Dr. Ulrich Jorde’s laboratory is focused on translational research in advanced heart failure including heart replacement therapy; i.e. durable mechanical circulatory support (left ventricular assist devices/ “artificial hearts”) or cardiac transplantation.
The basis for Dr. Jorde's work is a large clinical program with approximately 2000 heart failure admissions, 35 adult cardiac transplants, and 50 left ventricular assist devices annually. All work is done in close collaboration with cardiothoracic surgical colleagues.
Representative examples of Dr. Jorde’s research include:
- Investigator initiated mechanistic studies:
- Studies of the nasal mucosa vasculature in “pulseless” heart failure patients on continuous-flow LVADs
- Hemolysis patterns in CF-LVAD patients and their association with device thrombosis (collaboration with Henny Billett, MD – Hematology)
- Reversal of heart failure induced diabetes in CF-LVAD patients
- Basic Science Collaborations – Myocardial recovery during mechanical circulatory support (collaboration with Nicholas Frangogiannis, MD)
- Outcomes/epidemiology studies – Effect of center volume on survival during heart failure hospital admission
- Multicenter studies of investigational mechanical circulatory support devices:
- MOMENTUM Trial: A 1200-patient study of long term durable support as bridge to transplantation or destination therapy with the HM III (national PI: Daniel Goldstein, MD)
- SHIELD 2: A 452 patient study of acute mechanical circulatory support with the Percutaneous Heart Pump. (national PI: Ulrich Jorde, MD)