Cognitive and blood biomarker assessment after CO exposure
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive, behavioural and blood biomarker assessment after carbon monoxide (CO) exposure
IRAS ID
277742
Contact name
Peter Jenkins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Carbon monoxide (CO) is reported to cause around 30 deaths, 200 admissions and 4000 presentations to Emergency Departments each year in the UK. In the longer term, CO poisoning is recognised to cause persistent neurological problems (including impairments of thinking and behavioural changes), which can develop days to weeks after the initial exposure. However, the incidence of these long-term sequelae is unknown. In addition, there is evidence of long-lasting inflammatory changes in the brain and on-going brain cell injury, although how long this persists is also unknown.
Initial assessments of CO exposure can be unreliable if blood tests are not carried out within a relatively short period after the exposure and other biomarkers (such as imaging) are insensitive to detecting previous CO exposure.
Certain proteins that are found in brain cells can be detected in the blood of individuals following brain injury and brain cell death. These proteins have been found to be raised in the acute period after minor head injury, persistently raised in patients with a traumatic brain injury and evidence of on going neurodegeneration (i.e. on going brain cell death) and in patients with various types of dementia.
We will assess the presence of these proteins in the blood of 50 patients with proven CO exposure in the sub-acute to chronic timescale (2 weeks to 2 years). This has not been done before and will allow assessment of the presence of on going brain injury in these patients. We will also assess cognitive (e.g. memory, attention and speed of thinking) and behavioural impairments in these patients to help characterise the common impairments suffered following CO exposure and relate these to evidence of persistent brain injury and severity of CO exposure.REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SW/0025
Date of REC Opinion
23 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion