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CARIM's Confidential Contact Persons

CARIM's Confidential Contact Persons

27 November 2024

Dr Magdi Nagy (Dept of Biochemistry) and Prof. Peter de Leeuw (Dept of Internal Medicine) have been appointed as CARIM Confidential Contact Persons.

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ZonMw grant on appropriate palliative care

ZonMw grant on appropriate palliative care

27 November 2024

Prof. Marc Hemmelder (Dept of Internal Medicine) and his team received a ZonMw grant to promote early palliative care for dialysis patients who are non-waitlisted for transplantation.

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Carim Maastricht
Carim Maastricht

Harry Crijns

Professor

Harry Crijns is professor and chair of Cardiology and board member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) at Maastricht UMC+. He studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam and was trained in cardiology and electrophysiology in Groningen and Maastricht. He is a Fellow of the ESC and a past board member of the EHRA. He is also past Chair of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology. He served on several guidelines committees for the management of AF. Currently he is the chairman of the scientific advisory board of the Dutch Heart Foundation.

His primary research focus continues to be atrial fibrillation (AF). He founded the RACE trials in the Netherlands and led the Euro Heart Survey on AF (ESC). He has established his reputation by introducing innovative concepts for diagnosis and treatment of AF by showing that - quite contrary to longstanding beliefs - electrical management does not change prognosis. This revolutionised management of the arrhythmia worldwide with the effect that major interventions like electrical cardioversion, catheter ablation and antiarrhythmic drug therapy are applied in a much more personalized fashion.

Subsequently his group showed that rate control in AF can be individualized thereby removing the previously used strict heart rate targets from the international guidelines. He also performed the Euro Heart Survey on AF and made many contributions to the field of stroke management in AF, such as the construction of well-recognised AF specific risk stratification scores for AF progression (HATCH), ischemic stroke (CHA2DS2-VASc) and major bleeding (HAS-BLED). These scores have practically conquered the medical AF community and improved patient care whilst boosting new clinical research throughout the world.

His research group now focusses on recent-onset AF, hybrid AF ablation, upstream therapy and vascular mechanisms for AF progression and stroke in idiopathic atrial fibrillation. He is (co-)author on over 650 scientific articles, with 56,677 citations and Hirsch-index of 100.

Harry-crijns

Department of Cardiology
P. Debyelaan 25, 6229 HX Maastricht 
PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht


  • 2024
    • Velt, M. J. H., Crijns, H. J. G. M., van Gelder, I. C., Linz, D., van de Lande, M. E., Ten Cate, H., Spronk, H. M. H., de Melis, M., Rienstra, M., & Mulder, B. A. (2024). Dynamic biomarker profiles in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: Assessing the differences between sinus rhythm and acute atrial fibrillation episode. International Journal of Cardiology, 417, Article 132526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2024.132526
    • Sciacca, V., Sohns, C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Marrouche, N. F., Schramm, R., Moersdorf, M., Fink, T., Bergau, L., Hindricks, G., Dagres, N., Sossalla, S., Costard-Jaeckle, A., Fox, H., El Hamriti, M., Konietschke, F., Rudolph, V., Gummert, J., Tijssen, J. G. P., Sommer, P., & CASTLE HTx Investigators (2024). Effects of atrial fibrillation ablation on arrhythmia burden and ventricular function in end-stage heart failure: Lessons from CASTLE-HTx. European journal of heart failure. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.3505
    • van Veldhuisen, D. J., Rienstra, M., Mosterd, A., Alings, A. M., van Asselt, A. D. J., Bouvy, M. L., Tijssen, J. G. P., Schaap, J., van der Wall, E. E., Voors, A. A., Boorsma, E. M., Lok, D. J. A., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Schut, A., Vijver, M. A. T., Voordes, G. H. D., de Vos, A. H., Maas-Soer, E. L., Smit, N. W., ... DECISION Investigators & Commitees (2024). Efficacy and safety of low-dose digoxin in patients with heart failure. Rationale and design of the DECISION trial. European journal of heart failure, 26(10), 2223-2230. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.3428
    • Champsi, A., Mobley, A. R., Subramanian, A., Nirantharakumar, K., Wang, X., Shukla, D., Bunting, K., Molgaard, I., Dwight, J., Casado Arroyo, R., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Guasti, L., Lettino, M., Lumbers, R. T., Maesen, B., Rienstra, M., Svennberg, E., Tica, O., Traykov, V., ... Kotecha, D. (2024). Gender and contemporary risk of adverse events in atrial fibrillation. European Heart Journal, 45(36), 3707-3717. Article ehae539. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae539
    • Van Gelder, I. C., Kotecha, D., Rienstra, M., Bunting, K. V., Casado-Arroyo, R., Caso, V., Crijns, H. J. G. M., De Potter, T. J. R., Dwight, J., Guasti, L., Hanke, T., Jaarsma, T., Lettino, M., Løchen, M. L., Lumbers, R. T., Maesen, B., Mølgaard, I., Rosano, G. M. C., Sanders, P., ... ESC Scientific Document Group (2024). 2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS). European Heart Journal, 45(36), 3314-3414. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae176
    • Fabritz, L., Al-Taie, C., Borof, K., Breithardt, G., Camm, A. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Roth Cardoso, V., Chua, W., van Elferen, S., Eckardt, L., Gkoutos, G., Goette, A., Guasch, E., Hatem, S., Metzner, A., Mont, L., Murukutla, V. A., Obergassel, J., Rillig, A., ... Kirchhof, P. (2024). Biomarker-based prediction of sinus rhythm in atrial fibrillation patients: the EAST-AFNET 4 biomolecule study. European Heart Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae611
    • Sohns, C., Moersdorf, M., Marrouche, N. F., Bergau, L., Costard-Jaeckle, A., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Fox, H., Hindricks, G., Dagres, N., Sossalla, S., Schramm, R., Fink, T., El Hamriti, M., Sciacca, V., Didenko, M., Konietschke, F., Rudolph, V., Gummert, J., Tijssen, J. G. P., ... CASTLE HTx Investigators (2024). Catheter Ablation in Patients with End-Stage Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation: Two-year Follow-up of the CASTLE-HTx Trial. Circulation. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.071517
    • van de Kar, M. R. D., van Brakel, T. J., Van't Veer, M., van Steenbergen, G. J., Daeter, E. J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., van Veghel, D., Dekker, L. R. C., & Otterspoor, L. C. (2024). Anticoagulation for post-operative atrial fibrillation after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting: a meta-analysis. European Heart Journal, 45(29), 2620-2630. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae267
    • Sanders, P., Svennberg, E., Diederichsen, S. Z., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Lambiase, P. D., Boriani, G., & Van Gelder, I. C. (2024). Great debate: device-detected subclinical atrial fibrillation should be treated like clinical atrial fibrillation. European Heart Journal, 45(29), 2594-2603. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae365
    • Lenting, C. J., Wijtvliet, E. P. J. P., Koldenhof, T., Bessem, B., Pluymaekers, N. A. H. A., Rienstra, M., Folkeringa, R. J., Bronzwaer, P., Elvan, A., Elders, J., Tukkie, R., Luermans, J. G. L. M., Van Kuijk, S. M. J., Tijssen, J. G. P., Van Gelder, I. C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Tieleman, R. G. (2024). Previous Exercise Levels and Outcome in Patients with New Atrial Fibrillation: 'Past Achievements Do Not Predict the Future'. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 56(8), 1349-1354. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000003424
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