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Figures from the World Health Organisation show that heart
disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. In the past
this was thought to be a problem mainly for western countries.
But the burden of disease is now growing rapidly in developing
nations so that around the world somebody dies from coronary
heart disease approximately every 4 seconds. Many people die
suddenly often without any previous symptoms of heart disease.
The most common cause of death is myocardial infarction
(MI), which is often referred to as a heart attack. Another
term for this is coronary thrombosis because a blood clot
(thrombus) forms in one of the blood vessels of the heart
(coronary arteries). This causes a blockage that stops the
flow of blood to the heart muscle. Starved of oxygen the heart
muscle starts to die and the heart may stop pumping –
with fatal consequences.
For those who receive life-saving medical care, treatment
is often medicines to dissolve the blood clot (so called clot-busting
thrombolytic enzymes), or mechanical re-opening of the artery
using a balloon-tipped catheter (angioplasty). Although restoring
the flow of blood is essential to minimise the the death of
heart tissue, suddenly enabling blood to flow again through
the heart muscle (reperfusion) can cause additional injury
through the formation of reactive oxygen metabolites and excessive
inflammation. This damage can leave the heart muscle permanently
scarred, which decreases the ability of the heart to pump
efficiently and leads to heart failure.
There is a pressing need to find new medicines that reduce
the occurrence of myocardial infarction and prevent the damage
caused by reperfusion injury.
The William Harvey Research Foundation urgently
needs funds to continue its support of research to discover
(i) new therapies to protect the heart form reperfusion injury,
(ii) improved cardioprotective solutions for use during heart
surgery or heart transplant, and (iii) for stem cell research
for repairing tissue after reperfusion injury and restoring
the function of heart muscle.
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