DRAPE V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing the Probability Algorithm for Pulmonary Hypertension Echocardiography
IRAS ID
342582
Contact name
Daniel X Augustine
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) is a condition caused by high blood pressure in the blood vessels that carry blood to the lungs. It can cause severe breathlessness and failure of the right side of the heart. Sadly it is often fatal.
PH can be caused by a number of different conditions and life expectancy varies with the underlying cause, ranging from months to years. For some subtypes of PH, effective treatments exist which can significantly improve life expectancy and quality of life. Accurate tools for the assessment of PH are therefore essential, so that we can better understand and predict life expectancy and so that life-saving medications can be started earlier.
Once doctors suspect that somebody has PH, they refer them to a specialist PH centre for assessment and a procedure called right heart catheterisation (RHC), which will confirm the diagnosis. However, evidence for the suspicion of PH is frequently overlooked, leading to an average delay to diagnosis from onset of symptoms of two years. This late presentation negatively impacts survival for these patients and prevents them promptly starting the effective treatments which are available.
An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a recording of the heart's electrical signals, printed in waveforms. It is a painless, low-cost, and readily-available test used in PH assessment.
Echocardiography (echo) is a quick, safe and well-tolerated test often requested to investigate breathless patients and can provide useful information about the suspicion of PH. Echo has however been shown to lack accuracy in milder forms of the disease. It has been hypothesised that subtle markers of right ventricular function by echo, such as free wall strain (RVFWS) begin to deteriorate before the more established findings.
A large, cross-population study of echo markers such as RVFWS in patients referred for PH assessment may help identify these markers, and improve detection.REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0255
Date of REC Opinion
25 Jul 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion