The utility of Lung Clearance Index in ethnic groups and in disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The utility of Lung Clearance Index in ethnic groups and in disease\n
IRAS ID
273069
Contact name
Christopher Hine
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
R+D Department, Birmingham Children's Hospital
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
New treatments and improved care mean that some of the routine tests we use to monitor and detect lung disease are not sensitive enough to give us the information we need. A test called multiple breath washout (MBW) gives us a read out of Lung Clearance Index (LCI) which tells us how clear a patient’s lungs are. LCI has been shown to change before spirometry (FEV1) and may therefore be more useful. LCI is not in routine clinical use and there are outstanding questions that need to be answered.\nIn order to differentiate between a ‘normal’ test and an ‘abnormal’ test, we must have a good understanding of the range of normality. This information is lacking, particularly in black and minority ethnic populations. We intend to test healthy children from a range of ethnic backgrounds to gather information on the variation of LCI to allow us to better assess children with disease.\nIt is also important to understand how LCI varies with different disease processes. There is a lack of information on how LCI changes with bronchiectasis (a disease characterised by permanently damaged and enlarged airways with excess inflammation). (Bronchiectasis caused by conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, two rare conditions of the lungs, have been better investigated). We will measure the LCI of children with bronchiectasis and see if the read out’s are worse if they have worse scans of the chest (CT imaging). We will also compare the LCI of children with bronchiectasis with those of the healthy children assessed previously.\n
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/YH/0028
Date of REC Opinion
3 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion