The U.S. National Institutes of Health has awarded NYIT a $1.8 million grant to investigate a link between heart failure and an underlying hormone imbalance-building on the work of A. Martin Gerdes, Ph.D., chair of biomedical sciences at NYIT's College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM).

Gerdes will conduct the five-year, preclinical study on the benefits of treating a rat model of heart attack with thyroid hormones. Growing evidence in human and animal studies suggests a link between the progression of heart disease and chronically low levels of thyroid hormones, which can be treated at minimal cost. While doctors traditionally monitor thyroid hormones through routine blood tests, animal studies have indicated that these thyroid imbalances can occur within heart tissue itself. This finding suggests that even individuals with normal levels of thyroid activity in their blood can be at risk for heart failure. 

Unfortunately, these cases go undetected and untreated, since a non-invasive method for measuring thyroid levels in a patient's heart tissue does not yet exist. Gerdes hopes his study will set the stage for clinical trials to change that.

Earlier this year, Gerdes attracted nationwide attention with a study published in the well-respected journal Circulation that showed how fish oil prevents pressure-related damage to the heart (visit nyit.edu/magazine to read more in the Spring 2011 issue of NYIT Magazine).

"Hopefully, this will be the beginning of great things to come from NYIT in the field of heart failure research," Gerdes said.  

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