News archive

A clinical study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that the hunger hormone ghrelin can increase the heart’s pump capacity in patients with heart failure. The results have been published in the European Heart Journal.

Thanks to donations from numerous actors, Karolinska Institutet is now able to create a new professorship in prevention medicine. The professorship is named after its patron, HRH Prince Daniel.

Patients with heart failure often suffer from co-morbidities, which places a great strain on the healthcare services, a multinational study published in Heart reports. The researchers, who are based at Karolinska Institutet, identify an urgent need to improve risk management of the disease.

Beta blockers, which are widely used to treat heart conditions and high blood pressure, are associated with a lower risk of being charged with a violent crime, according to a new register-based study from Karolinska Institutet and the University of Oxford. The results have been published in PLOS Medicine.

High levels of uric acid in midlife may significantly raise the risk for a serious type of irregular heartbeat in the decades that follow, even in people without traditional risk factors, new research from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of the American Heart Association shows.

Being affected by several cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, is linked to a greatly increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. A new twin study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet suggests that the same genes may be behind the risk of both cardiometabolic diseases and dementia. The findings have been published in European Heart Journal.

The Vascular Surgery Group celebrated it’s 50 years anniversary in late October last year. The exact birthday of the lab is difficult to set. Nevertheless, it was not difficult to select 1972 as an appropriate starting point when Siw Frebelius joined Jesper Swedenborg and they together initiated the foundation of a research group which has survived throughout 50 years. 

We warmly welcome Professor Marcus Carlsson to the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. Marcus Carlsson was appointed Professor of Clinical Physiology on November 7, 2022 and he combines the professorship with a position as senior consultant at the Department of Clinical Physiology, Karolinska University Hospital. Marcus Carlsson was nominated to KI from the National Institutes of Health, USA, where he led the research group "Clinical Physiology".

Volunteer so-called SMS lifesavers in Sweden, who are alerted to cardiac arrests nearby using a mobile app, perform a large part of life-saving efforts before the ambulance, police or emergency services arrive, regardless if they are instructed to collect the nearest defibrillator or not. This is according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in JAMA Cardiology.

We congratulate David Marlevi at the Clinical Physiology Research Group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, who is one of three researchers at Karolinska Institutet to be awarded the European Research Council's prestigious ERC Starting Grant 2022.

Atrial fibrillation is the greatest risk factor for stroke. Screening to detect atrial fibrillation in older people would not only increase the chance of preventing stroke, it would also save money for the healthcare system and society, according to a study conducted at Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet, published in the European Heart Journal.

An observational study at Karolinska Institutet shows that babies suffering oxygen-deficiency complications at birth are almost twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease during childhood and early adulthood as those without such complications. Still, the absolute risk of cardiovascular disease is very low in young age. The findings are published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.

Andrew Buckler at the research group Vascular Surgery, the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, will defend his thesis "Linking quantitative radiology to molecular mechanism for improved vascular disease therapy selection and follow-up" on October 21, 2022. Main Supervisor is Ulf Hedin.

Each year, the Heart editorial team selects the most meritorious research paper from the preceding year to receive the Heart Best Research Paper Award. One of the three finalists for this year's award was the publication "Relative survival after aortic valve surgery in patients with biscupid aortic valves" from researchers at the Thoracic Surgery group, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet.

Adults with ADHD are at greater risk of developing a range of cardiovascular diseases than those without the condition, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Örebro University. The researchers say the findings, published in the journal World Psychiatry, underscore the need to monitor cardiovascular health in people with ADHD.

A study led by Karolinska Institutet shows that it often takes weeks for patients with heart failure to be prescribed the recommended treatments, especially relatively new drugs such as dapagliflozin and sacubitril/valsartan. According to the researchers, the results are troubling as these treatments reduce the risk of death and heart failure hospitalization, and improve the patients’ life quality. The study is published in the journal JACC: Heart Failure.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab describe in a study published in Science how they have improved the ability of a protein to repair oxidative DNA damage and created a new protein function. Their innovative technique can lead to improved drugs for diseases involving oxidative stress, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and lung diseases, but the researchers believe it has even greater potential.

