The problem:
Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) is a less common cause of heart attacks. The incidence is not known but we estimate at least 4 SCAD heart attacks happen every day in the UK.
Around 90% of SCAD patients are female and it is the commonest cause of heart attacks occurring after delivery of a baby. 10% of patients will have more than one SCAD heart attack. The disease pathophysiology is poorly understood and clinical services for this condition are poorly developed.
The research:
The team in Leicester have led UK research into SCAD for 10 years. Recent highlights have included the first genome-wide association study into SCAD published in Nature Genetics (PMID: 37248441).
This for the first time described the genetic basis of this condition, providing novel pathophysiological insights into the likely mechanisms underlying the vulnerability to SCAD and the genetic relationship between SCAD and other vascular diseases.
The impact:
The research team have made major new impacts in the following areas:
- Policy influence – we have lobbied the Scottish government to establish a pilot specialist SCAD clinic in Scotland
- Changes in service delivery – we started new dedicated clinical services for SCAD patients in Scotland and the Hammersmith Hospital in London supported by Professor Adlam and the Leicester SCAD team
- Improved patient/service user outcomes – through ongoing efforts at both clinician and patient education including staging the first post-COVID patient SCAD conference and delivering talks to clinical NHS colleagues
Who has benefited and how:
SCAD research has benefited patients and the public, through a better understanding of the disease pathophysiology, improved accuracy of diagnosis and better management and treatment. Patients have also benefited from improved specialist services.
NHS clinicians have benefited through access to state-of-the-art knowledge and educational material on SCAD as well as access to advice and routes for the clinical referral of patients with this condition.
The NHS has benefited through improved specialist care for patients with SCAD with likely reductions in health care utilisation of patients.