Establishing a phenotype for cachexia in chronic kidney disease

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Establishing a clinical phenotype for cachexia in chronic kidney disease.

  • IRAS ID

    163518

  • Contact name

    Joanne Reid

  • Contact email

    dmcgrath16@qub.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    QUB

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 11 months, 27 days

  • Research summary

    Lay abstract
    This research study aims to investigate the wasting disorder known as cachexia, in persons with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). Cachexia affects a person’s quality of life and is linked with premature death. Cachexia is present in individuals with advanced CKD, but there has been very little research on it and as a result health care professionals lack guidelines about how to assess it or how to best treat it in clinical practice. This is because there is no agreed definition of cachexia specific to people with kidney disease and at present there is no information to help tell the difference between cachexia and weight loss caused by simply not eating enough.
    It is important to be able to define cachexia as it needs different treatment than weight loss that is caused by simply not eating enough. This will be the first study to explore this important area. Once we have defined cachexia, this research will then move on to test a treatment for cachexia which will look at quality of life and time to death to see if it helps improve these. In this way, the research is designed to inform professional practice and clinical training, and help health care providers have agreed criteria to assess cachexia in advanced chronic kidney disease and also to explore possibly treatments for it. It will in turn improve the quality and quantity of life for people with advanced CKD who have cachexia.

  • REC name

    HSC REC A

  • REC reference

    16/NI/0233

  • Date of REC Opinion

    4 Nov 2016

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion