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Professorship Julie Staals

Professorship Julie Staals

22 April 2024

Dr Julie Staals (Dept. of Neurology) has been appointed as professor 'Neurovascular disease' as of 1 April 2024.

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ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Prof. Andy Baker

ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Prof. Andy Baker

15 April 2024

Prof. Andy Baker (Dept of Pathology) has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of €2,5M for his research project PolymiRize: Poly-miRNA targeting to prevent and reverse complex tissue remodelling after acute cardiovascular events'.

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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
    • Moersdorf, M., Tijssen, J. G. P., Marrouche, N. F., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Costard-Jaeckle, A., Bergau, L., Hindricks, G., Dagres, N., Sossalla, S., Schramm, R., Fox, H., Fink, T., El Hamriti, M., Sciacca, V., Konietschke, F., Rudolph, V., Gummert, J., Sommer, P., Sohns, C., & CASTLE HTx Investigators (2024). Prognosis of patients in end-stage heart failure with atrial fibrillation treated with ablation - Insights from Castle HTX. Heart Rhythm. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2024.04.013
    • Spoormans, E. M., Lemkes, J. S., Janssens, G. N., van der Hoeven, N. W., Jewbali, L. S. D., Dubois, E. A., Meuwissen, M., Rijpstra, T. A., Bosker, H. A., Blans, M. J., Bleeker, G. B., Baak, R., Vlachojannis, G. J., Eikemans, B. J. W., van der Harst, P., van der Horst, I. C. C., Voskuil, M., van der Heijden, J. J., Beishuizen, A., ... van Royen, N. (2024). The Prognostic Value of Troponin-T in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Without ST-Segment Elevation: A COACT Substudy. Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, 3(2), Article 101191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jscai.2023.101191
    • van der Velden, R. M. J., Bonander, C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Kemp-Gudmundsdottir, K., Engdahl, J., Linz, D., & Svennberg, E. (2024). Adherence to a handheld device-based atrial fibrillation screening protocol is associated with clinical outcomes. Heart. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-323522
    • van der Velden, R. M. J., Pluymaekers, N. A. H. A., Dudink, E. A. M. P., Luermans, J. G. L. M., Meeder, J. G., Heesen, W. F., Lenderink, T., Widdershoven, J. W. M. G., Bucx, J. J. J., Rienstra, M., Kamp, O., van Opstal, J. M., Kirchhof, C. J. H. J., van Dijk, V. F., Swart, H. P., Alings, M., Van Gelder, I. C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Linz, D. (2024). Cardioversion strategy impacts rate control during recurrences in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: A subanalysis of the RACE 7 ACWAS trial. Clinical Cardiology, 47(1), Article e24161. https://doi.org/10.1002/clc.24161
  • 2023
    • Mulder, B. A., Khalilian Ekrami, N., Van De Lande, M. E., Nguyen, B.-O., Weberndorfer, V., Crijns, H. J., Geelhoed, B., Blaauw, Y., Hemels, M. E., Tieleman, R. G., Scheerder, C. O., De Melis, M., Schotten, U., Linz, D., Van Gelder, I. C., & Rienstra, M. (2023). Women have less progression of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: data from the RACE V study. Open Heart, 10(2), Article e002534. https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2023-002534
    • Chua, W., Cardoso, V. R., Guasch, E., Sinner, M. F., Al-Taie, C., Brady, P., Casadei, B., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Dudink, E. A. M. P., Hatem, S. N., Kääb, S., Kastner, P., Mont, L., Nehaj, F., Purmah, Y., Reyat, J. S., Schotten, U., Sommerfeld, L. C., Zeemering, S., ... Fabritz, L. (2023). An angiopoietin 2, FGF23, and BMP10 biomarker signature differentiates atrial fibrillation from other concomitant cardiovascular conditions. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 16743. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42331-7
    • Frausing, M. H. J. P., van de Lande, M. E., Maass, A. H., Nguyen, B. O., Hemels, M. E. W., Tieleman, R. G., Koldenhof, T., De Melis, M., Linz, D., Schotten, U., Weberndoerfer, V., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Van Gelder, I. C., Nielsen, J. C., & Rienstra, M. (2023). Brady- and tachyarrhythmias detected by continuous rhythm monitoring in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Heart, 109(17), 1286-1293. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2022-322253
    • van Mourik, M. J. W., Linz, D., Verwijs, H. J. A., Bekkers, S. C. A. M., Weerts, J., Schotten, U., Rocca, H. B.-L., Lumens, J., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Weijs, B., & Knackstedt, C. (2023). Evaluating subclinical left ventricular and left atrial dysfunction in idiopathic atrial fibrillation: A speckle-tracking based strain-analysis. International Journal of Cardiology, 383(1), 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.04.024
    • van der Heijden, C. A. J., Weberndörfer, V., Vroomen, M., Luermans, J. G., Chaldoupi, S. M., Bidar, E., Vernooy, K., Maessen, J. G., Pison, L., van Kuijk, S. M. J., La Meir, M., Crijns, H. J. G. M., & Maesen, B. (2023). Hybrid Ablation Versus Repeated Catheter Ablation in Persistent Atrial Fibrillation: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, 9(7), 1013-1023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2022.12.011
    • Koldenhof, T., Van Gelder, I. C., Crijns, H. J. G. M., Rienstra, M., & Tieleman, R. G. (2023). Rate control in atrial fibrillation, calcium channel blockers versus beta-blockers. Heart, 109(23), 1759 - 1764. https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2023-322635
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