Multicentre Investigation of Novel Electrocardiogram Risk markers in Ventricular Arrhythmia prediction – UK multicentre trialists collaboration (MINERVA)

Complete

09/12/2015

Sudden cardiac death

East Midlands

Diagnostic

Awarded amount: £182,912

Grant scheme: NET

Institution: University of Leicester

Principle Investigator: Prof Andre Ng

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Sudden cardiac death (SCD) causes over 3 million deaths worldwide each year.

Many of these deaths could be prevented by an ICD (internal defibrillator), however predicting who is it at risk of SCD is difficult and poorly understood. This project, the MINERVA trial, aimed to explore two potential biomarkers for SCD.

These biomarkers are numerical values based on electrocardiograms (ECGs), a simple procedure which measures the rhythm and electrical activity in the heart. The previous work by this team had established that these markers had the potential to predict which patients were at risk of SCD, but it needed to be demonstrated in a larger scale trial.

This project was heavily impacted by COVID-19 causing delays to recruitment and subsequent analysis, however, the team were able to collect sufficient data to perform the required analyses.

The collected data demonstrated that these two markers were higher in patients who experienced SCD, ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. The latter two of these conditions are known underlying causes of SCD.

This confirms the previous finding from this team; these ECG biomarkers act as a predictive tool for those at risk of SCD.

This understanding is now being used to design and develop technological tools to measure these markers automatically, and improve the identification of those at risk for SCD and therefore those who would benefit from an ICD.

The research team has had several successful publications and has secured further funding to evaluate the safety of their technology, with future hopes to demonstrate its benefit in the NHS.