My main research focus is on cardiac adaptations to acute and long-term exercise. This includes studies of recreational and elite athletes active with endurance training and effects of secondary prevention with cardiac rehabilitation in patients with chronic heart failure.

For athletes, performance is always a top priority. By increasing our understanding of how the heart adapts to exercise, we can optimize performance and ensure that this is done in a way which is safe for the athlete with regard to cardiac health. For patients with heart failure, physical exercise tolerance is limited. Nevertheless, these patients benefit from exercise, but maybe not by the same mechanisms as the athletes.

To increase our understanding of the cardiovascular system and exercise physiology, I combine advanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at rest and exercise with other modalities such as cardiopulmonary exercise tests, ventilation/perfusion single photon emission computed tomography and muscle biopsies.