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 Hein Heidbuchel, University of Antwerp, Belgium
- Second opponent: Professor Charlotte Bjørk Ingul, NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor II Henrik Schirmer, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Guro Kristine Kleivi Sahlberg, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Marit Aarønæs, Diakonhjemmet Hospital
Summary
Men with a long history of endurance exercise have an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a common type of cardiac arrhythmia.
In his thesis Cardiac remodeling in veteran recreational endurance athletes with and without atrial fibrillation, Eivind Sørensen and colleagues have examined older participants of the Birkebeiner cross-country ski race with the aim to understand how long-term endurance exercise influences the heart, and what separates the hearts of those who have developed atrial fibrillation from those who have not.
In veteran athletes without atrial fibrillation, they found that the heart increased in size by years of performing regular endurance exercise, with preserved cardiac function, indicating that the healthy hearts adapted to the increased demands of extensive endurance exercise.
In the veteran athletes with atrial fibrillation the heart also increased in size by years of endurance exercise, but in this group, the function of the upper cardiac chambers (the atria) was negatively affected as an indication of disease.
These findings can help us separate normal cardiac adaptation to long-term exercise from signs of cardiac disease, help us identify veteran athletes with atrial fibrillation and improve the treatment in this group of patients.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.