Gary McVeigh

Evaluation of antihypertensive and metabolic effects of drug therapies to treat hypertension.

My research is clinically orientated and addresses the problem of arterial blood vessel disease. Early arterial blood vessel disease is asymptomatic but precedes and predicts further disease development and future clinical complications such as heart attack and stroke. To detect and monitor early disease requires the use of a sensitive diagnostic assessment tool.

Ultrasound is used globally to diagnose, assess severity and monitor disease progression in arterial blood vessels. Detection of vascular disease is inferred from analysis of the recorded blood flow patterns using software embedded in commercial ultrasound systems. We have developed novel software algorithms to analyse blood flow signals that are more sensitive than existing commercially available applications in detecting early blood vessel damage and monitoring the effects of drug interventions. As our analysis technique is applicable to the standard output from all commercially available ultrasound systems, we believe comprehensive roll-out of our novel invention is feasible in the clinical arena. I was awarded a UK Medical Futures Award for this work in June 2007. The incremental developments in the technique have led to collaborative work with colleagues in the USA.