The effects of exercise on structural and electrical remodelling in right heart failure
Dr Al Benson and his team at the University of Leeds are studying whether exercise could help to reduce the damage to the heart that occurs during heart failure, where the heart cannot pump blood around the body effectively. When a person has heart failure, the heart’s normal electrical activity becomes chaotic. Although we know a lot about left heart failure, we know little about heart failure that happens in the right side of the heart. Understanding how and why these arrhythmias occur in right heart failure will allow us to develop effective treatments and help more people with heart failure survive. Dr Benson has some preliminary evidence that exercise could help improve right heart failure and prevent arrhythmias. In this project, he will try to find out whether exercise training in rats with right heart failure can reduce arrhythmias. First, they will measure heart function, and then they will use this data to develop computer models that mimic how the heart works. These computer models will work out if exercise training prevents detrimental heart changes and reduces arrhythmias in right heart failure, and how it does so. This research will reveal whether exercise could help to reduce arrhythmias and sudden death in people with right heart failure, as well as other forms of heart failure.
Project details
| Grant amount | £233,563 |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Project Grants |
| Application type | Project Grant |
| Start Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Duration | 3 years |
| Reference | PG/16/74/32374 |
| Status | In Progress |
