Characterisation of myocardial inflammation in cardiomyopathies

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Characterisation of myocardial inflammation in ischaemic and non-ischaemic cardiomypathies

  • IRAS ID

    190450

  • Contact name

    Christopher Miller

  • Contact email

    chrismiller@doctors.org.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University Hospital of South Manchester

  • Eudract number

    2015-001398-42

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Inflammation is critical to healing of the heart muscle following injury to the heart from conditions such as a heart attack or other conditions that affect the heart. While insufficient inflammation may result in inadequate scar formation or ongoing injury, excessive inflammation may lead to abnormal changes in structure of the heart muscle, which adversely effect heart structure and function.

    Being able to characterise and quantify myocardial inflammation would have enormous utility; allowing improved diagnosis, providing additional prognostic information and guiding therapy. However, assessment of heart muscle inflammation in vivo is challenging. There are no clinically relevant serum biomarkers and invasive biopsy is inappropriate in this context.

    Magnetic resonance imaging with ultrasmall superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide (USPIO) contrast agent has been widely applied and allows characterisation and quantification of inflammation in vivo.

    In this study we plan to apply this technique to characterise heart muscle inflammation in a range of heart conditions and compare it to subjects without cardiac diseases, investigate whether there is an association between heart inflammation and function and assess whether heart inflammation is associated with adverse heart structural changes.

  • REC name

    North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/NW/0776

  • Date of REC Opinion

    4 Nov 2015

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion