Cardiovascular screening in asymptomatic South Asians - a pilot study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cardiovascular screening in asymptomatic South Asians – a pilot randomized comparison of Q-risk 3 score versus Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography (CTCA)
IRAS ID
331211
Contact name
Vinoda Sharma
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs in the United Kingdom. Ethnic minorities like South Asians (SA) have a 3-5 times higher incidence of heart disease despite fewer traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography (CTCA) is able to determine the site, severity and type of blockage location in the heart arteries. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommends CTCA as the first line for stable chest pain coming from the heart (angina). However there is no pathway for the patients who are asymptomatic but at high risk of CVD, such as the SA cohort. Current practice involves using risk scores to guide management of asymptomatic adults. One recommended and commonly used score is the Q-risk score (the QRISK ® 3-2018 risk calculatorhttps://qrisk.org › three). Patients with a risk ≥10% of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years are offered primary prevention treatment with low dose statin therapy. This risk score underestimates the cardiac risk in the SA population. For example, an average (height 164cm weight 70kg) 40 year old male South Asian, without symptoms who is a non-smoker but with Diabetes Mellitus on tablet treatment scores 5.8% - this risk is not high enough to warrant treatment with a statin unless he also has abnormally raised cholesterol levels. But he continues to be at high risk for heart disease. There is no current evidence to tailor treatment in such asymptomatic, high risk ethnic minorities.
Similar to screening programs for cancer, we hypothesise that screening CTCA may help in risk stratification for heart disease in SA patients. We aim to randomise 50 asymptomatic South Asian patients with one CV risk factor to either Q-risk 3 score or to screening CTCA.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EM/0029
Date of REC Opinion
13 Mar 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion