Using PET scans to better understand heart scarring

Myocardial fibrosis and left ventricular remodelling in cardiovascular disease

Researchers in Edinburgh will develop a new way to visualise cardiac scar formation, to help us to understand new ways to prevent heart failure after a heart attack. After a heart attack, scar tissue can develop in the heart. This contributes to changes that may lead to heart failure, a debilitating condition that’s on the rise in the UK. Currently it’s very difficult to study how, when and through which biological processes scars form. That limits our ability to prevent, slow or stop the process in patients after heart attack. These researchers are experts in technologies used to see what’s going on in the heart. In this project, they will develop a new tool to watch the scar as it develops in real time. They’ll achieve this using a highly specialized scanning technique called positron emission tomography, or PET, which uses antimatter to light up specific molecules in the heart as they form. Using PET scans of rat hearts, they hope to determine when, how and where the scar forms as well as describe the types of fibrous proteins deposited in the heart following heart attack. This will help us define how heart scars form and what we can do to modify the scar so that the heart can heal better. If successful, this could lay the foundations for new treatments to speed up the heart’s recovery and ultimately prevent the development of heart failure.