A new research study, (REFLEX-COPD), funded by the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, has now commenced at Nottingham University Hospitals and the University of Nottingham.
What is the purpose of the study?
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known to have changes in their smaller blood vessels within the body, in particular within the brain and the kidneys. This might be related to how the heart pumps and if the heart is under any pressure.
Investigations performed at the University in healthy older volunteers demonstrated how the blood flows during exercise.
In this study we are hoping to the find out what happens to the blood flow in the brain and the heart in patients who have COPD when they exercise using state-of-the-art MRI imaging and compare to people without COPD. In doing so we then hope to use this information to assess what might help in the future.
The study Chief Investigator (CI) is Professor Charlotte Bolton and the lead research fellow is Dr Ayushman Gupta
This study has now fully completed