Volunteers needed for study

Stanley McKee couldn’t catch his breath and soon found himself at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.

“I didn’t have a heart attack but the doctors found that I had a faulty valve and a blocked artery in my heart,” recalls the 74-year-old Edmonton resident.

He had surgery to repair his heart and is now living with diastolic heart failure, a condition in which the heart fails to relax properly between heartbeats.

McKee is so grateful for the care he received that he has volunteered to be part of a provincial research program focused on better diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.

There are about 80,000 people in Alberta who have been diagnosed with heart failure, which occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. It is the leading cause of admission to hospital in Canada.

The Alberta Heart Failure Etiology and Analysis Research Team (HEART), a group of 23 researchers and physicians from Edmonton and Calgary, is looking to enroll 1,000 Albertans in the research program – 500 in Calgary and 500 in Edmonton.

Some participants will take part in focus groups to help the team design its research; others will have exercise tests, cardiac MRI, echo tests and vascular tests.

Clinical researchers will compare the results of people with systolic heart failure (when the heart’s squeezing action is compromised) with results of people with diastolic heart failure.

Dr. Todd Anderson, Alberta HEART co-leader and division chief of cardiac sciences at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, says cardiologists are good at diagnosing and treating heart failure when it’s caused by the squeezing action of the heart.

“We aren’t as familiar with heart failure caused by the relaxing action of the heart – something we need to rectify because half of the people we treat for heart failure have diastolic heart failure,” he says.

Fellow co-leader Jason Dyck, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta,  says the focus of the research project was determined following consultations with provincial heart specialists and scientists.

“We quickly realized that scientific advances in our understanding of diastolic heart failure would have a significant impact on the quality of life for people living with heart failure,” says Dyck.

“We aren’t just asking for research subjects – we are asking people with heart failure to be our partners in this research project.”

McKee, for one, is happy to oblige.

“The least I can do is volunteer to help with their research,” he says.

People with heart failure interested in participating in the research can contact Edmonton research co-ordinator Marleen Irwin at 780-492-2960, mirwin@ualberta.ca, or Calgary research co-ordinator A.J. Lawton at 403-944-3487.

The Alberta team has a $5 million research grant from Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions (funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Endowment Fund.)