Identifying new biomarkers of Parkinson's from routine brain imaging

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Identifying new biomarkers of Parkinson's from routine brain imaging

  • IRAS ID

    280243

  • Contact name

    Stephen Mullin

  • Contact email

    stephen.mullin@plymouth.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Plymouth

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    PEN/006/000/A, NIHR NTN funding number

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    3 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    We seek permission to use routine computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRI) and nuclear medicine (NM) brain imaging data to produce new diagnostic tests for the onset of Parkinson's disease. This will enable earlier diagnosis than is currently possible. This will entail the analysis of CT/MRI/NM brain images collected prior to the point when these subjects were diagnosed with PD. These images will be anonymised, however will be used without the express consent of these subjects.

    Briefly, PD cases will be identified from routine clinical databases, hospital electronic records and GP records. Data held on existing research and clinical databases related to the clinical features and progression of these subjects will be appended to these records. CT/MRI/NM scans will be matched using pseudoanonymised identifiers (NHS number, year of birth, first two letters of postcode) by a member of the routine clinical care team who is not part of the research team. A number of matched control CT/MRI/NM scans will also be obtained as a control group. Once matched, the complete dataset will be anonymised for analysis, with clinically relevant details (such as scanner used, date of scan, indication for scan and report of scan) included within the dataset.

  • REC name

    London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/PR/0918

  • Date of REC Opinion

    8 Jul 2021

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion