Sofie Amalie Troest Kjeldsen

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I joined the Equine Cardiac Group as a PhD student in 2021. Prior to this, I completed an equine internship in Sweden (2018), and afterwards I worked for several years with high performing sport horses in Denmark. This ignited my interest in equine cardiology and its connection to poor performances in both riding and racing horses.

My PhD project focuses on paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which is a spontaneous arrhythmia causing poor performance but self-terminates to sinus rhythm. We use implantable cardiac monitors (insertable loop recorders) to continuously monitor the heart rhythm in horses both with and without poor performance. These telemetry devices can detect atrial fibrillation in horses. We seek to investigate the incidence of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) and the possible triggering mechanisms. We also use advanced echocardiography, such as tissue doppler and 2D-speckle tracking, to examine the functional atrial remodeling of horses with atrial fibrillation, and how the remodeling progress over time. With this research, we hope to understand if a large atrial mass without gross deviance is enough to develop AF and if horses with pAF will develop sustained atrial fibrillation.

As a member of the Danish Cardiovascular Academy, I regularly share knowledge and ideas with fellow researchers within the field. Horses are a unique animal model for atrial fibrillation in humans, and our research is a valuable addition to the field of understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms of atrial fibrillation