Tjerk Opstal has been awarded the Pieter van Foreest Prize of 2022.© Photo Studio Wick Natzijl
Leonie Green
Alkmaar
How do you prevent another heart attack long after you’ve had one? With a nice lilac plant, a kind of crocus without leaves; the autumn timeless. This was discovered by the Alkmaar cardiologist in training Tjerk Opstal. He wins the Pieter van Foreest Prize of 2022.
Taking a cheap, age-old medicine is a good way to prevent another heart attack. This is apparent from research by Opstal. That drug is colchicine. It is extracted from the bulb of the autumn crocus. This crocus-like gets its name from the fact that it has no leaves.
The study had previously shown that colchicine prevents damage to the heart immediately after a heart attack. Opstal has investigated whether the drug also works in patients who have had a heart attack for some time. So yes. It appears that patients who have been symptom-free for many years have a thirty percent less chance of developing a new heart attack with colchicine.
Opstal: ,,One of the risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease is arterial calcification. This is partly due to cholesterol that solidifies in crystals and causes inflammation with its sharp points. In their search for anti-inflammatories, researchers came across colchicine. This drug has been used for a long time to treat gout, which is also caused by crystal formation (of uric acid).”
Tjerk Opstal is now receiving the Pieter van Foreest Prize for his contribution to the research, which is being conducted on a large scale in his own country and in Australia. This prize is awarded annually to the best scientific publication involving patients from the Northwest. The Pieter van Foreest Prize is an incentive for scientific research within the hospital group.
Tjerk Opstal, through cardiologist and professor by special appointment, Jan Hein Cornel, became involved in research into the prevention of heart disease using the drug colchicine. Opstal’s article was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, onder de titel ’Colchicine in Patients with Chronic Coronary Disease in Relation to Prior Acute Coronary Syndrome’.