Life saving research
We’re the largest independent funder of heart and circulatory disease research in Scotland, investing more than £50 million in over 100 projects. We support more than 300 scientists in universities across the country, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and St Andrews.
Across the UK, we fund six Centres of Research Excellence, and we’re very proud that two of them are in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. These centres encourage innovative approaches in the fight against heart disease by bringing together leading scientists from different disciplines.
Here are just a few examples of the work we’re funding:
Artificial intelligence could help narrow heart attack gender gap
Previous BHF-funded research has shown that women in the UK who have a heart attack receive poorer care than men at every stage. For example, women historically were 50 per cent more likely to receive a wrong initial diagnosis.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have developed an AI-based tool to help clinicians diagnose heart attacks more accurately. The tool, called CoDE-ACS, uses AI to combine routinely collected patient information when they arrive at hospital with blood test results.
The team found that CoDE-ACS was much more accurate than current tests in diagnosing heart attacks, and the performance of the tool was consistent regardless of sex, age and pre-existing health conditions. If rolled out to Emergency Departments across the UK, scientists hope this innovation will help close the heart attack gender gap.
Understanding vascular dementia
Strokes affect thousands of people in Scotland every year. One in every five is a lacunar stroke, which affects the small vessels deep within the brain, and can lead to long-term disability, including memory loss and ultimately vascular dementia.
Understanding of lacunar strokes is limited and the signs can be less obvious than other types of stroke. There is currently no proven treatment. Professor Joanna Wardlaw and her team at the University of Edinburgh are trialling two drugs in around 200 people who have suffered a lacunar stroke. Using two different drugs individually or together, they will perform MRI scans on people taking part in the trial to see what effects these drugs have on the small blood vessels within the brain. If successful, this research could lead to a larger trial of these drugs to treat lacunar strokes and potentially prevent some cases of dementia.
‘Broken heart syndrome’
Professor Dana Dawson leads a team at the University of Aberdeen studying stress-induced cardiomyopathy, known as takotsubo or ‘broken heart syndrome’.
People with the condition experience similar symptoms to a heart attack, except there are usually no blockages in the coronary arteries.
There is currently no treatment for takotsubo, so Professor Dawson’s team are investigating whether they can improve the heart health of patients through prescribed physical activity or psychological interventions, compared to the outcomes of standard care.
Understanding small blood vessel disease
Angina is a form of chest pain caused by a lack of blood supply to the heart muscle. It is a common condition that can be triggered when people experience stress or exertion. Diagnosis usually requires an angiogram, when a catheter is used to put dye into the coronary arteries so that a blockage or narrowing will show up on an x-ray.
However, about one third of angiograms in people with suspected angina do not reveal any blockages. This might be because the narrowing is in microvessels that are too small to be seen on a standard angiogram.
There are tests available that can detect this, but they are not used routinely, so people may not be getting treatments that could benefit them. Professor Colin Berry and colleagues at the University of Glasgow and Golden Jubilee National Hospital have been carrying out microvessel function tests in 151 patients with chest pain who could not be diagnosed using currently available tests. The team found that the new tests were able to correctly diagnose six times as many patients as standard tests. Six months later, symptoms were less and quality of life was better in patients whose care was guided by the new tests.
What’s the right TIME?
Around one in three adults in Scotland has high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Many of these people are prescribed daily medicines to help lower their blood pressure.
But does it matter what time of day patients take their medicine? Researchers at the University of Dundee are leading a major project involving more than 10,000 people with high blood pressure. Participants in the TIME (Treatment In the Morning versus Evening) study will be instructed to take their blood pressure medicine either in the morning or at night for up to four years, and their health will be monitored during this time, particularly the number of people in each group who have a heart attack or stroke, or who die from heart and circulatory diseases. This information could help doctors agree on the best time for patients with high blood pressure to take their medication.
To find out more about our current research in Scotland and across the UK, sign up for the BHF research e-newsletter.
