The School of Medicine of the University of Navarra, in partnership with Emory University, the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and research and the high school of research Sanitaria de Baleares (IdISBa), will develop a project of research on cardiac arrhythmias financed by the high school National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States. This is a research within the PREDIMED-PLUS macro-study to which the North American institution will contribute more than two million dollars.

The goal will investigate atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia that, according to experts, one in four people over the age of 40 will suffer from. It consists of a rapid and irregular heart rhythm that increases the risk of embolism, heart failure and premature death.

Prevention and study as therapy

"There are currently no effective measures to prevent the occurrence of this arrhythmia, but epidemiological programs of study suggest that obesity is a risk factor for its development and that the Mediterranean per diem expenses may protect. In PREDIMED-PLUS, initiated in Navarra by partnership of the University of Navarra and the Navarra Health Service in 2013, we are concerned with tackling this topic, so we can provide an ideal context for assessing the prevention of atrial fibrillation," explained Estefanía Toledo, co-principal investigator, PhD from department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Navarra and member of IDISNA.

The work, graduate "Effect of an intensive intervention on the substrate of atrial fibrillation", will use the data of the PREDIMED PLUS study to "explore the effect of the Mediterranean per diem expenses with energy restriction, physical activity and behavioral therapy on the risk of developing this arrhythmia, as well as its biomarkers".

A multicenter study

Experts from the University of Navarra, such as Dr. Javier Díez, director of the Cardiovascular Diseases Program at the University of Navarra, will collaborate in the project . CIMA. In his laboratory the determination of circulating biomarkers of the arrhythmogenic substrate of atrial fibrillation will be performed.

Scientists from other centers will also participate, such as Álvaro Alonso, co-lead researcher and from Emory University in the United States; professionals from the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and research led by Dr. Fernando Arós; as well as from IdISBa in Palma de Mallorca led by Dr. Miquel Fiol and Dr. Dora Romaguera. 

PREDIMED PLUS has more than 6,800 participants from 23 health centers and hospitals as well as eight support groups from all over Spain. The Navarra Center of Preventive Medicine, at partnership with the Health Centers of the Navarra Health Service-Osasunbidea, was the pioneer in the study and provides support to the other centers. The study evaluates the effects of the Mediterranean per diem expenses or of an intervention that adds physical activity and behavioral therapy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.