Unit name: Cardiovascular Research Unit

Key words: circulatory organ, lifestyle-related disease, team medicine, epidemiology

Due to aging and lifestyle-related diseases, fatal diseases appear to be changing. However, concerning direct death causes, “blood flow abnormalities”, i.e., “cardiovascular deaths” still account for about 30% of all death causes.

Since the heart pumps blood through the entire body, the thorough investigation of blood flow is useful for the radical cure/eradication of many diseases. This research unit fights against “cardiovascular deaths” from all aspects.

Promotion of team medicine with highly advanced medical treatment as a core

This unit consists of physicians in all fields dealing with cardiac blood vessels, such as the Departments of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery, Pediatric Cardiology Group, and Departments of Radiology and Clinical Epidemiology. Discussions are held for multidisciplinary treatment. Thus, our team medicine provides optimal treatment methods beyond individual departments.

For diseases that have required treatment in multiple departments, our cardiovascular team can provide more effective treatment methods such as transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) for aortic valve stenosis, radical medical treatment for arrhythmia, and renal sympathetic nerve ablation that is useful for drug-resistant hypertension.

Fig. 1: A case of aortic valve stenosis (1) Echocardiogram (The colored part indicates abnormal blood flow due to valve stenosis.) (2) CT scan (Cross-sectional and longitudinal images of the valve showing abnormality due to calcification.)

Fig. 2: TAVI for aortic valve stenosis (1) A biological valve is inserted into the placement site. (2) The balloon is expanded, the biological valve is placed, and the catheter is removed.

Results of the latest research reduce risks and lead to the creation of innovations

The number of “cardiovascular deaths” as the cause of death has markedly decreased after World War II. This is because of not only advances in treatment techniques but also the understanding of hypertension as a background factor and educational activities concerning preventive measures such as a reduction in salt intake. In recent years, for a further reduction in cardiovascular deaths, treatment targets as background factors other than hypertension, such as high calorie intake due to lifestyle changes and congenital factors, have also been clarified. Therefore, a pre-emptive attack should be made in the pre-disease stage. For example, factors associated with onset should be clarified based on both the results of epidemiological surveys and basic medical research. To this end, our team has performed research in cooperation with Ibaraki Prefecture.

The development of novel treatment methods leads to the development of apparatuses and drugs necessary for these methods, which can be a starting point of innovations through medicine-engineering collaboration.

Interviewed on August 18, 2015