This award was created in 1982 in recognition of research excellence. The acknowledgement is offered to an established investigator working on an aspect of cardiovascular research in Canada. Nominations for this most prestigious award come from CCS members, deans of medical schools, and directors of research institutes and cardiovascular programs from across the country.

Dr. Philippe Pibarot

Aortic Stenosis: From Passive to Active

After graduating from university in France in veterinary medicine, Dr. Philippe Pibarot, professor of Medicine at Université Laval and Canada Research Chair in Valvular Heart Disease, completed an internship at Université de Montréal where, to make ends meet, he started working with Dr. Louis-Gilles Durand on prosthetic valves for humans.

"It was high-flying, open-heart surgery," remembers Pibarot."I was fascinated!"

So fascinated that, at the first opportunity, he begged Durand for a job. Through him, Pibarot met renowned cardiologist Dr. Jean Dumesnil. The three have been working on aortic valve stenosis (AS) and prosthetic heart valves since then.

In North America, aortic stenosis (the most common valvular disease) causes 20,000 deaths a year. No drugs stop or slow its progression. Until recently, surgery to replace the valve was the only solution. And for this major,
open-heart surgery, timing is crucial. Pibarot, Dumesnil and their collaborators used Doppler-echocardiography to develop novel, accurate markers of disease severity that contribute to better determining the best timing for the operation and to choosing the right prosthetic valve for the right patient.

"We use Doppler-echocardiography every day—it's our stethoscope!" says Pibarot. "We can follow the morphology and function of the valves, or measure the presence and quantify the severity of dysfunction. All of this non-invasively and at will."

Until recently, AS was misunderstood as a passive process—the inevitable effect of ageing and wear and tear. Today, thanks in part to the research at the Québec Heart and Lung Institute, it is known to be an active, potentially modifiable disease with several factors that lead to valvular calcification and stenosis. In the search for a drug to replace surgery—a drug that must stop calcification in the valve only, not in the bones—the team led by Pibarot and Patrick Mathieu was the first to establish the link between visceral fat and AS. It also found that patients with visceral obesity degenerated their prosthetic valves faster than people without.

After Pibarot et al published an important article on prosthesis-patient mismatch (orifice of the prosthetic valve too small for the body-size of the recipient), he realized he needed to do more to get the message out.

"With the help of CCS and CSE, we have been able to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time," he acknowledges. "Both societies have made enormous efforts to enhance knowledge transfer to their members."

"I receive these awards on behalf of all my students and collaborators. It is a recognition of our joint effort," says Pibarot. "Working with these people from such a wide variety of backgrounds, expertise and visions has been a great source of inspiration and motivation. One of the keys to my success is that collaborators became good friends and vice versa."