Recently, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences in collaboration with University of Vermont, USA, has supported a heart research which has been accepted in the medical community at an international level. The research paper has been published in the American Journal of Cardiology, one of most prestigious medical journals around the world, in Vol. 8 No. 104, 2009.

 

The researcher is Dr. Azan Binbrek the Consultant cardiologist at the cardiology Department in Sheikh Rashid hospital, who said that the research paper is the first scientific study of its kind with the aim of studying the effectiveness of the drug Erythropoietin in decreasing the extent of partial damage to cardiac muscles after myocardial infarction in humans.

 

To the contrary of previous studies done on experimental animals in the laboratory, the researcher has proven that there is no benefit from Erythropoietin in decreasing such extent of damage.

 

The study was done at Rashid Hospital over a period of one year on a sample of 236 patients with myocardial infarction, who were treated within the first 6 hours after the acute infarction.

 

The research sample was divided into 2 groups. The first group was only given T.N.K. while the second group was injected with the drug Erythropoietin before T.N.K. was administered. 

 

The next phase was to measure the cardiac enzymes of the two groups to determine effectiveness of the treatment modality used. Samples were sent to the laboratories at Vermont University, USA, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Burton A. Sobel. 

 

The Laboratory received the samples without being informed about which patient group the blood belongs to prevent bias in the analysis of the samples. 

 

The investigations proved that Erythropoietin did not add much to the group injected with. 

 

A cardiac ultrasound was conducted on both patient groups to establish whether the investigations were consistent in both groups. The ultrasound confirmed that Erythropoietin did not have any clinical significance in decreasing the extent of damage to the cardiac muscle.

 

Prof. Najib Al Khaja Secretary General of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Award for Medical Sciences said that he is proud of supporting this important medical research by the award. The research paper’s results emphasize the importance of exerting more efforts by researchers to find other solutions for decreasing the extent of partial damage to cardiac muscles after myocardial infarction in humans.

 

He added that, in each of its terms, the award allocates a special budget to support scientific research locally out of believing that supporting scientific research in medical field in the UAE is the way to raise the level of medical performance which in turn will reflect on improving access to health care for patients. 

 

Since the award’s establishment in 1999, 60 scientific research papers in all fields of medicine have been supported and the award is ready to support serious medical research in the future.