The main cause of death in the early post heart attack period is dangerous heart rhythms. Despite our treatments for heart attack improving substantially over the past 20 years, a significant minority of patients will still develop dangerous heart rhythms. Predicting dangerous heart rhythms has proved to be difficult, and whilst our best indicator of elevated risk include elements such as heart function and severe symptoms, there remains a large portion of people who are still missed. We have very effective treatments for bad heart rhythms which are able to save people's lives - defibrillators. Working out who needs a defibrillator remains difficult and we need better tools to risk stratify people who have just had a heart attack. We aim to predict those patients who will have a dangerous heart rhythm post heart attack using advanced imaging, electrical abnormalities, and abnormal pressures traces within the heart arteries at the time of heart attack. We hope that this will lead to better utilisation of defibrillators and lives saved.
Last updated12 March 2024