MR Assessment of Perianal Crohn’s disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A new MR-based Perianal Crohn’s disease activity score: A multi-centre study
IRAS ID
211758
Contact name
Gordon Moran
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
Perianal Crohn’s disease (pCD) affects a fifth of Crohn’s disease patients with a third experiencing recurrent symptoms. It involves inflammation at or around the anus; symptoms can include pain, itching and or passing blood or pus; leading to further complications such as, perianal abscesses causing severe pain and faecal incontinence. These complications significantly impair the quality of life of patients who are often teenagers or young adults.
We believe that we have the capability to provide a means to help in managing this very distressing condition.
It is very difficult to quantify (measure) inflammation in pCD. Disease activity is measured using clinical scores that are not sensitive enough to accurately measure the degree of disease. Conventional 1.5T Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging is a more accurate method available for pCD monitoring but still correlates poorly to disease activity. This can lead to poor treatment choices or treatment is delayed or prematurely stopped. In the absence of a sensitive disease marker, there is a lack of good clinical studies able to address this problem.
New MR disease activity measures are needed to better monitor disease activity.
In this study we will compare the acccuracy of 1.5T and 3T MRI Imaging We will recruit subjects with pCD before the onset of biological therapy and quantify disease activity before treatment onset and 12 weeks after therapy using an array of quantitative MR markers at 1.5T. Imaging at 3T will provide higher resolution and greater sensitivity. This information can then be used in the development of a new MR-based disease activity score for use in NHS clinical practice.
We hope that the results provided by this study will enable us to more accurately measure/monitor pCD disease and improve the use of the 1.5T within clinical practice.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0433
Date of REC Opinion
18 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion