A group of scientists from the Cardiology, Rheumatology and Immunology Departments of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital in Badalona have discovered that the antibodies responsible for rheumatic diseases (Anti-Ro) may be the same ones that block the heartbeat in adults, so that cardiovascular pathologies could be combated with immunosuppressive drugs or avoid the placement of pacemakers.
The New England Journal of Medicine has published today the article in which the Catalan researchers explain the finding, which also determines that this paralysis of the heartbeat, a consequence of the antibody attack, causes an as yet unknown heart attack.
Cardiologist Roger Villuendas, one of the driving forces behind the invention, explained that it was already known that anti-Ro antibodies could cause blockage in the heartbeat of neonates, transmitted because the mother carried them through the placenta; but it was not known that they had a direct effect on the heart of adults. “From now on, in the analysis of patients, especially young patients, with this type of cardiac syncope, they will be checked for these anti-Ro antibodies in their blood,” the cardiologist anticipated.
The research began more than a year ago when a 26-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital with cardiac syncope and was found to be a carrier of anti-Ro antibodies. After a study of the heart’s electrical activity, they were able to detect that these antibodies caused heart block and that it was reversible. The medical team decided to implant a pacemaker, but she was given immunosuppressive drugs with good results. At present, it has not been necessary to install a pacemaker in the patient’s heart.