(ScienceDaily) — A Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher has discovered what could be the first truly effective breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension, a devastating, life-threatening condition which results in an enlargement of the heart.
“We have discovered an early warning system in a protein called PIM-1,” Dr. Sébastien Bonnet told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.
Dr. Bonnet has established that the PIM-1 cells can be used as markers of pulmonary hypertension.
“Blood samples were taken from patients to measure PIM-1 expression in the blood,” says Dr. Bonnet, who is a professor at Laval University and a researcher at Centre hospitalier universitaire de Québec. “We were surprised to find that the greater the PIM-1 levels, the more severe the pulmonary hypertension in the patient.”
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