Final frontier
In an accompanying editorial, Colin Berry, MBChB, University of Glasgow, and Borja Ibáñez, MD, Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital, Madrid, said they applaud the investigators for providing new, mechanistic insights into a difficult clinical problem that has an unmet therapeutic need.
But they pointed out that it is difficult to completely dissect the impact of hemorrhage versus MI size on adverse remodeling, noting that it might be the case that more severe ischemia/reperfusion events are associated with large MI sizes and higher degree of hemorrhage.
However, they concluded that: “Intramyocardial hemorrhage represents the final frontier for preventing heart failure post-MI. It is readily detected using CMR, and clinical research of novel therapeutic approaches merits prioritization.”
This work was supported by grants from National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Dharmakumar and coauthor Robert Finney, PhD, have ownership interest in Cardiotheranostics. Dr. Berry is employed by the University of Glasgow, which holds consultancy and research agreements for his work with Abbott Vascular, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Causeway Therapeutics, Coroventis, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, HeartFlow, Menarini, Neovasc, Siemens Healthcare, and Valo Health.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.