Predicting heart attacks years before they happen
Some 2.3 million people in the UK are living with coronary heart disease. Computed tomography (CT) heart scans are the recommended test for people with cardiac chest pain. These images assess narrowing and obstruction in the heart and blood vessels. But they fail to pick up half of the heart attacks that occur.
Research has shown that changes in the fatty tissue and increased inflammation around coronary vessels is linked to a higher risk of fatal heart attacks.
In this talk, held on 8 April 2025 at Rewley House in Oxford, Clinical Research Fellow Kenneth Chan of the Radcliffe Department of Medicine explains how a new device developed in Oxford combines the CT scan with artificial intelligence to detect these biological processes –invisible to the human eye – that precede the narrowing of the arteries and cause heart attacks.
The CaRi-Heart device, now successfully trialled in NHS hospitals, promises to be a game-changer in our efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease.
We believe the involvement of patients and members of the public in research is vital, so if you’re interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at OBRCenquiries@ouh.nhs.uk.
Prof Kazem Rahimi discussed Blood pressure and Diabetes
Kazem Rahimi, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Population Health, gave an online public talk about his research into whether lowering blood pressure can help to prevent type 2 diabetes, and the extent to which a person’s blood pressure or their treatment affects their risk of developing diabetes.
Parliament Science and Technology Committee – PHOSP Consortium & NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership
Parliament Science and Technology committee session: 15 September 2020
Subject: The science of COVID-19
Discussion: How research from the PHOSP Consortium and the NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership will help better understand Covid-19 susceptibility, risk factors and sequelae
Speakers include Sonya Babu-Narayan (BHF Associate Medical Director), Kamlesh Khunti (Prof. at the University of Leicester and member of the PHOSP Cardiovascular Working Group that the Partnership leads) and Prof. Chris Brightling (Chief Investigator of the PHOSP Consortium)
OxValve Saul Myerson Valvular Heart Disease study
Professor Saul Myerson, of the University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine, leads the OxValve study, which aims to identify people with Valvular Heart Disease and so find out how many people have it, and to develop improved treatment strategies for the disease.
Here he explains what the study has achieved so far and what he hopes it will achieve in future.
The study is supported by the NIHR Oxford BRC.
Find out more about the OxValve study: https://www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/oxvalve
Theme leader Cardiovascular, Professor Barbara Casadei.
Emergency diagnosis and classification of patients for immediate specialist treatment are central to the management of patients presenting with acute stroke or myocardial infarction. We will use state-of-the-art local and national resources to refine the management of patients with acute cardiovascular syndromes and test new drugs based on improved mechanistic understanding of chronic and inherited cardiovascular diseases in individual patients.
Undiagnosed heart valve disease in older people – Sean Coffey Open weeks 2015
Sean Coffey outlines the nature of heart valve disease in older people and the work being undertaken in the OxValve study to investigate the nature of the condition and the reasons for it. Part of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre's Open Weeks 2015.
OxVALVE – interview with Dr Jo D'Arcy, Clinical Research Fellow
Dr Jo D'Arcy, Clinical Research Fellow at OxVALVE, explains why tissue banking and cohorts are important for research into Valvular Heart disease (VHD). OxVALVE aims to discover, via a screening programme of adults aged 65 or over, whether early detection and treatment of VHD may improve the care pathways and health of patients in the long term.
New approaches to Marfan syndrome – Alex Pitcher
Alex Pitcher outlines the new treatments emerging for people with Marfan's syndrome.
Like Mother, Like Child – Professor Paul Leeson
Professor Paul Leeson, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, talks about links between the cardiovascular health of a mother and her child. Up to 10% of pregnancies are complicated by high blood pressure in the mother. Increasingly, it is being appreciated that this problem identifies both a mother and child at risk of high blood pressure at other times in life. An understanding of the biological links between mother and child, which may influence later blood pressure, is being used as a means to develop more effective prevention approaches for later cardiovascular disease.
Heart Centre Open Day – genetic discoveries – lecture by Prof. Hugh Watkins
Professor Hugh Watkins introduces the the genetics discoveries that are improving patient care.
Imaging in Acute Vascular Syndromes – lecture by Prof. R. Choudhury
Professor R. Choudhury discusses the future direction in the imaging of Acute Vascular Syndromes.
Your genes and your heart – Hugh Watkins Open Weeks 2015
Hugh Watkins, at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, discussions the way that looking at genes helps with diagnosis and treatment of people with heart conditions. Talk given at the Oxford BRC Open Evening, 12th March 2015.