Project Summary
Targeting the unmet needs in coronary artery disease – from bedside to bench to bedside.
What is the issue for NSW?
Coronary artery disease kills 7.2 million people per year globally, and almost 6,000 people in NSW alone. It is the principal reason for 50,000 hospitalisations per year. Many individuals are unaware of developing this disease until their heart attack. Whilst it is imperative that we target well-established risk factors, this approach ‘misses’ a substantial group of patients. This growing group of patients who suffer life-threatening heart attacks despite no risk factors (14% – 27%) need new methods for risk identification (ideally a blood marker of the underlying disease itself). There is also an urgent need to clearly identify best treatment strategies for these individuals. Lessons learned from this archetypal group will have broad relevance for all patients at risk or suffering from coronary artery disease.
What does the research aim to do and how?
Over the next three years this program aims to drive improved knowledge and health outcomes through 4 CORES:
1) Re-evaluating outcomes, evidence, and guidelines for SMuRFless CAD patients.
2) Developing and implementing clinical pathways for SMuRFless CAD patients.
3) Discovering new mechanisms and biomarkers; and
4) Drug discovery and translation targeting novel mechanisms of susceptibility.