Quantitative MRI measures in PH (Version 1)

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Novel Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Measures in the Assessment and Follow-up of patients with Pulmonary Hypertension (PH)

  • IRAS ID

    246688

  • Contact name

    S Padley

  • Contact email

    s.padley@imperial.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Royal Brompton Hospital

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 4 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a condition that can complicate multiple cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Diagnosis and follow-up of these patients involves multiple investigations, some of which are invasive, such as right heart catheterisation. Due to the many causes of PH, there is significant heterogeniety in the response to treatment and prognosis of patients.

    A cohort of these patients whom positively react to the administration of nitric oxide during right heart catheterisation will go on to respond to treatment with calcium channel blockers and have a good long term prognosis. The remainder are started on advanced therapy with endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors and prostacyclin analogues .

    Other than the above described invasive test, conventional tests do not predict treatment response and have not been proven as useful longitudinal measures of continued response.

    We believe a new quantitative MRI technique, using a combination of Fourier decomposition processing and oxygen enhanced imaging, currently under investigation at the Royal Brompton may present a novel set of imaging biomarkers for risk stratification, prediction of treatment response and longitudinal disease monitoring in these patients.

    We aim to recruit around 50 patients with newly diagnosed PH to have quantitative MRI prior to initiation of PH therapy with follow up scans at 1 and 3-6 months post therapy initiation. Patients will be recruited from the Royal Brompton and Hammersmith Hospitals over an 18month period.

    This repeatable, quantitative MRI examination could revolutionise diagnosis and treatment monitoring in respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, predicting treatment response, risk stratifying patients into those who will benefit from therapies and those who should be fast tracked to transplant, saving patient time and unnecessary side-effects from costly therapies.

  • REC name

    London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    18/LO/1369

  • Date of REC Opinion

    14 Sep 2018

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion