12 Feb 19. Winner of 2019 EuroMinnies

Image

Scientific Paper of the Year

Coronary CT angiography and 5-year risk of myocardial infarction. The SCOT-HEART investigators, New England Journal of Medicine, September 2018.

Work on the SCOT-HEART project started back in 2009, when Prof. David Newby developed the idea and assembled the SCOT-HEART team. The work was funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, with supplementary awards from the British Heart Foundation, Edinburgh & Lothians Health Foundation Trust, and the Heart Diseases Research Fund.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the research team, which included over 100 members from around Scotland, we recruited over 4,000 patients for this study. We have had a fantastic response to this research, which has already led to changes in guidelines and clinical practice

Dr Michelle Williams

Image

The initial two-year results were published in the Lancet in 2015 and showed that CT coronary angiography changed the diagnosis and management in 25% of patients. The five-year results published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine confirm that management based on CT coronary angiography reduced the rate of nonfatal heart attacks and coronary death.

The U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines for stable chest pain have changed to include coronary CT angiography for many patients with suspected coronary artery disease, and the U.S. and European guidelines are due for revision soon.

It is fantastic for our group to win this award and receive the recognition of the AuntMinnieEurope.com community. It is wonderful to be highlighted as part of the fantastic imaging research that is going on in Europe. There is a lot of work still being done on the SCOT-HEART project, and we have a number of exciting papers due to be published this year.

Dr Michelle Williams

Recently the team published an article looking at coronary artery plaque in more detail. This study found that adverse coronary artery plaque features identified patients who were at an increased risk of nonfatal heart attacks and coronary death, but that at five years the overall burden of coronary artery disease was the most important predictor of outcomes.

We have recently been awarded a large grant from the British Heart Foundation to conduct the SCOT-HEART 2 trial which will explore the role of CT coronary angiography for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease. This will commence later this year and will recruit over 6,000 patients across Scotland.

Dr Michelle Williams