Photo: Dr Anthony Cutajar at Aston University with his research Supervisors, Dr David Terry and Dr Chi Huynh
Aston University has conferred the Doctor of Pharmacy award to Anthony Cutajar for his research in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
In his research, Dr Cutajar analysed the influence of angiotensin inhibition on survival in elderly patients and investigated local epidemiology of this condition.
His thesis demonstrated fast rising trends in the incidence and associated mortality, where males fared worse. Inappropriate treatment and lack of follow-up emerged from the study with increasing age, where females experienced earlier treatment denial.
Survival analysis revealed significant mortality reduction with ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, which compared with that in younger patients. This persisted for at least 3 years post incident diagnosis, and remained incremental with background treatment, despite additional comorbidity. Furthermore, this benefit was similar for both drug classes.
The external examiner was Prof. Rani Khatib, a UK heart failure expert from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Dr Cutajar is a casual lecturer with the Department of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine & Surgery.