01 Jul 20. MEMORY-COVID study begins

Study aims

Evidence that myocardial injury occurs in a large number of COVID-19 patients is growing.

COVID-19 patients can present with heart failure, but the probable underlying cause remains unknown & could be due to:

• Myocarditis
• Stress cardiomyopathy
• Acute coronary syndrome
• Coronary heart disease
• Myocardial injury related to multi-organ failure (Indirect)

The MEMORY-COVID study will improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms which lead to myocardial injury & will impact how we manage COVID-19 patients in clinical practice.

First steps

The EMERGE (The Emergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh) research team will identify recovered COVID-19 patients; medical teams will identify eligible inpatients.

All patients will undergo paired MR scans at the Edinburgh Imaging Facility RIE.

For safety precautions, we will scan COVID-19 patients at least 14 days after symptom onset; additionally, patients will have had to have been afebrile for at least 48 hours prior to scanning.

Study details

The study has joint funding from the BHF Pump Priming COVID Response Grant & Medical Research Council (MRC).

The MEMORY-COVID study is a single site study. However co-investigators include other members of the cardiovascular research team, as well as the ITU research team:

• Prof David Newby (CI)
• Dr Marc Dweck
• Dr Scott Semple
• Prof Nicholas Mills
• Prof Tim Walsh
• Dr Kenneth Baillie
• Dr Anne-Marie Docherty