NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City has received an $84 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to research the comparative effectiveness of medical and invasive approaches to ischemia treatment..
The international study of 8,000 participants will evaluate treatment options for patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate to severe ischemia. More than 150 medical centers around the U.S. and hundreds of sites in 33 countries are collaborating.
The trial will be clinically coordinated from the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at Langone. Other trial functions will take place at different U.S. sites. Duke Clinical Research Institute will be the statistical and data coordinating center and serve as the coordinating center for the cost economics and quality of life. Emory School of Medicine will be the ischemia imaging coordinating center.
The study will determine which ischemia treatment is superior:
- A routine early invasive strategy with cardiac catheterization followed by revascularization plus optimal medical therapy and lifestyle changes, or
- A conservative strategy of optimal medical therapy, reserving invasive procedures for failure of this strategy in patients with moderate to severe ischemia.
The study will also assess whether invasive procedures improve angina-related quality of life.
“This multicenter, international study provides a unique research opportunity that could yield vital information to guide clinical practice and improve quality of life and overall medical care for large, diverse populations," said Susan B. Shurin, MD, acting director of the NHLBI.
NYU Langone Medical Center is composed of Tisch Hospital, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and the Hospital for Joint Diseases. It received more than $259 million in research grants in fiscal year 2010.
Margaret Dick Tocknell is a reporter/editor with HealthLeaders Media.
