Antihypertensive therapy: why and in whom
Month: May 2025
Thursday 22nd May 2025 / 12:00 - 12:30pm / Online via Zoom
Join us for the upcoming – DaRe2THINK Webinar:
This talk is part of a series hosted by the DaRe2THINK trial to provide information to allied healthcare professionals and general practice staff across the UK.
This talk will summarise the latest evidence on the importance of blood pressure lowering. It will address some of the less-well known effects of antihypertensive therapy on various health outcomes and contrast them with LDL-lowering therapy.
Speaker: Dr Kazem Rahimi FRCP DM MSc FESC
Kazem Rahimi is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Population Health, at the University of Oxford and a consultant cardiologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. Kazem leads the Deep Medicine programme at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health with a major interest in application of machine learning approaches to electronic health records. He also leads the Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration (BPLTTC), which is an international collaboration of all the major trials of blood pressure lowering drugs.
DaRe2THINK
This webinar is hosted by DaRe2THINK, a primary care clinical trial sponsored by the NIHR, University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
DaRe2THINK is a transformational project that will test a new way of running clinical trials at General Practices in the NHS. The trial will use health information already collected in the NHS to reduce the time taken for research, both for the patients and NHS staff. This will allow the NHS to reach new and larger groups of patients that could benefit from new treatments opening the possibility of research to populations that would not have previously taken part.
Webinar schedule:
12:00 – 12:15 – Presentation by Dr Kazem Rahimi
12:15 – 12:25 – Q&A and discussion
12:25 – 12:30 – The DaRe2THINK trial
Key benefits:
- Continuing Professional Development
- Learn from academic healthcare professionals (HCPs)
- Be informed of relevant published findings
- Engage in discussions with other HCPs
- Exclusive insight into an ongoing national trial
- Find out how to get involved yourself!
Additional Resources
Hosted by
Nothing found.
Patients with a common heart rhythm disorder are at risk of vascular dementia
Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heart rhythm disorder, have a higher than expected risk of developing some forms of dementia, a new study has found.
AF is known to be associated with strokes and blood clots in older patients and those with other health conditions. These groups of patients are typically given blood thinners (anticoagulants) as prevention therapy, but younger individuals or those perceived as ‘low-risk’ do not.
In this study, researchers from the University of Birmingham looked at patients with AF who would not normally be prescribed blood thinners. The findings are published in a new article in Nature Medicine, assessing electronic healthcare records from more than 5 million primary care patients across the UK. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
This study demonstrates a clear correlation between AF and vascular dementia. This may have a similar mechanism to the association between AF and stroke.
Alastair Mobley, PhD researcher
The team focused on more than 36,000 patients aged 40-75 years who had a diagnosis of AF, no history of stroke, a low risk of stroke based on clinical scores, and no prescription of anticoagulants. During an average follow-up period of 5 years, they were compared with over 100,000 patients without AF but matched for the same age, sex and region.
Despite being in this ‘low-risk’ group, the patients with AF had double the chance of developing a stroke or major blood clot than those without AF. There was a 17% increased risk of developing dementia due to any cause, and a 68% higher chance of vascular dementia in patients with AF. More patients with AF also died during their follow-up (44% higher risk).
Dipak Kotecha, Professor of Cardiology at the University of Birmingham and senior author of the study said:
“Atrial fibrillation is one of the most common heart conditions, with over 60 million cases expected worldwide by 2050. With its prevalence continuing to rise, it is crucial that we develop strategies to prevent not only stroke, but outcomes like dementia which are a big concern for patients and healthcare systems. Our research highlights the urgency of addressing AF comprehensively, considering its overall impact on the wellbeing of patients”.
Alastair Mobley, a PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham and first author of the study said:
“This study demonstrates a clear correlation between AF and vascular dementia. This may have a similar mechanism to the association between AF and stroke. Ongoing clinical trials such as DaRe2THINK, currently being run by the University of Birmingham, are exploring whether blood thinners in lower-risk patients can provide a way to prevent these bad outcomes.”
Miss Daniella Okyere
Month: May 2025
PhD Student
Biography
Daniella is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, with an academic background in Biomedical Science and Health Data Science. Her research focuses on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify biomarkers for hypertension. She is dedicated to advancing data-driven approaches in healthcare, leveraging the potential of data science to improve patient outcomes.
Dr Otilia Țica
Month: May 2025
Cardiologist & Research Fellow
Biography
Otilia Țica is a Romanian cardiologist and a research fellow at the University of Birmingham in the UK. She is one of the authors of the current ESC 2024 AF Guidelines. Otilia graduated Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Oradea, Romania- Magna cum laude. She has a PhD in cardiology and post-doctoral studies in biomedical sciences. She is a member of the NIHR Scientific Advisory Committee. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has elected Otilia as the Romanian Young National Ambassador for the Acute CardioVascular Care Association (ACVC). She is a member of the ESC-ACVC Acute Heart Failure Committee and sits on the task force of the ESC-ACVC Digital Health. She is also a member of the ESC-Heart Failure Association Scientific Committee on Atrial Disorders. Dr. Țica chaired several national and international Cardiology meetings and presented at ESC Congresses and American Heart Association meetings. Dr. Țica coordinated and participated as an investigator in several high-impact national and international multicentre trials. Her research focuses on cutting-edge management and improving AF and heart failure patients’ outcomes. Otilia is determined to help improve patients’ cardiovascular outcomes by combining her clinical background and knowledge with scientific research. She published several articles (on atrial fibrillation and heart failure) as an author in ISI journals and high-impact journals such as Nature, Lancet, European Heart Journal, etc.