Prof. Drexler / Clinical Department of Cardiology and Angiology / MHH

Research report 2009

Image description:

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) occurs unexpectedly in young previously healthy women in the last month of pregnancy up to 6 months postpartum.
The image shows a sirius red colored longitudinal heart section of a female mouse with PPCM. The enlargement of all four heart chambers is clearly visible with a strong fibrotization (red) of the heart walls and a thrombus in the right ventricle.

The discovery of the pathomechanism of PPCM in a unique translational project from the mouse directly to new therapy concepts in patients was the last major project of Prof. Drexler, the long-standing head of the Clinical Department of Cardiology and Angiology. (Hilfiker-Kleiner et al. Cell 2007)