Sample collection for MaGiCAD started in November, 2001. For many of our analyses we have to investigate differences between patients who have heart disease of varying severity.  We therefore use a categorisation system for all patients who are recruited into MaGiCAD based on the results of their angiogram.

These categories are as follows:

NCA:  Normal coronary arteries - no obvious blockages in any of the heart arteries
Mild:  Minor blockages in one or more of the heart arteries
1VD:  A more major blockage in one of the heart arteries
2VD:  A more major blockage in two of the heart arteries
3VD:  A more major blockage in three of the heart arteries

One of the aims of MaGiCAD is to have entered into the study 50 patients of each sex into each of these categories.  Although we have now recruited 872 patients, we do not yet have 50 patients in each of these groups.  This is because women generally have less heart disease than men, and therefore we have fewer women in the more diseased groups.

Currently the number of patients we have in each groups is as follows:

If we continue to recruit patients in the same way for the rest of the study we will need to recruit a further 743 patients to reach the target of 50 patients in each group.

You might ask: "Why do you not now just recruit women patients into MaGiCAD?".  There are several reasons, but the main one is that we want MaGiCAD to be representative of the patients being admitted to Papworth Hospital for a diagnostic angiogram.  If we now just started to recruit women patients, our MaGiCAD cohort would be over-represented with women compared to the patients at Papworth Hospital.