Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Europe and costs European economies nearly €200 billion each year. Consequently, there is an urgent need for reliable diagnostic tests that identify patients at intermediate risk of cardiovascular disease, so they can be given the appropriate treatment at an earlier stage, increasing their chance of survival. Several landmark studies have shown that the accurate measurement of blood flow (perfusion) to the heart, which can indicate parts of the heart with inadequate blood supply, could be well-suited to this task. However, accurate quantification of perfusion is currently only possible through invasive measurements with catheters - a costly procedure with undesirable side-effects. Alternative medical imaging techniques have been developed to measure perfusion non-invasively but the results can vary significantly depending on which imaging technique is used.
EMPIR project 15HLT05 Metrology for multi-modality imaging of impaired tissue perfusion (PerfusImaging) is developing physical standards and data analysis tools to assess the reliability of the different imaging techniques, thereby validating their potential use in the early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. As part of the project the consortium will be holding a stakeholder workshop on the topic of quantitative imaging of blood perfusion of the myocardium. The workshop is being held at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and is free to attend, although registration is required to ensure that we can accommodate and cater for everyone who is interested in attending. The attached flyer gives more details about the contents of the workshop, timings, planned topics and currently confirmed speakers, registration, directions to NPL and hotels close to NPL.
If you would like more information about the workshop or would like to be kept informed of the progress of the project please email Trevor Esward at NPL (trevor.esward@npl.co.uk).