Does Immune Responsiveness to MSU crystals reduce over time?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Does immune responsiveness to monosodium urate crystals reduce over time? A prospective study of patients with acute gout
IRAS ID
160500
Contact name
A Abhishek
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Gout is the commonest inflammatory arthritis and usually presents with recurrent acute attacks of gout. The purpose of this study is to find out why some patients develop frequent acute attacks of gout, while others develop an occasional acute attack in several years. For this we will collect blood from gout patients and isolate their white blood cells (cells used to fight infection). We will then re-challenge these cells with urate crystals and measure the amount of inflammatory chemicals released. We will also find out if the amount of chemical released is higher during an acute attack of gout, compared to those 6 weeks and 12 week later. This information will help us find out if this immune hyper-response has the potential of being used as a simple blood test to diagnose or exclude gout with absolute certainty. For this study we will recruit fifty patients admitted with acute gout. They will be seen by a research nurse who will collect additional information about their health, quality of life, and collect a blood sample. The research nurse will see them at their home 6 weeks and 12 weeks later to collect additional blood samples. The patients will also be requested to give additional blood sample for future genetic and metabolic research. These samples will be stored in the University of Nottingham.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0730
Date of REC Opinion
27 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion