University of Gothenburg
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Michael Fu

Professor/ Chief Physician

Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine
Mail
Michael.Fu@wlab.gu.se
Visiting address
Kardiologisektionen
Göteborg
Postal address
Su sahlgrenska
41345 Göteborg

About Michael Fu

MD, PhD, FESC, Senior Consultant Physician/Cardiologist Michael Fu is an expert in heart failure with research focus on epidemiology, clinical phenotype, prognosis and its risk factors, comorbidities, prevention and treatment in patients with heart failure in particular in the elderly and heart failure with preserved ejection faction, with more than 200 original publications.

Professor Michael Fu is currently a nucleus member of Working Group of Heart Failure, Swedish Society of Cardiology, previous nucleus member of Working Group of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction, Heart Failure Association, European Society of Cardiology.

Main research

Chronic heart failure (HF), which is accompanied by high morbidity and mortality, increases with age. Landmark randomized clinical trials have mainly been conducted in young HF patients ( The prevalence of HFNEF is increasing at an alarming rate of ~1% per year, which will transform HFNEF into the most prevalent HF phenotype over the next decade. In recently published heart failure guidelines (European Society of Cardiology, May 2012), there is still a lack of uniform diagnostic criteria for HFNEF. Moreover, in contrast to HFREF, no improvements in outcome have been realized over the past 20 years. No HFNEF clinical trials have demonstrated positive outcomes, which may be partly due to the enrollment of inappropriate study populations because of the absence of a validated diagnostic method. Elderly patients represent a high-risk cohort with significantly increased mortality and hospitalizations.

Most of the current data addressing mortality of elderly HFNEF patients are derived from registry databases and data about hospitalization of this group are limited. Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the prognostic contributions from factors that are characteristic of elderly patients, such as various comorbidities, cognitive dysfunction and impaired mental health, in addition to advanced age. Our immediate clinical interest in elderly HF patients emerged from the confluence of the following research questions:

  • How can an early and correct diagnosis of HFNEF be achieved?
  • What is the incidence of comorbidity in elderly HF patients?
  • How does comorbidity affect quality of life and prognosis in elderly HF patients?
  • Can optimal care of comorbidities improve quality of life and prognosis in elderly HF patients?

Group members

  • Salim Barywani, MD, PhD, Cardiologist
  • Eric Thunström, MD, PhD, physician
  • Constantinos Ergatoudes, physician, PhD student
  • Silvana Kontogeorgos, physician, PhD student
  • Chen Xiaojing, MD, PhD; postdoctoral fellow
  • Annika Odenstedt, research nurse
  • Sven Eric Hagelind, research nurse

Key Publications