The Harefield Acute Myocardial Infarction Cohort

Overview

In this project the investigator's plan to collect blood during a patient's routine angiogram procedure which they will have due to having suffered a heart attack. Data from the patients' routine procedures for this condition, including but not exclusively, ECG, Echocardiogram, MRI scans, will be collected. The aim of the research project is to analyse the blood samples and identify novel biomarkers and clinical parameters associated with acute coronary syndromes. The investigator's will particularly focus on markers of inflammation and micro-organism activity. The investigator's hope that this will help to gain more knowledge about what causes heart disease and how various conditions can be treated more efficiently. The investigator's will follow-up and collect further research data via a questionnaire at the routine 6 weeks and 6 months follow-up appointment after the angiogram procedure. Participants will also be telephoned at one-year post procedure, to update any events and medication status and data will thereafter be collected form data held by the hospital without having to contact the participant. Remaining blood samples will be stored securely for further analysis into blood and other markers.

Acute coronary syndromes (ACS), i.e. patients presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (non-STEMI) or unstable angina, are still a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Kingdom and beyond. In spite of the enormous progress made in the last decades, the in hospital mortality has plateaued recently, and the event rate after the infarction is still high with one in 8 patients having a second event (i.e. death, myocardial infarction, heart failure, revascularization among others) within a year of follow-up. After the acute event, risk stratification is important and will be come even more sophisticated than it currently is with the advent of anatomic risk scores (SYNTAX II Score), novel biomarkers and novel drugs allowing for more precise characterization of the patients individual risk and more tailored secondary prevention strategies (Precision Medicine). Indeed, particularly the upcoming treatment strategies with bio-logicals (i.e. monoclonal antibodies, e.g. against PCSK9) and genetic tools (i.e. RNA interference, antisense technology) will require precise risk assessment for cost-effective use of these promising new tools. It is anticipated that this study will help the investigator's to describe the heart attack population in a robust manner with a wealth of clinical data as well as blood samples for bio-markers.