Research

The research goals at the Department of Cardiology of IKEM are to advance medical technology, to better understand the biological basis of cardiovascular disease, and to contribute to the development of novel therapies.

The Cardiology Department of IKEM is very active in innovative catheter-based therapies of cardiac arrhythmias, implantable device-based therapies (Prof Kautzner, Dr Wichterle) coronary interventions and percutaneous valve replacement (Dr Zelizko), immunosuppressive regimes after heart transplantation (Ass Prof Malek), and it collaborates with other departments of the institute in advancements in the application of ventricular assist devices and CT or MR-based imaging modalities.

Due to the large number of patients referred to IKEM from across the Czech Republic, our researchers have unique opportunity to investigate biological basis of human cardiovascular disease. The physicians of our department are studying the genetic and molecular underpinnings of acute coronary syndromes (Prof Stanek, Dr Kettner), heart failure (Dr Melenovsky, Ass Prof Malek), cardiomyopathies (Dr Kubanek), atrial fibrillation (Prof Kautzner), pulmonary hypertension (Dr Al Hiti) and sudden cardiac death (Dr Sedlacek). In these efforts, our Department of Cardiology locally collaborates with different institutes of the Czech National Academy of Sciences (Physiology Institute, Institute of Molecular Genetics), Medical Schools of Charles University, and with many international centres.

Thanks to our cooperation with the Centre of Experimental Medicine at IKEM, the development of novel therapies at IKEM is not just carried out by taking part in clinical trials, but also by unique “bench-to-bedside” translational approach, allowing testing our own novel approaches and hypotheses in animal models of heart disease before bringing them to patients. With this unique approach, novel therapies for heart failure (Dr Melenovsky) and valve disorders (Ass Prof Sochman) are currently being tested and refined.

In 2008, the physicians of the Department of Cardiology published 45 papers in peer-review international journals, worked on 12 research grant projects and participated in 17 international clinical trials.