Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Victoria Delgado, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Spain
- Second opponent: Professor Tor Biering-Sørensen, University of Copenhagen,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Kåre-Olav Stensløkken, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Ole Morten Rønning, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor II Helge Røsjø, University of Oslo
Summary
Mechanical dispersion is a new echocardiography method to assess left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony. Increased mechanical dispersion is associated with ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in cardiomyopathies and after acute myocardial infarction. Knowledge on mechanical dispersion among the general population and patients with less severe cardiac disease, like stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is lacking.
This thesis aimed to provide new information on mechanical dispersion in the general population and among subjects with stable CAD. Using data from a large Norwegian population study, the Akershus Cardiac Examination (ACE) 1950 Study, Erika Nerdrum Aagaard provides an upper reference value for mechanical dispersion of 61 ms for subjects in their mid-sixties. In the same age group, CAD and hypertension associated strongly with high mechanical dispersion, and mechanical dispersion associated independently with biomarkers of myocardial injury (high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T) and dysfunction (the natriuretic peptide NT-proBNP). Linking data from a cardiovascular screening survey conducted in the 1990s to the ACE 1950 Study, the author found that high body mass index and triglyceride concentration at age 40 years were independently associated with high mechanical dispersion more than 20 years later. Finally, in a population of stable CAD patients, mechanical dispersion associated with poor long-term prognosis, and provided incremental prognostic value to high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I and established echocardiography indices of LV function (ejection fraction and global longitudinal strain), but not to NT-proBNP.
The findings of this thesis provide new and useful information on mechanical dispersion that warrants further investigation and may aid its implementation into clinical cardiology practice.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.