Dorte Guldbrand Nielsen

Aarhus University Hospital | AUH · Department of Cardiology

Background Little is known about long-term outcomes beyond survival following acute aortic dissection. The aim of this research was to evaluate rates of home care initiation and nursing home admission during the first year after discharge and to assess factors associated with these needs. Methods All patients in Denmark with a first-time diagnosis...

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a complex connective tissue disorder characterized by considerable clinical variability. The diagnosis of MFS is based on the Ghent criteria, which require the presence of both clinical and genetic features. MFS is primarily caused by pathogenic alterations in FBN1 , which encodes the fibrillin‐1 protein. Fibrillin‐1 compri...

Objective To investigate the metabolic, cardiovascular, and neuropsychological phenotype, quality of life (QoL), and hormonal regulation in individuals with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by impaired synthesis of cortisol in the adrenal cortex and, if untreated compensatory hyperandrogen...

Objectives This study aimed to determine the status of training of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) cardiologists in Europe. Methods A questionnaire was sent to ACHD cardiologists from 34 European countries. Results Representatives from 31 of 34 countries (91%) responded. ACHD cardiology was recognised by the respective ministry of Health in...

Knowledge about health-related quality of life (HRQoL) over time in Fontan patients is sparse. We aimed to describe HRQoL over a ten-year period in a population-based Fontan cohort. Further, we compared HRQoL in Fontan patients with the general population. In 2011, Danish Fontan patients were invited to participate in a nationwide study assessing H...

Background: Most Fontan patients have impaired exercise capacity, and a further decline in exercise capacity over time seems inevitable. However, few longitudinal studies exist, and there is a lack of data from newer eras. We aimed to describe the natural evolution of exercise capacity over a 10-year period in a contemporary, population-based coho...

Objectives To assess temporal changes in the surgical management of patients with tetralogy of Fallot including the timing of interventions, surgical techniques, re-interventions and survival in a nationwide cohort. Methods Patients with tetralogy of Fallot in Denmark were divided into three eras based on their year of birth: early (1977 to 1991),...

The study describes all patients in Denmark with vascular Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (vEDS). Carriers of pathogenic or likely pathogenic COL3A1 variants were retrospectively identified through registries and specialized clinics. Medical records were reviewed for vascular‐ or organ ruptures and invasive procedures performed. Identified families were div...

Background Little is known about the impact of pregnancy on long‐term cardiovascular health in individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD). We aimed to determine if giving birth in patients with CHD is associated with higher risk of long‐term cardiovascular morbidity. Methods and Results We studied a cohort of 1262 individuals with CHD giving...

Background The literature about the impact of congenital heart disease (CHD) on the length of hospital stay after delivery is limited, and nonexisting in a country with free and equal access to healthcare. We aimed to examine the hypothesis that Danish women with CHD have a longer hospital stay after delivery compared to women without CHD. Secondar...

Background It is well established, that patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) are at increased risk of developing severe aortic valve and/or aortic disease early in life. Knowledge of factors placing patients at risk of early surgery is therefore essential. Several studies have found associations between aortic valve phenotype, aortopaty and ty...

Introduction: Patients with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) are at increased risk of developing severe aortic valve disease and aortopathy at an early age. We therefore performed a retrospective study to describe all patients diagnosed with BAV in an entire region of Denmark. Methods: We included patients≥18 years old with BAV, who had a transthoracic...

The risk of Type-A dissection is increased in subjects with connective tissue disorders and dilatation of the proximal aorta. The location and extents of vessel wall tears in these patients could be potentially missed during prospective imaging studies. The objective of the present study is to estimate the distribution of systolic wall stress in tw...

Background Women with maternal congenital heart disease have a higher risk of preterm birth (PTB) and giving birth to a small for gestational age (SGA) infant. Advanced maternal age (≥35 years) likewise increases the risk of PTB and SGA, probably explained by poorer cardiovascular status. It is likely that advanced maternal age is particularly detr...

Background We hypothesized that women with congenital heart disease ( CHD ) are at increased risk of giving birth preterm, including very and moderately preterm and giving birth to infants small for gestational age ( SGA ). We aimed to investigate this in a nation‐wide study with focus on the potential modifying effect of socioeconomic status. Met...

