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 Jacob Tfelt-Hansen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Second opponent: Professor Charlotte Bjørk Ingul, NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Torbjørn Omland, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor John-Peder Escobar Kvitting, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor II Kristina Ingrid Helena Hermann Haugaa, University of Oslo
Summary
Genetic cardiomyopathies are hereditary cardiac diseases often diagnosed in young patients and are characterized by live-threatening arrhythmias and heart failure. Among them are arrhythmogenic (AC) and Lamin A/C cardiomyopathy. At genetic diagnosis, penetrance of the disease is often incomplete and factors promoting the disease progression are poorly recognized. Physical exercise is a hemodynamic stress and was previously associated with higher disease penetrance in AC and Lamin A/C cardiomyopathy. Pregnancy is also a hemodynamic stress, therefore with a potential detrimental effect on cardiac disease for patients with a genetic predisposition; however, the role of pregnancy as a factor potentially promoting disease progression in AC and Lamin A/C cardiomyopathy is poorly identified. The results of this thesis contributed to increase our knowledge in the field, showing no significant effect of pregnancy on long term structural and functional disease progression by echocardiography, and no major effect on arrhythmias, in AC and Lamin A/C cardiomyopathy. Additionally, we described the stages of disease progression in Lamin A/C cardiomyopathy, showing a high prevalence of electrical disease at young age, followed by left and right ventricular dysfunction, where the latter was independently associated with adverse prognosis.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.