Prof Bob Graham's new SCAD clinic in Newcastle

New SCAD clinic for patients in the Hunter Region of NSW

16 August 2022

People suffering from Spontaneous Coronary Artery Disease (SCAD) will no longer have to travel to Sydney after the opening of a new clinic at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle.

The monthly clinic in the hospital’s Cardiology Department is being run by Professor Bob Graham, who leads research into SCAD at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

Professor Graham says: “A few years ago very few people had heard of SCAD but it’s now being increasingly diagnosed, and patients need to be very carefully managed.

“Until now patients with SCAD in the Hunter region had to make the long journey down to Sydney as there was no specialist care in their region. Having a clinic so close to home will make it easier for them to get specialist help and advice and allow for better care too.”

The clinic is getting around six new referrals each month from people who suffer from SCAD, a disease that is responsible for one in four heart attacks, particularly in women under the age of 50, who are otherwise often fit and well, and have few traditional heart attack risk factors, such as high cholesterol, smoking and obesity.

It’s been a game changer for retired professional tennis player Trudi Edwards from Newcastle who suffered a SCAD heart attack in 2021 at the age of 43.

“It’s such a relief to have such brilliant care in my hometown and to know that I am being looked after by one of the world’s leading SCAD researchers,” says Trudi.

If you are interested in attending the clinic at John Hunter, please contact Keeleigh Chiodi, Administrative Officer, Cardiology Department, John Hunter Hospital: keeleighshae.chiodi@health.nsw.gov.au.

SCAD Research Update

• Professor Graham and his team have just had a paper about the genetics of SCAD accepted for publication. In this paper, they investigated if any genetic changes influenced an individual’s risk of developing SCAD. Based on this work, it appears that it is not just one gene that will determine your risk for developing SCAD, but it could be changes in several genes that contribute to SCAD risk.
• The Institute’s team has also looked at collagen genes and other genes whose proteins make up blood vessel walls. In the Institute’s study of 91 people, five people had changes in collagen genes that were predicted to damage their protein. There were 43 other DNA changes found in collagen genes that computer models were unsure about their effects on the protein. The evidence is accumulating that in some cases altered collagen proteins may predispose an individual to SCAD.
• DNA analysis is also underway in families with a history of SCAD. Often when a condition runs in a family it can be easier to determine the genetic cause than in individuals with no known family history of the condition. Professor Graham and his team have sequenced members from 13 families and are in the process of analysing this data. Through the analysis that has been done so far, the team believes it has found DNA changes in at least two of these families that have significantly contributed to their risk of SCAD.

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For all media enquiries and interview requests, please contact:

Julia Timms
Head, Media & Communications
j.timms@victorchang.edu.au
0457 517 355