Birmingham Behcet's centre: an analysis of an inception cohort

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Birmingham Behcet's Centre: a cluster analysis of an inception cohort

  • IRAS ID

    184335

  • Contact name

    Timothy Blake

  • Contact email

    timothy.blake@nhs.net

  • Sponsor organisation

    Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 5 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of applying a new international criteria for diagnosing a condition called Behçet's disease (ICBD criteria). This would be on our current group of patients referred to the Birmingham Behçet's Centre of Excellence since its inception in July 2012. In essence, new criteria have been shown to improve the detection rate for diagnosis of Behçet's disease, and it has been suggested that they are used for screening in a range of clinical settings.
    We hope to show that clinical assessment by a group on experts from different medical specialties should remain the gold standard for diagnosis of this complex disease, and that screening of such diagnostic/classification criteria is not appropriate for clinical use.
    Aside from this, we aim to identify certain clusters of patients, based on clinical manifestations, that would generate useful and novel information on what constitutes Behçet's disease and what does not constitute Behçet's disease. With this is mind, it may be that we can predict which associations of disease are linked to certain presentations, particularly more severe disease.

  • REC name

    London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/LO/1283

  • Date of REC Opinion

    20 Jul 2015

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion