Heart Foundation Award To Study Heart Rhythms

Heart Foundation Award To Study Heart Rhythms

A house officer at Hutt Hospital has been awarded a three year National Heart Foundation Research Fellowship to study how heart rhythms are generated in humans.

Dr Shieak Tzeng’s research will investigate how heart-rate and blood pressure rhythms alter under stressful conditions and in patients with cardiovascular disease.

“Rhythms and cycles are ubiquitous features of the universe,” Dr Tzeng said.

“In biology, rhythms have fascinated generations of scientists, for example the sleep-wake cycle and the menstrual cycle. Studying how cardiovascular rhythms change under different conditions helps us understand the underlying processes involved in regulating cardiac function.”

Dr Tzeng will be working closely with Professor Duncan Galletly and a team of researchers at the University of Otago’s Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

“Using mathematical algorithms, we will extract rhythms from electrical signals recorded from the body surface,” he said.

“The data will be analysed under different breathing conditions and in patients with heart disease to assess how the rhythms change from when the body is resting. These changes provide clues to how the heart is controlled.

“Different measures of cardiac rhythm can then be applied in the clinical assessment of patients following events such as heart attacks. Ultimately this means the chance for improved treatment and prognosis.”

Dr Tzeng was a joint category winner at the 2007 MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Awards.

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