The normal heart can use either sugar or fat to produce the energy needed to pump. If the amount of sugar and fat change in the blood (for example after eating or fasting) the normal heart is flexible and will use either depending on what is available in the blood. When the heart speeds up during exercise it prefers to use glucose as this is readily available and provides energy quickly. One of the changes that occurs in heart failure ...

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Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an immune-mediated disease in which insulin-producing betacells are completely or near completely destroyed, resulting in life-long dependence on exogenous insulin. It is a chronic and potentially disabling disease that represents a major public health and clinical concern. The number of patients diagnosed with T1D each year is increasing and is approaching an epidemic level in some countries that track this information The POInT study examines whether the development of T1D can be prevented in children with an increased risk ...

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This study aims to test new imaging techniques in high-risk prostate cancer patients, likely to have spreading disease that we cannot see with the naked eye. We will inject patients with a special ‘dye’ which carries a specific ‘marker’ (IR800 IAB2M) that will visualise prostate cells only, and use a special camera to make them shine in the dark. During key-hole surgery, the special dye and camera should allow the surgeon to see cancer cells, and the ‘shining’ areas will ...

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Ultrasound is a mandatory tool for safely monitoring the growth and development of fetuses during pregnancy. Although pregnancy ultrasound is routinely used, it has a major disadvantage, namely a high level of operator dependence: non-experts (or infrequent) users of the technology are often not able to acquire and interpret diagnostic ultrasound images consistently and reliably. Consequently, there is a significant requirement for training, and lack of adequately trained staff is the most commonly reported barrier to the use of ultrasound ...

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Sleep disorders are increasingly recognised as an important feature of various neurodegenerative diseases. They contribute to reduced quality of life and are associated with other poor outcome measures. Furthermore, it is now clear that sleep disorders can precede the onset of neurodegenerative disease and can therefore act as a marker of prodromal disease. The most important example of this relates to PD. Up to half of PD patients are thought to suffer from RBD, and many of these people develop ...

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The primary objective is to identify blood and/or bone marrow samples from adults with CHIP and evaluate the mechanisms by which mutations confer a competitive advantage to blood stem and progenitor cells. This includes determining where mutations occur in the cellular hierarchy of blood production,assessing their functional consequences,and analysing their effects on gene expression through RNA-sequencing and epigenetic analysis. Secondary objectives include measuring cell division and differentiation rates in normal human haematopoiesis,evaluating how these dynamics change during aging,and examining correlations between ...

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CF START is a national UK trial that will determine the safest and most effective antibiotic strategy for infants diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF). 480 CF infants will be randomly allocated either flucloxacillin prophylaxis (the current UK standard of care) or antibiotics given in a more targeted manner. The primary outcome will be the age at first growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from a respiratory culture (an important safety measure for families). All outcomes will be recorded on ...

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Millions of women suffer from the consequences of endometriosis and uterine fibroids. These include severe pain, abnormal uterine bleeding, infertility and miscarriages. Current treatment is associated with significant side effects and risks. To better understand the underlying mechanisms of these conditions, this prospective study will use biological samples such as blood, saliva, urine, peritoneal fluid and endometrial or fibroid tissue in state-of-the-art biomedical assays together with detailed clinical and intraoperative data from participants. Women of reproductive age (18 years until ...

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Patients receiving solid organ transplants must be maintained on drugs that suppress the immune system in order to prevent the immune system from rejecting the transplant. These medicines are highly efficacious, with one-year kidney transplant survival in the UK being > 95%. However long term outcomes are significantly limited by the serious and life-threatening side-effects of immunosuppressive drugs, which include enhanced rates of infection, malignancy and cardiovascular and metabolic disease such as heart attacks and diabetes. Long term maintenance on ...

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Psychosis and schizophrenia are caused by factors associated with excess dopamine and abnormally low N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) functioning. There is increasing evidence for the role of inflammation in these disorders. We propose that one possible cause of psychosis and schizophrenia is the presence of antibodies in the blood that bind to the neuronal membrane in the brain. Since discovery of antibodies that bind to the NMDAR (NMDAR-ab) that cause encephalitis, we have discovered NMDAR-ab or voltage-gated potassium channel complex ...

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