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PhD ceremony Mr. L. Kleijn: Anemia and erythropoietine in cardiovascular disease

When:Mo 03-02-2014 at 14:30
Where:Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

PhD ceremony: Mr. L. Kleijn

Dissertation: Anemia and erythropoietine in cardiovascular disease

Promotor(s): prof. D.J. van Veldhuijsen

Faculty: Medical Sciences

Anemia is an important comorbidity in patients with cardiovascular disease. In the first part of the thesis, we investigate causal factors in the etiology of anemia with cardiovascular disease. We show that an elevated central venous pressure is associated with the occurrence of anemia and that this is associated with increased mortality. We show that inflammatory cytokines may be a cause of anemia in patients with heart failure and after cardiothoracic surgery. We also show that ACE inhibitors postoperative slow recovery from anemia. In the second part we focus on therapy with erythropoietin, a hormone that is known for erythropoiesis, but also has other beneficial effects such as neovascularisation and reduced apoptosis, which can protect the heart. We show that treatment with erythropoietin is safe after myocardial infarction. Furthermore, we comment on an important large study that evaluated treatment of patients with heart failure with EPO.

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