Towards Elucidating a Genetic Predisposition for Acute Stress-Induced (Takostubo) Cardiomyopathy?

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Dana Dawson and Prof Zofia Miedzybrodzka, University of Aberdeen

Amount Awarded: £24,950 over two years

Year: 2019 - Ongoing

Stress-Induced (Takotsubo) Cardiomyopathy (also known as broken heart syndrome) presents like a heart attack, and is triggered by an intense episode of stress which can have catastrophic consequences. Despite links...

CHSS Fellowship Award 2019: SaeboGlove therapy for severe Upper limb disability and Severe Hand Impairment after stroke: a pragmatic, multicentre, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial with blinded outcome assessment (SUSHI)

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Jen Alexander, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £149,995.49 over 3 years

Year: 2019 - Ongoing

Severe hand and arm weakness commonly causes disability after stroke. Many people can’t open their hand enough to carry out useful rehabilitation activities and this limits recovery. This fellowship will...

Secondary prevention after stroke: can we do better? A novel national linkage of stroke registry and dispensing data

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Mary Joan Macleod et al., Universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £77,155 over two years

Year: 2016 - Ongoing

Patients who have a stroke are at risk of having a further stroke or coronary event.  Medicines to prevent this are not always given, perhaps because of patient frailty or...

POSITIF: Post-Stroke Intervention Trial in Fatigue. A Randomised Multicentre Trial of a Brief Cognitive-behavioural Intervention plus Information Alone for the Treatment of Post-Stroke Fatigue

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Gillian Mead, et al., Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £89,296 over two years six months

Year: 2016 - Ongoing

Tiredness is common for people after a stroke.  It stops people doing things they enjoy.  The researchers have developed a ‘talking therapy’ – six meetings with a psychologist with two...

Improving risk prediction of cardiovascular disease in type 1 diabetes in Scotland

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Professor Helen Colhoun and H. Looker, Division of Population Health Sciences, University of Dundee

Amount Awarded: £89,419 over 18 months

Year: 2015 - Ongoing

Type 1 diabetes causes increased heart disease and stroke (CVD) risk, but this is not equally the case in all patients. Some people develop heart disease or stroke at young...

Streaming Video to Augment Decision Support for Scottish Ambulance Service Treating COPD and OHCA in Edinburgh

Type: Chest, Heart

Grant holder: Dr. Gareth Clegg, University of Edinburgh and Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £48,090 over 18 months.

Year: 2014 - Ongoing

Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) frontline paramedics need to be ready to face whatever medical emergencies may arise in the city of Edinburgh in all environments, day or night, and without...

Implementation of Stroke Early Supported Discharge in Scotland

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Terry Quinn, et al., University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £36,015 over 2 years

Year: 2017 - Finished

"The study will investigate what rehabilitation services are provided to stroke survivors in Scotland when they leave hospital and whether research evidence is being used to guide provision of healthcare....

Testing the predictive ability of blood based novel biomarkers for cardiovascular outcomes in UK Biobank: a nationwide cohort study of > 500k people

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Professor Naveed Sattar, et al., University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £73,064 over 18 months

Year: 2016 - Finished

In UK Biobank, a remarkable study of 500,000 people, blood tests might help detect early risk of heart attack and strokes, and other important diseases. The researchers will investigate to...

SoSTART: Start or STop Anticoagulants Randomised Trial

Type: Heart, Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, et al., University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £89,909 over two years

Year: 2016 - Finished

Blood-thinning drugs like warfarin are very effective for preventing stroke in people with an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation (AF).  However, it is not known whether blood-thinning drugs are...

Improving Our Assessment of Pre-Stroke Cognition, Mood, and Function

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Terry Quinn et al. University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £15,000 over one year

Year: 2016 - Finished

Physical and psychological problems are common after stroke. People with emotional, memory or physical problems after a stroke may have had problems prior to the stroke but these were never...

The SaeboGlove: Implementation of Novel Rehabilitaiton and Functional Aid for Upper Limb Weakness After Acute Stroke.

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Jesse Dawson and Miss Jen Alexander, University and Glasgow / NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

Amount Awarded: £10,659 over 6 months.

Year: 2016 - Finished

The SaeboGlove is a new rehabilitation aid for people with arm weakness. It is worn on the weak hand of a patient with weakness after stroke. It assists the hand...

Cardiac biOMarkers in Patients with Aortic StenosiS (COMPASS)

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr. Atul Anand and Dr. Nicholas Mills, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £118,544 over two years

Year: 2015 - Finished

Aortic stenosis, often causing chest pain and breathlessness, is a common narrowing of a heart valve, but there are complex issues surrounding how best to treat it. While valve replacement...

