12 Apr 21. BHF Clinical Research Training Fellowship

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Dr Evangelos Tzolos is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science.

Dr Tzolos' £231,336 BHF Clinical Research Training Fellowship will further enable his existing work in PET-CT & PET-MR imaging of patients following heart attacks: he will perform 100 18F-GP1 PET-MR in patients presenting with myocardial infarction & identify patients at risk of developing a heart clot or stroke.

Dr Evangelos Tzolos explains the fellowship project.

“There is increasing evidence that a substantial number of cases with left ventricular thrombus go undetected.

We therefore need a more specific & selective imaging technique to detect left ventricular thrombus & understand its natural history & consequences.

As part of a unique collaboration, we have access to a clinical grade thrombus-specific radiotracer, 18F-GP1, which has high specificity for the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor on activated platelets.

Our pilot data have demonstrated that 18F-GP1 is highly sensitive to in-vivo & ex-vivo thrombus formation & demonstrates avid binding to subclinical left ventricular thrombus.

Moreover, it provides the first method of assessing whether clot formation is active, potentially differentiating old healed clot from developing thrombus.”

In this fellowship, Dr Tzolos will use PET-MR to explore the true incidence of subclinical left ventricular thrombus following infarction, to describe the natural history, time course & influence of anticoagulant therapies on thrombus formation, & to investigate the incidence & determinants of subclinical stroke.