People with at least two of the diseases type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke have double the risk of developing dementia. Prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease could therefore be a strategy for reducing dementia risk, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia suggests.

Researchers at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet are one step closer to explaining why COVID-19 patients have a substantially increased risk of blood clots. The study, published in Nature Immunology, shows that a gene variant in the innate immune system influences the risk for blood clots in the lungs of severely ill COVID-19 patients.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Germany’s Technical University of Munich (TUM) and AstraZeneca, among others, have identified a unique therapeutic approach with the potential to restore heart function following a heart attack. The new findings rely on so-called human ventricular progenitor (HVP) cells to promote novel heart tissue and reduce scarring after injury. This pre-clinical study is published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have studied long-term morbidity and mortality in individuals who have had different models of biological heart valves implanted. The results, which show that there are considerable differences in performance depending on model group, are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In a new study conducted by researchers at the group Vascular Surgery, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, osteomodulin was identified as a novel biomarker for vascular calcification. The results of the study was recently published in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine.

Sweden is one of the few countries that have removed the dental health recommendation to give prophylactic antibiotics to people at a higher risk of infection of the heart valves, so-called infective endocarditis. Since the recommendation was removed in 2012, there has been no increase in this disease, a registry study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases shows.

In the largest funding round from the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation (Hjärt-Lungfonden), researchers at Karolinska Institutet will share a total of 95,776,000 SEK. All in all, approximately 70 projects at KI will benefit from the grant.

A new study is due to examine whether the post-infarction prognosis can be improved by treating the stomach ulcer bacterium helicobacter pylori. The study is to be led by Robin Hofmann, cardiologist and researcher at the Department of Clinical Research and Education, Stockholm South General (Söder) Hospital, Karolinska Institutet.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in USA, have mapped how genes work together to cause cardiovascular disease. The study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggests that that nearly 60 percent of the risk associated with coronary artery disease may be explained by regulatory gene networks.

Very few proteins in the body have a change that makes them unique compared to the corresponding proteins in Neanderthals and apes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now studied one such protein, glutathione reductase, which protects against oxidative stress. They show that the risk for inflammatory bowel disease and vascular disease is increased several times in people carrying the Neanderthal variant.

A receptor activated by substances formed from omega-3 fatty acids plays a vital role in preventing inflammation in blood vessels and reducing atherosclerosis, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation reports. The discovery can pave the way for new strategies for treating and preventing cardiovascular disease using omega-3 fatty acids.

Endothelial cell dysfunction is a well-established response to cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as smoking and obesity. A new study from Karolinska Institutet show that an individual’s cardiovascular disease risk was linked to the levels of endothelial proteins found in the blood. The study was recently published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, ATVB Journal.

The risk of developing cardiovascular disease is strongly associated with the “bad” LDL cholesterol. A large study by scientists at Karolinska Institutet now shows that two proteins that transport cholesterol particles in the blood provide early and reliable risk information. The researchers advocate introducing new guidelines for detecting cardiac risk and say the results, published in PLOS Medicine, may pave the way for early treatment, which could help lower morbidity and fatality rates.

Socioeconomic factors affect the risk of cardiovascular disease and the chances of recovery. New research from Karolinska Institutet interrogates the significance of socioeconomic factors for sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The study, which is published in Circulation, shows that education and income impact survival rates in both men and women.

Altered function of the red blood cells leads to vascular damage in type 2 diabetes. Results from a new study in cells from patients with type 2 diabetes and mice show that this effect is caused by low levels of an important molecule in the red blood cells. The study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has been published in the journal Diabetes.

Congratulations to five researchers at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery who received funding from the Swedish Research Council within the field Medicine and Health at the dividend on October 28, 2021.

