Acute Vascular Imaging Centre for Oxford (OxAVIC)

This application is for a clinical research centre (CRC) that will allow the close monitoring of
patients as they receive treatments for acute vascular events, in a safe environment at the heart
of the John Radcliffe Hospital. Crucially the CRC will focus on investigating patients at the time
they are having strokes and heart attacks. It will take advantage of medical advances,
particularly in imaging, to improve our understanding of these illnesses and explore new
avenues to improve care and outcomes for patients. The novel aspect of this proposal is to
place this state-of-the-art imaging at the core of where acute clinical care is provided, namely,
the Accident and Emergency Department. Researchers still have a great many questions to
answer about why patients do not recover despite current treatment strategies, such as
angioplasties and the use of clot-busting drugs. Traditionally, such research facilities are either
unavailable or do not provide safe environments for patients at the time of the stroke or heart
attack. The CRC will provide a focus to bring together the research expertise from many
complimentary areas within Oxford University, to understand how we can develop new
treatments or improve on existing treatment for these common conditions.

Support for a new multi-modal imaging facility including high-field 3T MRI and state-of-art angiogrphy suite adjacent to John Radcliffe A&E in a fully equipped new CRC that links efficiently with acute hospital services, community programmes and existing university research infrastructure.

To enable immediate investigation of patients presenting with acute stroke or coronary syndromes: the ultimate goal is to define and link ‘upstream‘ vascular events (eg plague instability, rupture inflammation, thrombosis, embolism) with ‘downstream‘ end-organ imaging (eg, perfusion, injury, repair, compensation in affected tissue, vascular leak, oedema, haemorrahage, angiogenesis in affeced vascular bed) with a view to gaining a better understanding of clinical emergencies and improved therapy. Develop new imaging methodologies for this clinical setting; Develop novel blood biomarkers to relate to acute imaging findings. In stroke programmes (major and monir stroke/TIA) assess acute intervention & prevention -investigate mechanisms underlying neurological deterioration. Seek to focus therapy on those who will benefit most, define surrogate enpoints that will optimise efficient therapeutic development and focus the design of large-scale clinical trials with mortality and morbidity end-points.