygen and other vital nutrients from making their way to the heart muscle. Within minutes, this tissue will start to die. The duration of time between the onset of symptoms and opening up the artery is critical. The more damage to the heart muscle, the higher risk of serious complications, including heart failure. It was a common belief that once we open the artery, the damage to the heart muscle stops. Through our research, we have found this is not always the case. In some patients, a bleeding can occur when we open the vessel, making things worse. We identified an entirely new mechanism of injury.”
Dr. Kumar and his colleagues are using MRI technology to check for this bleeding. This is important progress in the understanding of heart attacks. Congratulations, Dr. Kumar.
Learn more about these cardiovascular findings here: Intramyocardial Hemorrhage and the “Wave Front” of Reperfusion Injury Compromising Myocardial Salvage