Lead Partner

Name of the institution: UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED

Address: H-6720 SZEGED, DUGONICS ter 13, HUNGARY
Legal status: NON PROFIT PUBLIC INSTITUTION (UNIVERSITY)
County / Region: CSONGRAD / SOUTH PLAIN REGION OF HUNGARY
 

Project Partner 1
Name of the institution: DIVISION FOR CARDIOVASCULAR PHARMACOLOGY, HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Address: H-6720 SZEGED, DÓM ter 12, HUNGARY
Legal status: NON PROFIT PUBLIC INSTITUTION (ACADEMIC RESEARCH GROUP)
County / Region: CSONGRAD / SOUTH PLAIN REGION OF HUNGARY
 

Project Partner 2 (transborder)
Name of the institution: VICTOR BABES UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY TIMISOARA
Address: RO-300041 TIMISOARA, PIATA EFTIMIE MURGU NR 2A, ROMANIA
Legal status: NON PROFIT PUBLIC INSTITUTION (UNIVERSITY)
County / Region: TIMIS / WEST REGION OF ROMANIA
 

According to the DKMT statistics and from EUROASPIRE III results in Euroregion, mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases has been reported to be mostly elevated in the Eastern part of Hungary and Western part of Romania. In particularly the incidence of sudden cardiac death and stroke, a major problem worldwide, is significantly higher in our regions as compared to the developed EU countries.

The most common underlying causes are heart and brain disorders associated with ischemia (in elderly population) but also genetic heart diseases (increasingly in young people, especially top athletes). Moreover, there is an increasing incidence of chronic heart failure that in association with co-morbidities such as diabetes predispose to malignant tachyarrhythmias and sudden death.

Accordingly, basic research supported by an appropriate infrastructure aimed to identify the risk factors and to better understand the basic mechanisms underlying sudden death in order to propose more effective combined therapeutic approaches for reducing the high mortality rate is fully warranted.  

Both partners are academic institutions currently carrying on research activities financed from national research grants and having solid background in the field of cardiology. The leading experts of the proposed project, Professors Papp, Varró, Vegh, Bari, Forster and CsanAdy from the University of Szeged and Professors Dragulescu, Gaita, Muntean, Mihalas, and Dragan from the University of Timisoara, respectively have outstanding international publication records and reputation in their respective scientific fields guaranteeing professional leadership of the project.

The main target group is represented by the mixed teams of researchers in the field of cardiology from the partner universities that will be trained to use and will benefit from the commonly developed infrastructure facilities. The second important target group is represented by the population of the region which will be informed about the risk factors of sudden death in order to increase addressability to the special services and the cardiologic patients identified as belonging to the risk groups that will be further screened for the genetic modifications.  Indirect beneficiary will be the scientific communities of both sides of the border that will have access to both expensive and frequently needed multipurpose equipment and the research results that might be used to develop new partnerships.