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder with highly varying disease manifestations, many of which cause extensive morbidity. There are international consensus criteria for the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of TSC, and approved medical treatment for some of the most serious disease manifestations. However, or...

Objectives: New training methods such as simulation have been introduced in cardiology as in other specialties; however, the development of effective simulation-based training programs is challenging. They are often unstructured and based on convenience or coincidence. The objective of this study was to perform a nationwide general needs assessment...

Abdominal aortic aneurysms are very rare in Marfan syndrome. We present a case with a young non-smoking and normotensive male with Marfan syndrome, who developed an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm that presented with rupture to the retroperitoneal cavity causing life-threatening bleeding shock. The patient had acute aortic surgery and survived...

Key Clinical Message Low‐dose QT‐prolonging drugs may have detrimental effects on women with Turner's syndrome. Preventive measures would be to use potential QT‐prolonging drugs with precaution and ensure that both before and during treatment, ECGs are evaluated and drug treatment stopped if the QT interval increases.

Standardised competence assessment in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is increasingly demanded. Danish Cardiology Society working group on echocardiography initiated a Delphi study among departments involved in resident TTE training to obtain consensus on national criteria for TTE competence. Consensus was obtained on a list of 21 items releva...

Background Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is a widely used cardiac imaging technique that all cardiologists should be able to perform competently. Traditionally, TTE competence has been assessed by unstructured observation or in test situations separated from daily clinical practice. An instrument for assessment of clinical TTE technical prof...

Standardised competence assessment in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is increasingly demanded. Danish Cardiology Society working group on echocardiography initiated a Delphi study among departments involved in resident TTE training to obtain consensus on national criteria for TTE competence. Consensus was obtained on a list of 21 items releva...

Background Competence in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is unrelated to traditional measures of TTE competence, such as duration of training and number of examinations performed. This study aims to explore aspects of validity of an instrument for structured assessment of echocardiographic technical skills. Methods The study included 45 physi...

Previous studies addressing teaching and learning in point-of-care ultrasound have primarily focussed on image interpretation and not on the technical quality of the images. We hypothesized that a limited intervention of 10 supervised examinations would improve the technical skills in Focus Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE) and that ph...

The purpose of this study was to assess the coherence between the undergraduate medical program at Aarhus University and the foundation year. This cross-sectional questionnaire survey included 503 doctors graduated from Aarhus University from the winter of 2007/2008 to the summer of 2009. The response rate was 73%. Approximately 73% of the responde...

Two major views on the relationship between basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge stand out; the Two-world view seeing basic science and clinical science as two separate knowledge bases and the encapsulated knowledge view stating that basic science knowledge plays an overt role being encapsulated in the clinical knowledge. However, resent...

Cardiovascular status is a crucial determinant in the pre-operative assessment of patients for surgery as well as for the handling of patients with acute illness. We hypothesized that focus-assessed transthoracic echocardiography (FATE) could be performed with the subject in the semi-recumbent position. The aim was also to test whether the image qu...

In this paper we describe the first four phases of a curriculum reform covering the three clinical years of medical school at Aarhus University. The reform intends to ease students' transition from medical school to the foundation year, increase focus on communication, create more coherence between subjects, increase students' active participation,...

To understand core curriculum design and involvement of stakeholders. Twelve homogeneous focus group interviews with a total of 88 students, house officers, senior doctors and nurses concerning an undergraduate emergency medicine curriculum. Following content coding of transcripts, we analysed by condensation, categorisation and qualitative content...

The purpose of this study was to test whether focus groups involving medical students, house officers, senior doctors, and nurses could identify an undergraduate emergency medicine core curriculum. From May 2001 to January 2002, we interviewed 12 homogeneous focus groups within all 88 participants. Three focus groups were composed of medical studen...

Context: During the third semester of a 6-year long curriculum medical students train clinical skills in the skills laboratory (2 hours per week for 9 weeks) as well as in an early, 8-week clinical clerkship at county hospitals. Objectives: to study students' expectations and attitudes towards skills training in the skills laboratory and clerksh...