A project at the university of Leeds aiming to improve the investigation and management of patients with suspected angina has received a grant of almost £150,000 from national charity Heart Research UK.
Angina is chest pain usually caused by coronary heart disease (CHD) which occurs when there is a narrowing of the heart arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood.
In the UK, about 2 million people have angina and approximately 200,000 are referred to hospital each year for further tests.
This project, led by Professor John Greenwood, will carry out a UK multi-centre clinical trial, involving approximately 4,000 patients, to test the UK NICE guidelines compared to a personalised strategy of cardiac investigation.
The personalised strategy will take account of individual patient risk factors and include current cardiac imaging tests widely available in the NHS.
This trial will formally evaluate the UK NICE guidelines to see if they are optimal or whether they can be improved. The aim is to reduce practice variation across the UK, lead to more robust guidelines and potentially reduce costs for the NHS.
Prof John Greenwood said: “This is an incredibly exciting project that we hope will make a real difference to how we identify and treat patients with angina. If we are successful, we may be able to drastically reduce unnecessary procedures, saving time and money and improving patient care.”
“This will not only help to improve their quality of life, but could ensure that patients receive care tailored to their condition, increasing its effectiveness and helping to reduce the strain on our health service. We are very grateful to Heart Research UK for supporting this research.”
The £149,942 grant was awarded to the University of Leeds as part of Heart Research UK’s annual awards for research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.
