Heart of the matter

Dr. Martin Gardner, professor of cardiology at Dalhousie Medical School, staff cardiologist at Capital Health, and lead for the Halifax arm of the study. (Photo Dalhousie Medical School)

Heart researchers in Halifax are participating in a national study that aims to detect rare genetic disorders in families of those who’ve suffered unexplained cardiac arrest.

The Cardiac Arrest Survivors With Preserved Ejection Fraction Registry (CASPER), the first study of its kind in Canada, uses standardized testing to identify heart conditions in family members of individuals who’ve experienced the potentially fatal cardiac event. These heart problems may otherwise go undetected.

The study is unique in the practice of cardiology, and was published in last week’s edition of Circulation.

“CASPER helps us to better understand what caused someone’s cardiac arrest,” says Martin Gardner, a professor of cardiology at Dalhousie Medical School, staff cardiologist at Capital Health, and lead for the Halifax arm of the study. “In most cases, when genetic conditions are identified, they can be treated and lives are saved.”

One of the study’s participants, a seemingly healthy teenager, had his heart abnormality identified after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest. His mother, father, and sister all had subsequent testing – including heart monitoring, blood tests, MRIs, and genetic testing – to determine if they, too, had the condition. The tests revealed the same abnormality in one of his parents.

Approximately 40,000 Canadians suffer cardiac arrests each year, which occur when the heart stops pumping blood. Seventy per cent of cardiac arrests occur at home or in public places; unfortunately, less than five per cent of those who experience one outside hospital survive.

About 185 children and adults are currently enrolled in CASPER across the country. In addition to Capital Health and the London Health Sciences Centre, where the study is being led, seven academic health centres in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec are participating.

“Previously, many of the cases of unexplained sudden death in young people would have remained unexplained,” says Dr. Gardner. “Now, because of CASPER, we’re able to detect and treat heart problems in people before they materialize.”

CASPER, which is funded through the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario and Boston Scientific, has been recently expanded to enroll 500 cardiac patients and their families through 2013.

For more information, visit www.heartrhythmresearch.ca/professionals/studies