Effect of Heart Failure on Infarct Volume in Acute Stroke

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Effect of Heart Failure on Infarct Volume in Acute Stroke. A Pilot Study

  • IRAS ID

    129305

  • Contact name

    Patrick Pullicino

  • Contact email

    P.Pullicino@kent.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

  • Research summary

    This research will investigate if people with poor heart pumping action have larger areas of brain injury after a stroke than persons with normal heart function. Heart failure (poor heart pumping action) affects nearly a million persons in the UK. There are 150,000 new strokes in the UK per year and up to 20% of these patients have heart failure. Severe heart failure is linked to poor recovery after a stroke but the cause of this is unknown. We will compare the size of brain injury after a stroke between patients with heart failure and those without on computed tomographic (CT) or magnetic resonance (MR) scans performed after the stroke. Presence of heart failure will be diagnosed by a blood test called brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) which is increased in heart failure or by clinical examination within 72 hours of stroke onset. We will determine the severity of the disability left after the stroke 12 weeks after the stroke. We will analyse the data to find the causes of severe disability or large areas of brain injury after stroke.

  • REC name

    South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    13/SC/0271

  • Date of REC Opinion

    18 Jul 2013

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion