Manchester women with lupus in major new study into high risk of heart disease
Women with lupus are to take part in a major study aimed at finding out why they have a hugely higher risk of developing heart disease than the general population.
An Arthritis Research Campaign-funded investigation at the University of Manchester will investigate if lupus patients’ blood vessels age at a faster rate than those of healthy people.
Lupus (also known as SLE or systemic lupus erythematosus) is an inflammatory condition that affects mainly younger women. It can affect the joints, the brain, skin, kidneys and other internal organs. Women with lupus have a five to six-fold increased risk of developing coronary heart disease.
Now 250 female patients in the North West and 50 healthy volunteers are being recruited into a study to be performed by Dr Sahena Haque, a rheumatology specialist registrar at the arc epidemiology unit in Manchester, who is funded by a three-year clinical research fellowship of £190,000 from arc, the UK’s fourth largest medical research charity.
Patients will be recruited from clinics at Manchester Royal Infirmary, North Manchester General Hospital in Crumpsall, Wythenshaw and Withington Hospital in south Manchester, and the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
In collaboration with Dr Ian Bruce, Senior Lecturer in Rheumatology at the University of Manchester, Rheumatism Research Centre, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Dr Haque will be investigating why lupus patients develop conditions, which usually affect much older people especially accelerated atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
“Atherosclerosis in lupus develops much earlier, suggesting that the blood vessels in lupus patients may age at a faster rate,” explained Dr Haque. “This, coupled with an inability to repair the blood vessels may result in the premature atherosclerosis that we see. The aim of this study is to examine the balance between biological ageing and the ability to repair the blood vessels in lupus patients.”
Patients taking part in the study will undergo a full clinical assessment at the Lupus Research Clinic at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility. They will then have a scan of the main artery in their neck (the carotid artery) and blood and urine samples taken. It is known that premature aging in cells can be detected by measuring the length of telomeres (DNA structures at the end of chromosomes). Dr Haque and colleagues will check the telomere length in DNA from samples provided by patients.
The aim of the study is to develop ways of identifying patients with lupus at risk of having angina and heart attacks as well as trying to find the cause, which could ultimately lead to finding better treatment.
