Project to predict cardiovascular events receives heart charity grant

A Manchester University project to help predict the risk of cardiovascular events has received a grant of nearly £150,000 from Heart Research UK.

A team, led by Prof Mamas Mamas, will use medical data to develop a tool that predicts the risk of a future cardiovascular event or death in people who have already had a heart attack.

In the UK, around seven million people live with CVD, which is responsible for one in four deaths.

People living with underlying heart conditions are up to five times more likely to have a stroke and are six times more likely to die compared to those without.

Up to half of these patients suffer a second heart attack.

The project is significant because there are currently no methods to predict the risk in this group of patients and improve their care.

Prof Mamas hailed it as an “an incredibly exciting project” which “will be able to make a real difference to survivors of heart attacks.”

“If we can accurately predict the likelihood of them suffering another cardiovascular event, then we can intervene early and hopefully reduce their risk. 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,” he said.

The £147,816 grant was awarded to the University of Manchester as part of the national charity’s annual awards for research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart diseases.

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “We are delighted to be supporting the work of Prof Mamas and his team, which has the potential to have a big impact on how effective we can be at preventing people suffering from a cardiovascular event."