IVIM_DTI in HCM
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing novel cardiac diffusion MRI techniques to risk stratify patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
IRAS ID
249941
Contact name
Erica Dall'Armellina
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
1 in 200 of the UK population has Hypertrophic CardioMyopathy (HCM), however most HCM patients have no symptoms. In HCM patients, the wall of the heart becomes thickened, making the heart muscle stiff and preventing the microvessels from delivering enough blood to the cells. This can have serious consequences and may lead to sudden death. HCM is the leading cause of sudden death in young adults. Current clinical tools do not allow reliable identification of individuals at risk of sudden death. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is an investigation providing accurate and detailed images of the heart. It is considered the gold standard non-invasive imaging technique in clinical cardiology and its role in investigating individuals with HCM is emerging. In fact CMR allows accurate measurements of the wall thickness and the function of the heart. A technique to determine how the abnormal thickened walls of the heart impact on the delivery of blood to the cells, would be highly useful to predict which patient are at risk of death.
In the Department of Biomedical Imaging Science at the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and metabolic Medicine (LICAMM) we have long standing expertise in CMR and a programme of research to develop novel cutting edge methods to image the heart. With this study we aim to validate a new technique [Intravoxel coherent motion (IVIM) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)] offering the possibility to accurately quantify the impairment in blood supply due to abnormal tissue structure. We will test IVIM on 10 healthy volunteers to establish normal values for heart structure and blood flow. They will then use the technique on 30 HCM patients to measure how well the heart muscle is supplied with blood and see how this correlates with standard measurements such as the thickness of the heart or the amount of scar tissue.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0372
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion