TITRATE-US study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Testing and Identifying Targets in Rheumatoid Arthritis ThErapy-UltraSound study
IRAS ID
145023
Contact name
Bruce Kirkham
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) causes joint inflammation which can lead to joint damage. The modern management of RA relies on strategies which decrease disease activity to reduce symptoms and prevent joint damage. Disease Activity Score assessing twenty eight joints (DAS28) is commonly used by Rheumatologists to assess RA severity.
Persistent pain and tenderness, stiffness, fatigue and mood changes are common symptoms experienced by people with RA. However, these symptoms can also affect patients with other conditions such as fibromyalgia, a condition characterised by widespread pain not caused by inflammation.
People with RA can also have fibromyalgia. These people have higher joint and body tenderness with low levels of joint swelling and normal inflammation in their blood. The pain experienced by these people may not be due to their arthritis and could benefit from alternative treatments.
Imaging the joints in RA with Ultrasound (US) gives more accurate information about the presence and severity of joint inflammation. A lot of previous research has shown that Ultrasound may be used as a gold standard to assess joint inflammation. It is increasingly used nowadays to differentiate if the joint pain experienced by RA patients is caused by true inflammation or other causes such as fibromyalgia.
The aim of this project is to look for the presence or absence of active arthritis using US, and to compare this with examination, laboratory and questionnaire (patient-reported outcome measures, PROMs) to help us detect active vs non active RA.
The study will recruit RA patients with moderate and high disease activity defined by DAS28, for clinical examination, completion of PROMs, blood inflammation markers and US. The results will be analysed through complex statistical methods to identify if it would be possible to predict the presence or absence of inflammatory activity. US will be used as the gold standard.
REC name
London - Dulwich Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1869
Date of REC Opinion
16 Dec 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion