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| Dr Nitesh Nerlekar |
MonashHeart
cardiologist and Monash University PhD candidate Dr Nitesh Nerlekar has discovered
that otherwise-healthy people with a low BMI may be unaware of dangerous fats
on their hearts, potentially affecting their heart health.
“In
some cases of heart attack, what you see on the outside doesn’t reflect what’s
happening on the inside”, said Dr Nerlekar.
“We all have
natural fat deposits (epicardial fat) around our hearts, but in some people,
the fat deposits are much larger and act like a fat factory on the
heart’s surface, dumping toxic waste into nearby healthy tissue and causing
blockages to the main arteries.”
Dr
Nerlekar is using advanced cardiac CT scans and US-developed software to
analyse this unique epicardial fat and determine how and why it impacts cardiac
health.
“My
research is measuring and quantifying the volume of epicardial fat, and looking
for the dangerous plaques present in arteries that cause heart attacks,” Dr
Nerlekar said.
“The
BMI is an imperfect metric, but we do know that having a lower BMI is
associated with a reduced risk of diabetes, cancer, and a range of other health
problems.”
“We
also know that for some people, having a lower BMI does not mean
a reduced risk of heart attack, possibly because of epicardial fat,” Dr
Nerlekar said.
Dr
Nerlekar said understanding the role and impact of epicardial fat on coronary
disease may lead to improved management of heart health through targeted
therapeutic interventions.
Dr
Nerlekar and the team are undertaking this research on patients at the Monash
Medical Centre in Clayton. It is the kind of research that will occur onsite at Australia’s
first cardiac dedicated facility – the Victorian Heart Hospital (VHH).
Opening in 2022 as a joint
partnership between the University, Monash Health and the Victorian Government,
the VHH’s focus on research, teaching and care of the heart will enable
translational research to take place in the one location, where researchers,
doctors and patients are all focused on heart health.
To
learn more about Dr Nerlekar’s research, visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6adRfEdME
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