Some of the patients who end up in hospitals with suspected heart attacks are actually suffering from Takotsubo syndrome – acute heart failure, whose clinical diagnosis is deceptively similar to heart attack. This is a significant diagnostic issue, because the therapeutic strategy in patients with Takotsubo syndrome differs significantly from that used in myocardial infarction, and some drugs, such as catecholamines, are contraindicated.
Another commercially available drug for acute heart failure is Levosimendan. Although medicine currently finds no indication for Levosimendan in patients with Takotsubo syndrome, according to a group of researchers from the 1st Department of Cardiology at Medical University of Gdańsk, its mechanism of action indicates the drug’s potential usefulness in treating the condition as well. Research to verify this thesis will be held at over a dozen clinical centres as part of a project funded by the Medical Research Agency.
The details of the ongoing research are presented by Prof. Miłosz Jaguszewski, along with his colleagues Natasza Gilis-Malinowska, PhD and Dariusz Ciećwierz, PhD from the 1st Department of Cardiology at Medical University of Gdańsk, together with Prof. Paul Grundeman, a visiting professor from University Medical Centre, Utrecht.
The project, implemented by the team of Prof. Miłosz Jaguszewski is within the scope of clinical research, i.e. a type of scientific procedure that aims to create new diagnostic or therapeutic solutions that are applicable in everyday clinical practice.
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