Statins are a recommended and common intervention for preventing cardiovascular events by reducing levels of lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood. During the pandemic, it has been debated whether statins influence the risk of death from COVID-19. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now conducted the largest population study to date in the field. The study, which is published in PLOS Medicine, indicates that statin treatment slightly lowers COVID-19 mortality.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have examined long-term outcomes in patients who received pacemaker implantations after transcatheter aortic valve replacement through their groin. The result showed no significant difference in mortality for the patients with pacemakers compared to those without. The study is published in the journal JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

Postural hypotension, a drastic drop in blood pressure when standing up, is linked to an increased risk of dementia and accelerated progression from cognitive impairment to dementia, even in the absence of symptoms, for instance when feeling dizzy or faint. In a study published in the journal Hypertension, researchers from Karolinska Institutet show that postural hypotension could anticipate worse cognition in old age.

Prolonged exposure to air pollution can be linked to an increased risk of stroke and coronary heart disease, even when levels are below the limits specified by the EU and WHO. This has been shown, among others, by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Helmholtz Zentrum München in a large European study published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

Screening for atrial fibrillation in 75- and 76-year-olds could reduce the risk of stroke, severe bleeding and death, according to a study at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden that has been published in the journal The Lancet.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden can now report the results of a unique pilot project where drones were used to deliver defibrillators to real-life alerts of suspected cardiac arrest. The drones were dispatched in more than a fifth of the emergencies and arrived on target and ahead of the ambulance in most cases. The results are published in the European Heart Journal and presented today at the European Society of Cardiology congress.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified eight primary factors that increase the risk of a common bleeding complication after heart attack. Some of these factors are already known, but using machine learning techniques, the researchers have found additional predictors, such as smoking, blood pressure and blood glucose.

More knowledge is needed about risk factors for recurrent cardiovascular disease and myocardial infarction. In his thesis, doctor Joel Ohm at the Department of Medicine, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, describes how socio-economic factors have a major impact on secondary prevention efforts and prognosis. The results may have an impact on people who have survived myocardial infarction.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet, University of Oxford and University of Copenhagen have shown that elevated levels of lipids known as ceramides can be associated with a ten-fold higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Treatment with liraglutide could keep the ceramide levels in check, compared with placebo. The results have been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In almost ten per cent of myocardial infarctions, no obvious cause in the coronary artery can be found. Some of the patients are diagnosed with broken-heart syndrome, while others are left without a diagnosis. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that early magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the heart can greatly increase the rate of diagnosis. The study has been published in the journal JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.

Patients with atherosclerosis today usually receive preventive treatment only after a heart attack or stroke because diagnostic methods that can identify individuals and atherosclerotic plaques with high-risk are lacking. In addition, the choice of treatment, both surgical and medical, is based on large patient studies and the possibilities for individualizing treatment are small.

Good cholesterol, which is transported in HDLs (high-density lipoproteins), plays a key part in the prevention of atherosclerosis and thus the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, according to a new paper co-authored by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and published in the journal Circulation, the anti-inflammatory properties of HDLs could be an even better biomarker for future cardiovascular events.

Men with stable coronary artery disease who are on Viagra due to impotence seem to live longer and have a lower risk of experiencing a new heart attack, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports.

Disorders of the cells’ energy supply can cause a number of serious diseases, but also seem to be connected to ageing. More research is needed on mitochondrial function to find future treatments. A new study involving researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows how an important molecule inside the mitochondria affects their function in mice and fruit flies. The study, which is published in Science Advances, adds valuable knowledge on formerly relatively unexplored protein modifications.

The cause of the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis is unknown. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated whether a type of immune cell called a monocyte could be a key player in sarcoidosis pathogenesis and explain why some patients develop more severe and chronic disease than others. The study, which is published in The European Respiratory Journal, opens new possibilities for future diagnostic and therapeutic methods.

Small studies have suggested that a group of medications called RAS inhibitors may be harmful in persons with advanced chronic kidney disease, and physicians therefore often stop the treatment in such patients. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet now show that although stopping the treatment is linked to a lower risk of requiring dialysis, it is also linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular events and death. The results are published in The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

As life expectancies rise, so does the risk of dementia. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now studied how an active, non-smoking lifestyle can influence this correlation. The results, which are published in PLOS Medicine, suggest that good cardiovascular health gradually decreases the risk of dementia.