 I'm here to tell you that fixing a hole in the heart does not fix everything. Your heart is the size of your fist consisting of four chambers, two small atrias, and two larger ventricles as you can see on the image here. Now imagine being born with one of the most common heart defects, a hole in the wall dividing the two smaller chambers, an atrial septal defect. If the hole is large, you will experience shortness of breath, getting tired very easily and failure to grow, and in these instances it is important to close the hole. For years we assumed that patients were completely healthy after closing the defect. We then learned that they still experienced complications such as abnormal heart rhythm, and they generally died eight years earlier than you and me. We have yet to understand why this occurs so we can help them live just as long as the rest of us and without any problems. We examine adults born with an atrial septal defect who had it closed sometime during their lives. We scan their hearts using ultrasound. That's the same method you use in pregnant bellies and this tells us how the heart pumps. We measure the blood pressures in the heart and lung circulation. This tells us how soft and flexible the blood vessels are. We examine patients when they are resting but also on a bicycle. You may be okay if you don't do anything at all, but most of us live an active lifestyle and it is important that our heart can cope with that. My project is ongoing and we're still gathering results so I can't draw any conclusions yet. But our results may lead to two scenarios. Number one, if we find an abnormal heart function, we can explain the long-term complications in a shorter lifetime. We can start relevant medical treatment earlier on, thereby optimizing the heart's function and this means that we can postpone the occurrence of or maybe even fully avoid some complications. Scenario number two, should we on the other hand learn that these patient examinations are all normal, that our patients don't differ at all from our heart-healthy people, we can close this door and safely state that the dynamics in the heart aren't the cause for the problems we see. We should always continuously strive to optimize quality of life for our patients. Fixing a hole in the heart is great, but there's more fixing to do. Thank you.