Kidneys, heart and diabetes: Science and practice – Part 1

RA Ajjan (FRCP, MMed.Sci, PhD) is a Professor of Metabolic Medicine and an Honorary Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Leeds University and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield and completed his clinical training in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. His team undertakes basic, translational and clinical research collectively aiming to reduce cardiovascular complications in individuals with diabetes by optimising glycaemia and ameliorating the thrombotic environment. He has over 180 publications including original articles, reviews and book chapters. His clinical practice concentrates on young adults with diabetes as well as older individuals at high risk of vascular disease. He is local R&D lead for Diabetes/Endocrinology, regional clinical research network co-lead for diabetes, endocrine and metabolic conditions, and deputy Chair of Clinical Study Group 2 at Diabetes UK. He is an Associate Editor of Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research, and member of the editorial board of International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Mark Petrie is Professor of Cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, and a cardiologist at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Glasgow, and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK. Professor Petrie started his studies as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, UK, before training in cardiology in Glasgow. He worked as a heart failure and interventional cardiologist for many years before transferring to the University of Glasgow in 2016. Professor Petrie's research interests focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease, heart failure, structural intervention in heart failure, revascularisation in heart failure, peripartum cardiomyopathy, microvascular disease in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, post-myocardial infarction cardiac remodelling, iron in heart failure and cardio-oncology. Professor Petrie has leadership roles in many trials including REVIVED, REDUCE-LAP, Dapa-HF, PARADISE-MI, EMPACT-MI, FINEARTS, SUBCUT-HF, REALIZE-K, STEP-HF, RELIEHF-HF and IRONMAN.  He has been on the clinical events committees of over 40 trials, including EMPA-REG OUTCOMES, DELIVER, TRUE-HF, CARMELINA and CAROLINA. He was an author of the 2011 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction guidelines, and a reviewer of the 2016 ESC heart failure guidelines. He was second author of the ESC position statement on diabetes and heart failure. Throughout his career, Professor Petrie has published around 180 original manuscripts including many in high-impact journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, European Heart Journal, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation.