The UK-Malaysia Joint Partnership Call on Non-Communicable Diseases: Reducing Premature Coronary Artery Disease in Malaysia by Early Identification of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia

About us

The UK-Malaysia Joint Partnership Call on Non-Communicable Diseases project titled ‘Reducing Premature Coronary Artery Disease in Malaysia by Early Identification of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia’ [grant reference number: MR/T017384/1, NMRR-20-272-52797, 100-TNCPI/GOV 16/6/2 (002/2020)] marked another level of an international research collaboration between Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia and the University of Nottingham (UoN), United Kingdom. The UiTM team received MYR999,300.00 and the UoN team received GBP248,985.00 of grants amount.

This project began on the 1^st of January 2020 for a period of three years until the 31^st of December 2022. It is a collaborative research project involving researchers from the Institute of Pathology, Laboratory and Forensic Medicine (I-PPerForM), UiTM, the Department of Primary Care Medicine, UiTM and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UoN. This project is led by Professor Dr. Anis Safura Ramli, a Professor of Primary Care and the Deputy Director of I-PPerForM, UiTM and Professor Dr. Nadeem Qureshi, a Senior Professor of Primary Care and the Leader of Primary Care Stratified Medicine (PRISM) Research Group, UoN. To mark this international research partnership, a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) has been signed by both universities for a period of three years from January 2022 until December 2024. This MoC is an extension of the previous Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) which was signed by both universities from January 2020 until December 2021.

Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is a common inherited genetic condition, and a recent study showed that it is affecting 1 in 100 individuals in Malaysia. However, FH is underdiagnosed and undertreated especially in primary care. Failure to detect and manage this condition early will lead to premature heart disease. Therefore, the main objective of this project was to detect FH early in order to prevent premature heart disease among Malaysians. It involved finding cases of FH from 12 primary care clinics in Klang Valley, Malaysia.

To date, recruitment of patients for this project has been completed and genetic analysis to confirm the diagnosis of FH is currently being conducted. Patients who are suspected to have FH are offered free genetic testing under this project, which is not routinely available in Malaysia. Once diagnosed with FH, patients are offered the best of care including cascade screening of their family members. The ultimate goal is to help them prevent premature heart disease and save lives.

Outputs from this project include joint publications in international high impact journals, joint postgraduate students’ supervision and presentation at international scientific conferences.