U of C research fellow wins Canadian Cardiovascular Society award

Posted Nov. 1, 2007
By Laurie Wang

Dr. Andreas Kumar: Photo submittedA Faculty of Medicine research student has been recognized by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society for his research into a magnetic resonance imaging process that can detect bleeding in the heart tissue as a result of treatment following a heart attack.                  

Dr. Andreas Kumar competed with over 70 other researchers for the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Student Clinical Research Award. The award acknowledges superior research in cardiology.

"It feels good to win this year. There are definitely many others who deserve this award too, so I'm sure it was an extremely difficult decision for the judges," he says.

Kumar, 34, moved to Calgary two and a half years ago from Germany to research alongside Dr. Matthias Friedrich, director of the Stephenson Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (MR) Centre, the first centre for imaging of the heart in the country.

Using MR to detect bleeding heart tissue

"When a patient has a heart attack, it means an artery is blocked so we try to open up the artery, either with drug therapy or angioplasty," Kumar explains. "But sometimes when opening up the artery, capillaries are diseased. These capillaries can get clogged up and eventually bleeding can occur in the heart's muscle tissue."

This bleeding can be problematic, but physicians aren't able to tell how the bleeding has impacted the patient because there is no way to diagnose this while the patient is alive.

"We see the bleeding in the heart tissue when we look at the heart after the patient has already passed away," Kumar says.

To solve this, Kumar developed a magnetic resonance imaging process that detects the bleeding and shows what is going on in the tissue.

Kumar's research found that out of the 20 patients who have undergone angioplasty surgery studied, 40 per cent have bleeding in the heart tissue. Now, he is working with Friedrich's team to answer some key questions before they can keep moving forward in implementing this magnetic resonance imaging process further:

• How often does bleeding happen?
  Who gets the bleeding?
• How does the medication impact bleeding?
• Are we, without intending to do so, making the heart tissue bleed because of the procedures we are currently taking to treat blocked arteries?
• What is the effect of bleeding on the patient's survival?

"By making the bleeding visible, we are able to investigate further and answer all these questions in the future," Kumar says.

Tomorrow's Research Cardiovascular Health Professionals (TORCH)

Kumar credits a program called Tomorrow's Research Cardiovascular Health Professionals (TORCH) for contributing to his success. TORCH is an integrated program at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta that prepares and trains Canada's next generation of transdisciplinary cardiovascular health research leaders.

"There are workshops and video conferences where we learn from world class leaders in the field. We receive a wide range of training: in scientific methods, statistics, basic sciences, grant applications. We even learn about time management and balancing work and life," Kumar says. "It's a program I'm proud of being a part of and a program Calgary and Edmonton should be very proud of having."

About the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary

The U of C's Faculty of Medicine is a national leader in health research with an international reputation for excellence and innovation in health care research, education and delivery. Through its educational programs, the Faculty of Medicine trains the physicians and scientists who will lead the next generation of health practitioners. Through its clinical work, continuing medical education programs, and close relationship with the Calgary Health Region, the Faculty of Medicine moves new treatments and diagnostic techniques from the laboratory bench to the hospital bedside efficiently and effectively, improving patient care.

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