New methods for improving care for patients with a damaged aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, are being researched by a team at King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Funded by a grant from Heart Research UK, the team will look at new methods for managing aortic dissection, a tear in the aortic wall, which creates an abnormal secondary passage for the blood to flow through and can be life-threatening if left untreated.
Heart Research UK has given the team a year’s grant of £93,032 to carry out the research work which will involve using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a blood-flow simulation method to produce a virtual model of the aorta which is unique to each patient. This will allow them to track the blood flow in the abnormal passage, discover what effects it has on the aorta and, most importantly, the likely outcome for each patient.
The findings could help clinicians to predict which patients are at increased risk of developing complications and to make an accurate plan about how and when best to treat each patient, improving the outcome for those with aortic dissection.
The processes involved in aortic dissection and false lumen expansion is poorly understood. It affects 3-4 people per 100,000 in the UK every year usually aged between 40-70 years, but young people with inherited diseases and people with a history of high blood pressure can also be affected.
Dr Figueroa said: “Image-based computer simulation techniques have the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of the causes of numerous cardiovascular diseases, and ultimately provide better diagnostic tools and better management for patients.
“Today medicine is far more ‘high-tech’ than it was just a few decades ago. I believe this trend will only become more prevalent in the future and we will see an ever increasing collaboration between clinicians and bio-engineers.”
Aortic dissection is more common in people with a history of high blood pressure and those who survive have on-going problems with expansion of the false lumen leading to death from aortic rupture. This project aims to understand how and why this happens. This research will answer fundamental questions that could lead to better care and an improved understanding of aortic dissection.
Barbara Harpham, national director of Heart Research UK, said: “Expanding our knowledge and understanding of serious diseases like aortic dissection is important if we are to find better ways of prevention, treatment and cure. The team at King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ will help us to understand more about problems with the aorta which could ultimately save more lives.”
