507types of therapy, and because the models will be personalized to individual patients,
the therapy could be equally personalized. The technology can modify treatment of
heart rhythm disorders by a minimally invasive procedure known as radio-frequency
ablation. During this procedure, a catheter is inserted into the patient’s heart and the
tissue responsible for propagating abnormal electrical signals through the heart mus-
cle is destroyed using heat from a radio-frequency fi eld generated at the tip of the
catheter. Currently, physicians have to rely on their experience to decide which areas
of tissue to destroy – a task that is complicated by the fact that the electrical activity
in every patient’s heart is subtly different. With the aid of a computerized model that
refl ects the patient’s unique heart structure and function, it may be possible to test the
results of destroying different areas of tissue before operating on the patient.
Concluding Remarks on Personalized Management
of Cardiovascular Diseases
Individual responses to drugs vary and are partly determined by genes. Simple
genetic analyses can improve response prediction and minimize side effects in cases
such as warfarin and high doses of simvastatin. NGS will facilitate the identifi cation
of mutations causing cardiovascular diseases. In contrast to monogenic diseases
genetic testing plays no practical role yet in the management of multifactorial car-
diovascular diseases. Cell culture models based on iPSCs open the perspective of
individualized testing of cardiovascular disease severity and pharmacological or
genetic therapy. Biomarkers can identify individuals with increased cardiovascular
risk and biomarker-guided therapy represents an attractive option with troponin-
guided therapy of acute coronary syndromes as a successful example (Eschenhagen
and Blankenberg 2013 ). Personalized approaches will gain increasing importance
in the management of cardiovascular diseases in the future.
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