Cardiologist Juan Jiménez, awarded a scholarship for research
A researcher from ibs.GRANADA has been awarded the 2013 Mutual Médica Scholarship, worth 9.000 euros, for the research project "FIVI-GEN: systematic evaluation of patients with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) and analysis of the diagnostic yield of family studies in conjunction with pharmacological tests and genetic studies for channelopathies."
The winner of the 2013 Mutual Medical Scholarship, Dr. Juan Jiménez Jáimez, at the time he receives the award from the hand of the president of Mutual Medica, Dr. Nolasc Acarín The winner of the 2013 Mutual Medical Scholarship, Dr. Juan Jiménez Jáimez, at the time he received the award from the president of Mutual Médica, Dr. Nolasc Acarín.
The distinguished researcher, Juan Jiménez Jáimez, carries out his work in the Arrhythmia Unit of this Granada hospital and the jury has determined that it is a prospective, well-structured study that uses an adequate methodology and is of great clinical interest. In addition, according to this committee, the author has a professional resume that supports his competence to develop this project and has the collaboration of a good support team.
Specifically, the award-winning study aims to prevent the development of heart diseases with a hereditary component among the relatives of those people, mainly young people, who for no apparent reason die of sudden death. This initiative is the result of research carried out by a team of cardiologists in which they have determined which genetic mutations can cause pathologies that affect the probability of suffering sudden death due to ventricular arrhythmias.
This project has led to the conclusion that there is a group of family heart diseases that are associated with arrhythmic risk, that is, they can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. When this circumstance occurs among young people or athletes who die suddenly, some confusion is generated among family members due to the possibility that there is a genetic component that leads to the reproduction of the disease in another member.
To prevent the development of these pathologies among family members, the arrhythmia unit attends a specific weekly consultation to patients with familial heart diseases at arrhythmic risk. The population object of the study is made up of three groups: that of people who are suspected of having serious heart disease although they have not yet developed any serious health problem; that of those who have survived a cardiac arrest and that of the relatives of young people who died suddenly and whose autopsy does not reveal any cause that explains what happened.
After the study of these relatives, it is decided to apply preventive treatments that can range from the use of drugs to that of an implantable automatic defibrillator or advice such as abandoning swimming or sports in general, in cases that require it. .
