Andrew D. Krahn

Biography

 The son of a family physician who worked throughout British Columbia’s small towns from Prince George to Abbotsford, Dr. Krahn is passionate about families in his research and clinical practice. His expertise lies in management of cardiac arrhythmias, and his research interests include investigation of genetic causes of arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, syncope and implantable arrhythmia devices. His education has taken him from BC to Manitoba with London, Ontario as the start of his electrophysiology career. After 18 years leading research in a busy heart rhythm clinic he returned to Vancouver, British Columbia in the summer of 2012 to lead the British Columbia Inherited Arrhythmia Program. He is internationally respected for his research in this area and is funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. He has many accomplishments; has published 368 papers in peer-reviewed journals, is an Associate Editor for Heart Rhythm, sits on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, and is Vice President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Sauder Family Chair, UBC Chief of Cardiology, the Paul Brunes Chair in Heart Rhythm Disorders and Secretary Treasurer for the Heart Rhythm Society. With his wife and daughter he enjoys skiing, hiking, golf and a good glass of red wine.

Research Interest

Dr. Krahn’s dual research interests span from collaboration with basic science researchers on gene sequencing to clinical studies of diagnostic test utility to single and multicenter randomized trials evaluating the diagnostic and therapeutic utility of novel interventions in patients with arrhythmia. His interest in genetic arrhythmias began with the bedside clinical assessment of patients with Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) during exercise testing. This involved description of novel clinical markers of this congenital repolarization syndrome, which was published in Circulation (1997). With the advent of linkage analysis and subsequent DNA sequencing to identify mutations underlying LQTS, he sought a “bedside to bench to bedside” approach, collaborating with several basic science researchers regarding genetic discovery and expression (Am Heart J 2000). This work continues with novel clinical and genetic observations (Circulation A&E 2010, Heart Rhythm 2010, JCE 2010).   Currently Dr. Krahn leads 3 national registries and bio banks: (CASPER), funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation through 2019, examining genotype-phenotype correlation in patients with suspected inherited arrhythmias. The key contributions arising from this work are the description of QT changes with exercise (Circulation 1997, 2009, 2011), the novel utility of provocative testing in recognizing the cause of unexplained cardiac arrest (Circulation 2005 and 2009, Circulation A&E 2012, Heart Rhythm 2014, Circulation A&E 2016), the novel recognition of early repolarization in idiopathic VF patients in CASPER (JACC 2011) and the description of somatic mutations underlying “lone” atrial fibrillation (NEJM 2006). Recent work has focused on family studies (Circulation A&E 2016) and merits of genetic testing (Circ CV Genetics 2017) The national ARVC registry and bio bank received $580,000 pilot funding from industry and peer reviewed sources, which has published a design paper on the first 400 patients enrolled (Can J Cardiol 2016), and a paper on ICD performance (Heart Rhythm 2016). Ongoing enrolment is seeking peer reviewed funding with a target of 1500 patients. The National Long QT registry and bio bank is supported by the Heart and Stroke 3 year grant and CIHR 5 year operating grant to create a nationwide profile of Long QT patients and families, and determine their natural history and optimal management. The registry has enrolled 370 patients. Our most recent observations are QT dynamic changes in eating disorders that suggest a marker for risk of sudden death in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa (Circulation 2016).