This is a collaborative post between the HBPF and the University of Edinburgh's Clinical Research Centre and Clinical Pharmacology Unit with the aim of cementing links with general practice and raising the profile of cardiovascular risk through implementation of the new Lothian Hypertension guidelines. He will examine the potential to use new drugs to treat this condition, but will also take a new look at one of the oldest type of medicine, known as nitrates, that are already well established as treatments for angina and heart failure. The ways in which the nitrates work might make them particularly suitable drugs for older people with high blood pressure. It is intended that this research will be performed as a collaboration with Dr Ian Wilkinson in Cambridge. Dr Graeme Mackenzie has extended the work of Dr James Spratt on how the heart responds to long-standing high blood pressure.
All muscles strengthen and thicken with increased work, and the heart is no exception.
This work can come from exercise, such as in athletes, or from the extra work the heart has to do in people with high blood pressure. Only in the latter, of course, is this associated with higher cardiovascular risk. In collaboration with Dr Martin Denvir, Senior Lecturer in Cardiology, Dr Mackenzie is currently examining differences in the way the heart can respond to increased work, using some of the latest technology, with the aim of determining whether this contributes directly to the increased risk of heart disease in hypertensive patients. Facilities in Edinburgh for cardiovascular patient care and hypertension research have never been better. These are soon to be enhanced by the completion of the additional major build at the Western General Hospital and of the New Royal Infirmary.