10.06.2021 – 08:15
Schweizerische Herzstiftung / Fondation Suisse de Cardiologie / Fondazione Svizzera di Cardiologia
Berne (ots)
The Swiss Heart Foundation awards its 2021 Research Prize to Professor Thomas Pilgrim. A specialist in heart valves at the Island Hospital in Bern, his research has made an important contribution to valve implantation by catheter. In another study, he showed how to control, by simple means, the most common valve disease in emerging and developing countries.
In recent years, the treatment of heart valves has advanced tremendously. Twenty years ago, you could only replace a sick heart valve with open heart surgery. Today, a cardiologist specializing in heart valves, such as Professor Thomas Pilgrim at the Island Hospital in Bern, performs several aortic valve catheter implantations every week. “The development is extraordinary and has revolutionized the treatment of heart valves,” he says. It is all the more important that new developments are as safe as possible and provide optimal results. In an international randomized study, Thomas Pilgrim compared the safety and efficacy of two entirely different valve systems: In one of the systems, a balloon is inflated in order to force the natural aortic valve to open to implant the new one. In the other, the implanted heart valve deploys on its own as the sheath is removed. The comparison showed that in the group of patients observed, the self-deploying system did not perform as well as the balloon-released system. “This result helps to make better decisions for valve surgery and therefore directly benefits patients,” explains Professor Thomas F. Lüscher, chairman of the Research Commission of the Swiss Heart Foundation.
Penicillin injections save lives
While in us, age-related degeneration is the most common cause of heart valve disease, in poorer parts of the world it is mainly children and adolescents who are affected. Valvular heart disease is then most often of rheumatoid origin. It is a progressive condition, often diagnosed too late, which, following strep throat, over time leads to valve stenosis. This valve disease can cause serious symptoms in people who are still very young, and even be fatal. In a very noticed research project, carried out in Nepal, Thomas Pilgrim showed a way to control the disease: by detecting it early in children by ultrasound, we can, by monthly injections of penicillin, stop its progression or back it up. “Up to two-thirds of deaths from heart valve disease around the world could be prevented with a prevention strategy,” says Thomas Pilgrim.
For his exceptional research work, the Swiss Heart Foundation awards him its annual Research Prize endowed with 20,000 francs.
Images and text are available under www.swissheart.ch/medias
Contact:
Peter Ferloni, communications manager
Swiss Heart Foundation
Phone 031 388 80 85
[email protected]
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