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Karl would soon become the 28th person in the world to be diagnosed with Carvajal Syndrome, a form of cardiomyopathy that can lead to arrhythmias and heart failure.
Dr. Justin Ezekowitz
Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Co-Director, Canadian VIGOUR Centre Cardiologist, University of Alberta Hospital’s Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute,
Alberta Health Services
“By 2050, we’re going to see a
pretty full-scale switch on how we approach treating heart disease. We’ll be using AI-assisted diagnosis for almost every disease, so we
won’t be relying solely on old-school, 200-year-old techniques. We’re going to have much more specific therapies for different types of disease, so we won’t be treating people with one drug for seven different diseases. We’re going to get better at not just slowing down a patient’s disease
but stopping the disease process in its tracks by engaging the specific switches in the body that keep the disease from progressing.
Donors to the University Hospital Foundation are pivotal because they are often lending their support to the very early stages of a project rather than the latter stages. That
can result in resource amplification, because they’re investing in the higher risk but often higher reward individuals and the work that they’re doing.”
Dr. Ezekowitz’s research focuses on clinical trials, population health data analyses, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Dr. Gavin Oudit listens to the heartbeat of Karl Sacca as part of a regular check-up
His dry hands are a symptom.’ She cried all the way home.” Karl would soon become the 28th person in the world to be diagnosed with Carvajal Syndrome, a form of cardiomyopathy
that can lead to arrhythmias and heart failure.
Fortunately for Sacca, who moved to Edmonton in 2021 to begin
his Master’s degree in Fine Arts (Drama) at the University of Alberta, cardiologists at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute (Maz) quickly assumed control of his care.
“We were able to assess [Sacca] and treat him very promptly in our clinic,” says Dr. Gavin Oudit, Director of the Heart Function and Cardiomyopathy Clinics at the Maz.
“He has responded very well to therapies, which included inserting a defibrillator and being able to monitor him for arrhythmias.”
“The prevalence of cardiomyopathies is about one in 500 in >
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Photos: Cooper & O’Hara