Using stress signals to predict heart disease

Cardiac biomarkers, CVD risk assessment, and cost-effectiveness

In this Intermediate Fellowship, Dr Welsh aims to develop biomarker tests to better predict the risk of cardiovascular disease, including a heart attack. Doctors currently use risk scores to assess how high a person’s risk of a heart attack is, but such scores are only around 70% accurate, so there is considerable room for improvement. When the heart is stressed, it releases proteins into the blood, and Dr Welsh will find out if these stress proteins can be used as markers of potential heart attack. He will measure the amounts of these ‘stress signals’ from the blood of participants who have taken part in large population studies, and will examine if there is a correlation between the level of these markers and the heart health of participants. He will test if incorporating these markers into current risk scores can improve our ability to predict (and prevent) cardiovascular disease in the future. He will also assess the cost-effectiveness of using these markers in cardiovascular risk scores.