PhD Conferral Mrs. Kirian van der Weg, MSc.

Keywords: myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, reperfusion injury, diagnostic tool

“Reperfusion cardiac arrhythmias and their relation to reperfusion induced cell death”

The aim of this dissertation was to analyse why cardiac arrhythmias occur after opening of the coronary arteries when a patient suffers an acute myocardial infarction. During this event, the heart muscle sustains damage due to a lack of oxygen. It was hypothesised that these arrhythmias indicate extra damage due to the reperfusion of oxygen-deprived heart muscle tissue. This is called a reperfusion injury. Cardiac arrhythmias could be the first marker of reperfusion injury. This marker could be used to indicate and develop treatment options for this type of injury.