Increasing physical activity in stroke survivors using STARFISH, an interactive mobile phone application: a randomised controlled trial

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Lorna Paul, et al., University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £89,999 over three years

Year: 2015 - Finished

Stroke survivors are less physically active, leading to health problems and risk of further stroke.  STARFISH is a mobile phone app where people, in groups of four, are represented by...

Randomised Control Trial of a Smart Phone based Event Recorder for Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department with Palpitations and Pre-Syncope

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr. Matt Reed, et al., Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £23,056 over 21 months

Year: 2015 - Finished

Palpitations (noticeable pounding, fluttering or irregular heart beat) and pre-syncope (near blackout) are common Emergency Department problems sometimes due to abnormal cardiac rhythm. This is difficult to diagnose as examination...

Profiling of extra-cellular vesicle microRNAs to identify novel cardiac injury biomarkers

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr. James Dear, Dr. P. Henrikson and Dr. M. Bailey, University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £81,567 over one year

Year: 2015 - Finished

Currently, diagnosis of a heart attack requires a blood test taken 12 hours after the onset of chest pain.  The researchers will investigate new markers found in the blood, microRNAs,...

Supporting Sit-To-Stand Rehabilitation Using Smartphone Sensors to Provide Tactile Feedback

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Andrew Kerr, et al., University of Strathclyde

Amount Awarded: £5,000

Year: 2015 - finished

For many stroke survivors standing up from sitting is problematic. Recovering this important movement depends on practice. This can be carried out at home, however, it is difficult to get...

Diagnostic Yield of an Ambulatory Patch Monitor in Emergency Department Syncope Patients Unexplained after Emergency Department Evaluation- a Pilot Study (PATCH-ED)

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Mathew Reed, Professor Alasdair Gray, De Neil Grubb and Dr Chris Lang, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £4,950

Year: 2015 - finished

Syncope (blackout) is a common Emergency Department (ED) problem but the diagnosis is not apparent in two third of patients. Serious outcome is 7% at one month and 15% at...

Long term health after alteplase: 3 year follow up of the IST-3 trial

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr William Whitely et al., University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian

Amount Awarded: £4,041

Year: 2015 - finished

"Thrombolysis (‘clot-busting’) treatment for stroke leads to better recovery, but whether it reduces long-term risk of death or health care costs is uncertain. We could estimate the effect of thrombolysis...

What is Important in Arm Recovery after Stroke? Gaining Prospective from Stroke Survivors, their families and healthcare professionals

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Myzoon Ali, Julie Duncan Miller, Alex Pollock and Professor Frederike van Wijck, Glasgow Caledonian University

Amount Awarded: £3,954

Year: 2015 - Finished

After Stroke, many people have problems using their arms. Researchers measure arm recovery in different ways. We do not know if these measures are relevant to people affected by stroke....

Development and validation of a short form for the Stroke Impact Scale

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Terence Quinn, R. Fulton, M. Peters, M. Ali and K. Lees. Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Amount Awarded: £14,252 over one year

Year: 2014 - Finished

Questionnaires for measuring quality of life in stroke are available, for example the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS).  To ensure that SIS captures all relevant details, it can take a long...

Childhood asthma prevalence in 2014 – how and why has this changed over the past 50 years?

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr. Steve Turner, G. Devereux, N. Tagiyeva and L. Aucott. Child Health, Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

Amount Awarded: £59,965 over one year

Year: 2014 - Finished

The Aberdeen Schools Asthma Survey (ASA) are repeated surveys over the longest period anywhere in the UK, and among the longest anywhere around the world.  The percentage of children with...

Setting Scottish stroke services in an international context

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Peter Langhorne, O. Wu, M. MacLeod, M. O’Donnell and M. Dennis. Academic Section of Geriatric Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Glasgow.

Amount Awarded: £47,758 over one year

Year: 2014 - Finished

Stroke services in Scotland have developed substantially over the last 20 years, and are undergoing continuous quality monitoring.  However, the researchers do not have a clear idea of how Scottish...

The Association Between Blood Pressure and the Different Pathological Types of Stroke in UK Biobank

Type: Heart, Stroke

Grant holder: Dr. Rebecca Woodfield, Western General Hospital

Amount Awarded: £85,014 over 18 months

Year: 2014 - Finished

My project will use data from the UK Biobank, a detailed study of 500,000 volunteers, to improve our understanding of the relationships between different measures of blood pressure (BP) and...

Predictors of long-term cognitive impairment, dementia and disability after lacunar stroke

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Joanna Wardlaw, V. Cvoro, M. Dennis, S. Makin and I. Deary. University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital.

