Peter Sleight (27 June 1929 – 7 October 2020)'Sleight, Prof. Peter', Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, December 2013; online edn, December 201
accessed 8 December 2013
/ref> was a British research cardiologist and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the

John Radcliffe Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR or the John Radcliffe) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe (physician) ...

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and the

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an English teaching hospital and part of the Shelford Group. It is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals and one of the largest hospitals in Europe. The trust is made up of four hospital ...

. Sleight was Emeritus Field Marshal Alexander Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and an Emeritus Fellow of

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

Overview

Peter Sleight was a consultant physician/cardiologist in Oxford from 1964. He retired from the

British Heart Foundation The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy ...

(BHF)-sponsored Field Marshal Alexander Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine in 1994, but continued to work at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He was Deputy Chairman of the HPS Steering Committee. Sleight was a Fellow of the

American College of Cardiology The American College of Cardiology (ACC), based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit medical association established in 1949. It bestows credentials upon cardiovascular specialists who meet its qualifications. Education is a core component of the ...

and an authority in the field of cardiology research. He served on the editorial board for many cardiology journals in the world such as ''Cardiovascular Research'', ''Cardiovascular Risk'', ''Circulation'', ''Hypertension'', the ''British Heart Journal'', ''Clinical & Experimental Physiology & Pharmacology'', and the ''Journal of Ambulatory Monitoring''. He peer reviewed articles and co-authored scientific papers on topics such as blood pressure monitoring and control, autonomic control of the circulation, prognostic value of measures of heart rate variability, and pathophysiology of ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, and hypertension in journals such as ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...

'', ''

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor was ...

'', '' Circulation'', ''

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

'', ''

European Heart Journal The ''European Heart Journal'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal of cardiology published by Oxford University Press on a weekly basis, on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. The first issue was published in February 1980. Overview Th ...

'', the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed medical journal, published by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, which in turn is wholly-owned by the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world ...

'' and ''

Clinical Science Clinical research is a branch of medical research that involves people and aims to determine the effectiveness (efficacy) and safety of medications, devices, diagnostic products, and treatment regimens intended for improving human health. The ...

''. Sleight was considered to be among world leading eminent cardiologists and co-authored over 500 papers. His work according to Microsoft Academic Search has been cited in over 40,000 papers and in hundreds of text books in the field of cardiology. Sleight was President of the

World Hypertension League The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

from 1995–2000 and served as chair of the

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

group steering committee and the related coronary prevention studies coordinated by the Clinical Trials Service Unit in Oxford. Previously, he was a consultant physician/cardiologist in Oxford beginning in 1964.

Early life and education

He was born in Hull, the eldest of three children of William Sleight, a town planner in Leeds, and Mary (nee Westmoreland) Sleight. He had two siblings, Eileen and Malcolm. He was educated at

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physica ...

and

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. He studied

Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

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and at

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

Medical School, qualifying in medicine in 1953.

Career

Medical career

In 1964, Consultant Cardiologist Dr Peter Sleight in conjunction with Cardiac Surgeon Dr Alf Gunning from South Africa performed one of the first pioneering operations to install an external Lucas

cardiac pacemaker image:ConductionsystemoftheheartwithouttheHeart-en.svg, 350px, Image showing the cardiac pacemaker or SA node, the primary pacemaker within the electrical conduction system of the heart The cardiac pacemaker is the heart's natural rhythm gener ...

on a patient in her early 30s at the

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. Closed in 2007, after refurbishment the building was re-opened in October ...

. This involved attaching circular coils internally to the patient's heart and with coils aligned on the outside skin of the patient to transfer the electrical charge from the

Artificial cardiac pacemaker A pacemaker, also known as an artificial cardiac pacemaker, is an implanted medical device that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to co ...

connected to external batteries. The patient had previously spent many months connected to a filing cabinet size artificial heart machine known as the "fire engine" because of its red colour. Sleight completed over 50 years service working for the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

Research career

Sleight is accredited for being the first to carry out studies of the effect of

Aspirin Aspirin () is the genericized trademark for acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions that aspirin is ...

on cardiac function and stroke prevention in the early 1970s. Sleight is Emeritus Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Oxford University. Sleight and his research team at Oxford led the way and formed the foundation for the research into the use of aspirin in the prevention of other medical conditions. Sleight was an active leading contributor to the field of cardiology research. As chair of the ISIS group steering committee he was involved in several significant international trials in cardiology, such as the use of

(ISIS-2), Thrombolysis (ISIS 2&3), ACE Inhibitors (HOPE) and Statins (HPS). He served on several data monitoring committees of major clinical trials, including Gusto, ECLA, ASCOT, ADVANCE, EUCLID, MODEST, CREATE, OASIS 5–7, COMMIT, VALUE, PACE, SCOUT, RELY, ORIGIN, GISSI-HF, ONTARGET, TRANSCEND and PrOFESS. Recent research has assessed the prognostic value of measures of heart rate variability, and pathophysiological processes underlying the changes found in patients prone to ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, and hypertension.

Awards

Peter Sleight received a number of awards, including the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Young Investigator's Award in 1963, the Evian Award for Medicine and Science, International Society of Hypertension – MSD Award for distinguished research, the Galen Medal for Therapeutics 2000 (Society of Apothecaries), the Mackenzie Medal, British Cardiac Society, Louis Bishop Lecturer American College of Cardiology, the Alberto Zanchetti Lifetime Achievement Award, Gold Medal European Society of Hypertension and a Lifetime Research Award, Russian Federation of Cardiology, Bayer International Aspirin (R) Senior Award 2000.

Personal life

In 1953 he married Gillian France, whom he met when they were both students at St. Bartholomew's, and who became a public health physician. They had two children. They resided in Wheatley, Oxfordshire, for many years. Sleight suffered a stroke in 2015. He died on 7 October 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sleight, Professor Peter 1929 births 2020 deaths People from Wetherby People educated at Leeds Grammar School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital 20th-century English medical doctors British cardiologists British medical researchers Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians National Health Service people Field Marshal Alexander Professors of Cardiovascular Medicine Fellows of the American College of Cardiology Physicians of the John Radcliffe Hospital Medical doctors from Yorkshire