The brain also takes damage in a survived heart attack

New Findings: Heart attack can affect the brain

Researchers have found that a heart attack not only causes inflammation of the heart muscle, but also an inflammatory response in the brain. The impact of heart disease on brain function will need to be considered more closely in the future.

Do not consider myocardial infarction in isolation

Every year around 300,000 people in Germany suffer a heart attack. From a medical point of view, the serious illness should not be considered in isolation - myocardial infarction is a "systemic" disease that has consequences for the entire organism and also causes reactions in other organs, such as the liver and spleen. This was shown in a recently published study by Austrian scientists. "In doing so, we have demonstrated that the tunnel vision, which is focused solely on the heart, must be reconsidered in the event of a heart attack," one of the study authors explained. Researchers at Hannover Medical School (MHH) have also discovered that this isolated view would be wrong. They found that a heart attack can also damage the brain.

A heart attack not only causes inflammation of the heart muscle, but also an inflammatory reaction in the brain (neuroinflammation). That's what researchers have discovered. (Image: SENTELLO / fotolia.com)

Inflammatory reaction in the brain

An otherwise uncomplicated heart attack can also affect the brain. That's what scientists from the Hannover Medical School (MHH) found out.

Under the direction of Professor dr. Frank Bengel, director of the MHH Clinic for Nuclear Medicine, they have been able to show with state-of-the-art imaging techniques that a heart attack not only causes inflammation of the heart muscle, but also an inflammatory response in the brain (neuroinflammation).

The results have now been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Other organs do not seem to be equally affected

The inflammation on the heart muscle, which takes place after myocardial infarction, should contribute to healing. But it leads to an excessive reaction to further damage and worsening of heart function (heart failure).

So far it has been assumed that this process is essentially limited to the heart. However, the results of the MHH researchers now show that the brain is included immediately after an infarction as well as in the case of later developing heart failure.

This networking between heart and brain is probably mediated through the immune system. Other organs, such as the liver or kidneys, do not appear to be equally affected.

Effects of heart disease on brain function

"This close link between heart and brain inflammation is new and important because other studies have shown that an inflammatory response in the brain can promote memory impairment and the development of dementia," explains Professor Bengel.

The impact of heart disease on brain function will therefore need to be further considered in the future and included in the development of new treatments aimed at improved healing.

Professor Johann Bauersachs and Professor dr. Kai Wollert from the MHH Cardiology and Angiology Clinic supported the project. Both believe that it will be possible in the future, with anti-inflammatory drugs, to influence not only the heart attack, but also the inflammation in the brain.

Analyze inflammations in the whole body at the same time

The key to the studies was non-invasive molecular imaging, which has been successfully developed and developed in the MHH Clinic for Nuclear Medicine in recent years.

"With our techniques, biological mechanisms such as inflammation in the whole body can be analyzed simultaneously - including in the heart and brain. In addition, measurements can be made repeatedly to describe the time course of changes in the same organism, "reports Professor Bengel.

The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET), with which they can measure the exact distribution of very small amounts of short-lived radioactive substances in the body, called tracers.

This visualizes the biological processes in which the tracers participate. PET can be used at the MHH in a special laboratory for research experiments, but also in the clinical PET center for patient care. (Ad)