VIRTU-5: towards a complete model of myocardial ischaemia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
VIRTU-5: towards a complete model of myocardial ischaemia
IRAS ID
272069
Contact name
Julian Gunn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 7 days
Research summary
Patients with hardening of the arteries in the heart have pictures taken of the vessels. These are helpful, but what matters is the flow of blood. We know how a single narrowed artery affects blood supply to the heart, but we are less clear about how several narrowed arteries do, and still less clear about how it affects the patient’s quality of life. So we are often uncertain which arteries to treat, and how extensively. We therefore plan to develop a computer model of the circulation to the patient’s heart, and see how using this to help guide treatment might benefit patients.
We will study 40 patients who need their arteries treating with coronary angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention – PCI or ‘stenting’). We will obtain a scan of blood supply, a simple walk test, activity levels, quality of life, and symptoms, and measure them with a smart watch and activity monitor at home. Then we will perform the procedure to open the arteries, recording images of the arteries, and pressure gradients in the PCI group, to help construct our model. Finally we will repeat all the measurements to see what change we have made after treatment. We will compare the effects of the procedure with a control group of 40 patients who are undergoing coronary angiography (images but no treatment).
We will adjust (‘tune’) our model to the individual, and test how accurate it is by predicting the changes after treatment and comparing with the 'gold standard' heart scan.
The benefit to patients will be to ‘tailor’ their treatment to achieve maximum benefit to them with minimal intervention and risk.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
20/NS/0033
Date of REC Opinion
2 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion