Cases Required for Studies

From time to time we will post details here of requests of patients to participate in research studies. These are directed to our referring vets. If you are a pet owner and are interested in participating a study you see here, please speak to your vet.

Clinical Trial for cats with congestive heart failure due to cardiomyopathy

We are one of a number of UK, European and USA centres involved in a clinical trial testing a novel drug for congestive heart failure in cats due to cardiomyopathy (most commonly this will be due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)).  The cat must be stable with well controlled congestive heart failure on permitted medication (furosemide or torasemide, clopidogrel and possibly also an ACE-inhibitor). The costs of the screening visit will be covered. If the cat meets the inclusion criteria and the owner gives their informed consent for the cat to be permitted, the costs of these visits will be covered by the sponsor company. However, if the cat requires emergency referral for stabilisation of congestive heart failure, these costs prior to becoming stable will be normally charged to the client.

If you are a vet and think that you have a suitable case, please call the hospital for more information and to discuss your patient with the cardiology service.

If you are an owner who has a cat with heart failure, please ask your primary care vet to contact us to discuss the possibility of being included in this study.    

We really need more evidence about how best to treat cats with cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure and this study will help gather that.

Calling for Great Danes to screen for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)

We have funding from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust and the Great Dane Breed Council to screen Great Danes for DCM, by Echocardiography (in dogs of 4 years or older) and Holter monitoring (in dogs over 12 months of age), including cardiac biomarkers. Please contact the cardiology team to discuss whether your Dane or your client’s Great Dane may be a suitable candidate.

To refer to this service please visit our Vet Referral page.