ACCELERATE-CMR

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Accelerated cardiovascular magnetic resonance for the detection of coronary artery disease – a randomised controlled trial

• IRAS ID

  357652

• Contact name

  Jayanth Arnold

• Contact email

  jra14@le.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Leicester

• Duration of Study in the UK

  4 years, 5 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  AIMS
  To improve how we diagnose coronary heart disease - making our tests faster and more comfortable for people, and more cost-effective for the NHS.

  BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH
  Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the UK. Narrowed blood vessels restrict blood flow to the heart, causing chest pain or a heart attack. Good treatments are available but we first need to identify who has the problem. We can use a test called ‘coronary angiography’: this involves inserting a flexible tube into a person’s groin or arm, passing it to their heart and injecting dye whilst taking X-ray pictures. This test can be painful, with a risk of things going wrong. Hence, guidelines recommend using scans first, as they are safer and more comfortable. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart is very good at detecting the problem, but in the UK, the limited number of MRI scanners restricts its widespread use. One solution is to install more MRI scanners; an alternative is to improve the efficiency of existing services. Using recent technical advances, we have devised a faster, more comfortable scan, taking 15-20 minutes instead of the usual 45-50 minutes. This uses existing NHS scanners but with newer software. However, we need to make sure that our new scan is equally efficacious. The lead investigator on this proposal has had 2 awards from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to evaluate the performance of the MRI scan. This work showed that the ‘fast’ scan is as accurate as the standard scan. If we can now show that people do equally well with the fast scan, we could replace the standard scan to improve efficiency and shorten waiting lists. This will make MRI accessible for more people with suspected heart disease.

  DESIGN AND METHODS
  We are now planning a larger study involving up to 10 UK hospitals to do more testing of the new scan. People referred for a routine NHS MRI scan and who choose to take part in the trial will be randomly assigned to have the usual MRI scan or the fast one (a total of 2022 people). We will then work out if the fast scan is as good as the standard one and if people prefer it
  

• REC name

  South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  26/SC/0152

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 May 2026

• REC opinion

  Unfavourable Opinion