The British Heart Foundation SENIOR-RITA Trial

The population is getting older and heart artery disease is the biggest killer in the UK. Over recent years, there have been improvements in medications and technologies to treat it, but these have been primarily tested in younger patients. Previous research studies suggest that older patients (75 years and over) are not well represented in clinical research and these patients in particular those that are frail and those with co-morbidities are less likely to receive advanced medications and medical procedures. The current study will enrol patients 75 years and over, presenting with a heart attack. If patients agree to participate, they will be randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups. In the first group, patients will receive the latest medications recommended in heart attack. In the second group, in addition to these medications, patients will have coronary angiography. This will show whether they have any blockages in heart arteries. If appropriate, coronary revascularisation by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) commonly known as coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting, sometimes called CABG (a surgical procedure in which a blood vessel from the leg, arm or chest is used to bypass a narrowed section of a coronary artery) will be carried out. During the trial, frailty scores, cognition measures, co-morbidity indices, questionnaires on quality of life, NHS and personal social services utilization will be collected from the participant and in addition proxy quality of life information will be collected from the participant's carers. Investigators will evaluate which one of the two treatment groups will do better and live longer. Investigators will also collect information on their quality of life and frailty measures for a 5 year period. The trial hopes to recruit 2300 patients from approximately 30 centres across the UK.