Amount Awarded: £75,815 over two years

Year: 2014 - Finished

Lacunar strokes are common, small, not usually fatal, but less well-studied than other types of stroke.  Up to a third of these patients may have difficulty thinking, or even dementia,...

The Barriers and Facilitators to Identification of Delirium in Stroke Patients: a Focus Group Study Involving Healthcare Professionals (HCPs)

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Ms Gail Carin-Levey, Queen Margaret University

Amount Awarded: £500

Year: 2014 - finished

Delirium (acute confusion) is a serious psychiatric complication following a stroke: patients who experience delirium are likely to stay in hospital for longer and deteriorate in physical and mental health....

Current Levels of Sit to Stand Practice Amongst Stroke Survivors During Rehabilitation: A Pilot Observational Study Exploring Determining Factors

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Andrew Kerr, et al., University of Strathclyde

Amount Awarded: £25,324

Year: 2014 - finished

Very little is known about how much sit to stand practice occurs during stroke rehabilitation despite this movement being critical for independent living. This study will collect this information and...

Exploratory Focus Group Study to Investigate Teenagers’ Understandings, Awareness and Experiences of E-cigarettes

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr Srinivasa Katikireddi et al., MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and Department of Public Health and Health Policy NHS Lothian

Amount Awarded: £2,136

Year: 2014 - finished

E-cigarettes have become commonplace and are being aggressively marketed in Scotland, but their likely public health impact is disputed. On one hand, they may be less harmful than cigarettes but...

High Sensitivity Troponin in Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Jonathan Malo, Dr Ken Lee and Dr Simon Walker, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £3,000

Year: 2014 - finished

Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a common hereditary condition which affects approximately 1 in 500 people in the UK. It leads to unusually high levels of cholesterol in the blood and...

Responsiveness to Thrombolytic Therapy for Ischaemic Stroke

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Isobel Ford, Dr Nicola J Mutch and Dr Mary Joan MacLeod, University of Aberdeen

Amount Awarded: £4,980

Year: 2014 - finished

Stoke is a major cause of death and disability in Scotland. Most are “ischaemic stokes”, in which a blood clot blocks a blood vessel to the brain. A clot dissolving...

The Long-term Effects of Wearing an Ankle Foot Orthosis: the experience of stroke survivors

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Anne Taylor Dr Nicola J Mutch and Dr Mary Joan MacLeod, University of Stirling

Amount Awarded: £4,413

Year: 2014 - finished

This study aims to look at a stroke survivor’s experience of wearing a foot splint. It will focus particular on comfort, ease of putting on and off, ability to walk...

Life After Stroke – Nurse Research Priorities

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Anne Rowat et al., Edinburgh Napier University – On Behalf of the Scottish Stroke Nurse Forum

Amount Awarded: £2,933

Year: 2014 - finished

A huge amount of resources are put into stroke research and it is ethically and morally right that these resources are directed at what is agreed to be of greatest...

NETosis in Bronchiectasis

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr Pallavi Bedi, University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £4,966

Year: 2014 - finished

Bronchiectasis is a chronic disabling condition. Patients suffer daily cough, sputum production and recurrent chest infections. However, this remains an ‘orphan’ disease with limited research done. In bronchiectasis there is...

The Impact of Therapy Based Rehabilitation Services Late After Stroke

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Professor Peter Langhorne, University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £5,000

Year: 2014 - finished

The last twenty years have seen dramatic changes in the way services are provided for stroke survivors including the widespread development of stroke units and supported discharge services. These developments...

Its’ Not One Thing: Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Promote Digital Technology use by People with Aphasia

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Laorag Hunter, Amy Hanschell, Rolf Black, Christine Kingsley and Selina Hall, Royal Victoria Hospital and University of Dundee

Amount Awarded: £3338

Year: 2014 - finished

"We will use our previous experience to: 1. Co-create prototypes of an on-line assessment tool and accessible workbooks for people with aphasia to independently learn iPad operation principles. 2. Trial...

Analysing Imagining data Gathered from molecular Imaging of Carotis Atherosclerosis

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Julian Camilleri-Brennan, University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £1168

Year: 2014 - finished

Stroke can occur when debris from diseased and unstable regions of the carotid (neck) arteries breaks off and lodges in the brain. We aim to assess whether magnetic resonance imaging...

CHSS Fellowship Award 2013: Can bacterial load define chest infections in bronchiectasis?

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr Manjit Sidhu (Supervisor: Dr Adam Hill); Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £119,085 over two years

Year: 2013 - Finished

An obstructive lung disease, bronchiectasis is a common long-term condition caused by permanent damage to the airways. Patients suffer with recurrent cough, sputum production and frequent infections. Antibiotics can help...

