Summary of Clinical Research
Professor Mason is also actively involved in clinical research, in collaboration with colleagues at Hammersmith Hospital (Professor A Al-Nahhas), The Royal Brompton (Professor Dudley Pennell and Dr R Mohiaddin) and in the Institute of Clinical Sciences (Professor Paolo Camici). The principal goal is to optimise clinical assessment and management of large vessel vasculitis and to understand the relationship between chronic endothelial dysfunction and accelerated atherosclerosis.
In collaboration with Prof Pennell, we have shown that in patients with Takayasu’s arteritis, an integrated method of cardiovascular assessment by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) not only provides good delineation of vessel wall thickening, but can also demonstrate impaired endothelial function, dynamic ventricular function and myocardial scarring. In studies with Prof Camici using PET, we have shown that a significant proportion of patients with rheumatoid arthritis or SLE have evidence for coronary microvascular dysfunction which results in reduced coronary flow reserve and can be severe enough to cause myocardial ischemia despite normal epicardial coronary arteries. In addition, we have recently demonstrated the utility of PET imaging with PK11195 in large vessel vasculitis.
