Our research
Understanding valvular heart disease
Our research focuses on valvular heart disease across the entire disease spectrum, from the earliest silent changes to advanced disease requiring intervention. Valvular heart diseases affect millions of people worldwide and are important causes of heart failure, arrhythmias, hospitalizations, and death. We aim to understand why these diseases develop, why some patients experience complications while others remain stable, and how diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up can be better tailored to the individual patient.
We combine advanced cardiovascular imaging, biomarkers, molecular analyses, clinical cohorts, and population-based studies to explore the links between valve disease, cardiac remodeling, hemodynamics, arrhythmias, and heart failure.
A major focus of the group is the prospective MitraVT study, where we follow patients with mitral valve prolapse and mitral regurgitation before and after valve surgery. By combining cardiac MRI, rhythm monitoring, blood biomarkers, and tissue analyses, we investigate underlying disease mechanisms and hope to identify markers that can predict future arrhythmias and heart failure. We also make use of nationwide registries to study different aspects of valvular heart disease from early identification to durability, complications, and long-term outcomes after valve interventions.
Our work is highly collaborative and brings together clinicians, imaging specialists, epidemiologists, molecular scientists, and data analysts at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, and international experts. Ultimately, our goal is to improve the lives of patients with valvular heart disease through earlier detection, better risk prediction, and more individualized treatment strategies.