Optimisation of pre-hospital resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest using a novel method of resuscitation analysis to facilitate training and performance evaluation

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Richard Lyon, Drs Clarke and Clegg; Emergency Department, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £88,007 over three years

Year: 2013 - Finished

Surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), brought on by a heart attack, depends on high quality resuscitation before the patient reaches hospital. Such treatment is highly complex and requires specific...

Is childhood wheezy bronchitis an early determinant of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease? A longitudinal study

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr Graham Douglas, Professor Devereux, Drs Turner, Tagiyeva and Fielding; Chest Clinic, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

Amount Awarded: £89,942 over two years

Year: 2013 - Finished

In what promises to be the longest-running research of its kind in the world, this Aberdeen-based team is examining evidence of whether children who have episodes of wheezing illness during...

Metabolic Imaging in Carotid Atherosclerosis (MICA Study)

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Scott Semple, Mr Vesey, Dr Mirsadraee, Miss Richards, Miss McBride, Mr Chalmers, Dr Dweck and Mr Gray; University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £50,722 over two years

Year: 2013 - Finished

Many heart attacks and strokes are caused by the common condition of atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries. New ways of imaging this disease, using PET and MRI scanning, are...

An investigation of the role of thrombin generation as a marker of increased risk of thromboembolic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation

Type: Heart, Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Catherine Bagot, Dr Tait, Mrs. Leishman and Dr McMahon; Glasgow Royal Infirmary

Amount Awarded: £31,560 over two years

Year: 2013 - Finished

Assessing the predictive value of quantitative high throughput NMR metabolomic analysis for CVD events in a major diabetes trial: ADVANCE

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Paul Welsh, Dr Preiss, Professors Woodward, Chalmers and Sattar; Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £77,630 over two years

Year: 2013 - Finished

Cutting-edge technology is being harnessed to give a more detailed analysis of the chemical make-up of blood samples than has yet been possible. The research team has developed the ability...

Does Discharge from a Stroke Unit to Early Supported Discharge affect the Physical Activity of Stroke Survivors? A Pilot Investigation

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Andrew Kerr, et al., University of Strathclyde

Amount Awarded: £4,993

Year: 2013 - finished

Physical Activity is considered to be important to the recovery of health and independence following a stroke. Whether or not early supported discharge (ESD) has a positive or negative impact...

Treatment Adherence in Coronary Heart Disease: Understanding the Efficacy-effectiveness gap in patient medication and rehabilitation use

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Dr Patricia Thomson, et al., University of Stirling

Amount Awarded: £5,000

Year: 2013 - finished

Evidence suggests that after an acute coronary event patients beliefs and adherence to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) can be impacted by their partners’ beliefs and behaviours. This study aims to assess...

Premature Aging and Skeletal Muscle Dysfunction in COPD Patients: Development of a Cell Line Model

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr Gourab Choudhury, University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £4,725

Year: 2013 - finished

This study will offer an insight into the pathogenesis of skeletal muscle wasting and dysfunction, an increasing problem in the aging COPD population. This could then be translated into studies...

How Can Pharmacy Help Patients with Heart Failure who Struggle to Manage Their Medicines and Condition?

Type: Heart

Grant holder: Paul Forsyth, et al., Victoria Infirmary Glasgow

Amount Awarded: £5,000

Year: 2013 - finished

When patients with heart failure do not take their medicines as directed, they become sicker and die earlier. As is often the case, patients from deprived areas are more likely...

Psychosocial and Physical Factors Influencing Employment of Adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Pamela Kirkpatrick, Robert Gordon University

Amount Awarded: £4,712

Year: 2013 - finished

In line with recommendations of the revised MRC guidance on complex interventions, this pilot represents the first step in informing the method and design of a main study; the principal...

The Epidemiology of Stroke Patients and Their Primary Care in the Highlands of Scotland

Type: Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Alasdair Mort, University of Aberdeen

Amount Awarded: £4,967

Year: 2013 - finished

In the Highlands of Scotland it can be difficult to get to patients who have had a stroke. It can also take much longer to take stroke patients to hospital....

The Effect of Acute UV-A Exposure and Dietary Nitrate Ingestion on Plasma Nitrate, Endothelial Function and Blood Pressure

Type: Heart, Stroke

Grant holder: Dr Chris Easton, University of the West of Scotland

Amount Awarded: £5,000

Year: 2013 - finished

This pilot project will explore whether two methods of increasing levels of nitric oxide in the body will enhance key markers of cardiovascular health. Specifically, we will investigate the acute...