VELOCITY study version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Advanced applications of ocular optical coherence tomography
IRAS ID
249891
Contact name
William Innes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
TBC, NIHR Portfolio database
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
The back of the eye is a direct extension of the brain. Doctors have often made use of this by looking at the eye to help diagnose problems affecting the brain. We believe that a new way of looking at blood vessels in the eye in microscopic detail, called ocular coherence tomography angiography (OCT) and OCT-angiography (OCT-A), will provide much more valuable clinical information and plan to use it to solve two different problems:
1. Measuring pressure inside the head. Knowing the pressure inside the head is very important when caring for patients with serious brain and nerve problems. Getting a measurement currently involves either drilling a hole in the skull or insertion of a long needle into the spine. We already look for the pulsation of a vein in the eye to tell us that pressure is normal range but believe OCT-A may be faster and more accurate.
2. Diagnosing pre-eclampsia. This is the most common medical complication of pregnancy with potentially serious consequences for mother and/or child, including death. Detecting it early can be difficult. As it is a disease of blood vessels affecting many organs including eye and brain, we believe early signs of these changes could be seen in the eye with OCT-A. This could make screening with a fast eye scan possible.
Over three months we plan to scan three groups of people with OCT-A and plain OCT. Normal pregnant and non-pregnant volunteers, pregnant women who are at risk of pre-eclampsia or actually have it and neurosurgical patients undergoing pressure monitoring on the intensive care unit. The images will be analysed using artificial intelligence. Success in either of our aims would have a huge impact for these patients and also help to reduce the resources the health service needs to look after them.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0375
Date of REC Opinion
4 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion