The University of Oslo arranges digital public defences this semester, thus the disputation will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The public defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the public defence
Digital Trial Lecture – time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Karl-Henrik Grinnemo, University of Uppsala
- Second opponent: Professor Ola Hammarsten, University of Gothenburg
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Anne Negård, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor Ketil Hanssen-Bauer, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Researcher Helge Røsjø, University of Oslo
Summary
Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are established biomarkers for cardiomyocyte injury and stretch, respectively. Secretoneurin (SN) is a novel biomarker that has been found increased in patients with heart failure and in critically ill patients.
Patients being evaluated for or undergoing cardiac surgery are often severely ill, and not all patients will tolerate the strain of heart surgery. Thus, different risk stratification models have been developed to identify high-risk patients. The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) II is a well-established risk model and is used all over the world. Although EuroSCORE II uses a comprehensive set of clinical variables, circulating biomarkers are currently not implemented in cardiac surgical risk models.
In his thesis “Biomarkers for risk prediction in cardiac surgical patients”, Jon Brynildsen and collaborators have investigated whether NT-proBNP, cTnT, and SN can improve and simplify risk assessment in cardiac surgical patients. The researchers show that both NT-proBNP and SN provide additional prognostic information to EuroSCORE II after cardiac surgery. A parsimonious risk model that includes NT-proBNP and three easily available clinical risk factors seems to provide similar or better risk assessment than EuroSCORE II, but this observation needs validation in additional cohorts.
The work of Brynildsen and colleagues demonstrates that established and novel cardiac biomarkers provide additional prognostic information to EuroSCORE II and permit simplified risk assessment in patients referred for or undergoing cardiac surgery.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.