ExPERT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring Pleural Effusion Research Tools and Drainage Study
IRAS ID
306964
Contact name
Nick Maskell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
This study is part of an effort to understand more about the experiences of people who have a collection of fluid around the lung (pleural effusion). We are interested in finding out more about the effects of having a pleural effusion on daily life, activities, mood and exercise levels. We also wish to find out more about how draining pleural fluid affects these topics.
Current research tools that are commonly used to assess the effects of pleural fluid upon people’s lives use techniques that assess topics such as breathlessness. Although these are effective, they only provide insight into one facet of a person’s experience. We wish to find out more and examine various techniques to help gain insight into a wider range of a person’s experience of their pleural effusion. We hope that this will help researchers and clinicians to gain a greater understanding of the diverse range of patient experiences and therefore better inform future therapies and treatment decisions.
ExPERT will assess various research tools, known as Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) against the current standard technique for assessment of breathlessness, the Visual Analogue Score for Dyspnoea (VAS-D). These are questionnaire based assessments. ExPERT will also measure the activity levels of participants before and after drainage of their pleural effusions.
A subset of the patients recruited to ExPERT will have had indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) inserted as part of their standard care to manage their pleural effusions. IPCs are routinely drained 2-3 times a week by healthcare professionals or carers using proprietary vacuum bottles supplied by the IPC manufacturer. In addition to the activities listed in the above paragraph, these participants will be invited to undergo drainage of their IPCs using a novel drainage pump system. They will be asked to compare the experiences of the 2 drainage systems.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0087
Date of REC Opinion
23 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion