GRANTS totalling £140,000 were announced by the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) yesterday. It is the highest annual allocation made by the foundation for cardiac research projects.
Announcing the grants Mr Paddy Murphy, chief executive of the IHF, said that investing in such research does pay. "We've all been rewarded, directly or indirectly, with better prevention and education, better medical treatments and, ultimately, better quality of life. We are extremely pleased to be able to fund these projects," he said.
Mr Murphy pointed out that Ireland has the highest rate of premature death from heart disease in the EU.
The projects include a study in Donegal on the feasibility of administering drugs to deal with blood clots in heart attack patients in their homes. The Donegal Area Rapid Treatment Study (DARTS) will take 18 months.
"This is a particularly important issue for rural patients who often face extremely long ambulance journeys and may die before reaching hospital in time to reap the full benefits of these drugs," said Mr Murphy.
"Thrombolytic drugs have revolutionised the treatment of heart attacks. They actually dissolve the clot causing the heart attack and work best when given as soon as possible after it begins.
The project is assessing the feasibility of GPs administering these drugs as routine procedures and the logistics of using other technology to treat patients at home.