What causes different types of left ventricular hypertrophy?

The role of myocardial ATP delivery rates in myocardial hypertrophy (Dr Mark Peterzan)

Supervised by Dr Oliver Rider, a Clinical Research Training Fellow is working out what causes different types of left ventricular hypertrophy, or LVH. In LVH, the heart muscle enlarges. It can occur naturally in response to exercise training (called physiological LVH), or heart disease (called pathological LVH), but if untreated, pathological LVH can lead to heart failure. Despite these serious effects, we don’t fully understand how LVH develops. Dr Rider’s research team believes one of the reasons why heart muscle thickens in LVH is because the amount of energy produced and delivered to the cells of the heart muscle falls. If energy levels fall low enough, eventually the heart muscle will fail. In this project, the fellow will use state-of-the-art MRI to measure the rate of energy delivery to the heart muscle in several different forms of LVH. They will distinguish between physiological LVH, where energy delivery should be higher, from pathological LVH, and therefore work out when it might be necessary to intervene to prevent pathological LVH from causing heart failure. This study will reveal the mechanisms underlying LVH, and how heart energy levels and function are linked in heart muscle thickening. It could help doctors decide the best timing for valve surgery, reveal new biomarkers to identify those at risk of developing heart failure, and suggest new ways to treat LVH.