A clinical trial using advanced imaging to test if drugs can stop valve narrowing in aortic stenosis

Modification of calcification activity and 18F-Fluoride positron emission tomography uptake in cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular imaging is an exciting research area, with imaging experts developing new techniques and new types of scan to improve current methods. Clinicians use imaging to find out more about different heart conditions, including aortic stenosis, when the aortic valve becomes narrowed and calcified. Aortic stenosis is the most common form of heart valve disease. Although surgery is an effective treatment for aortic stenosis, it is often not an option for the many elderly people with the condition. We also currently have no effective drug treatments for aortic stenosis, so we need to find new ways to treat patients. Cardiologist Dr Marc Dweck from the University of Edinburgh has been awarded an Intermediate Clinical Research Training Fellowship to work under the guidance of BHF Professor David Newby. During his fellowship, Dr Dweck will use new imaging techniques to assess whether drugs called denosumab and alendronate (that work by targeting calcium metabolism) can be used to treat people with aortic stenosis. He will conduct a clinical trial, involving 150 patients, to find out whether these drugs stop the aortic valve from narrowing further. If successful, these drugs could be tested in a larger trial. Dr Dweck will also spend one year working with world-leading scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he will receive training in novel imaging techniques that show what is happening in the diseased heart with great accuracy. The fellowship will give Dr Dweck the clinical trial experience and imaging skills he needs to establish his own research group in the UK.