Clinical trials

The goal of this observational study is to assess if new ways of measuring kidney function can better predict when individuals will become symptomatic due to kidney failure, and whether residual kidney function can be accurately measured in those already on dialysis. The main questions the study is trying to answer is whether measuring kidney function by clearance of iohexol is comparable to the current standard of care methods. In addition to routine care, participants will: * undergo a brief clinical assessment * be given an injection of iohexol and asked to perform 4 finger prick blood tests over 24 hours, recording the time of each sample. Samples will be returned in person or posted back * be asked to complete a questionnaire on their experience

This is an observational study that will explore the hypothesis that by combining data from patients with liver disease with novel blood biomarkers, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis and faecal microbiome analysis. The Investigators will improve diagnosis of liver fibrosis compared to the current available diagnostic tools.

This project aims to explore barriers to treatment seeking for symptoms of prolapse and urinary incontinence in women from ethnic minority/global majority background. This study consists of three components, each with different methodological approaches: 1. Collecting objective data using validated questionnaires Prolapse and Incontinence Knowledge Questionnaire (PIKQ), Female Genital Self-Image Scale (FGSIS-4) and prevalence and severity of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse (ICIQ-UI Short Form and ICIQ-VS), age, level of education, level of deprivation (according to postcode), faith, first or preferred language spoken, sexual orientation and employment status to explore whether these are associated with barriers to treatment seeking as measured by the Barriers to Incontinence Care Seeking Questionnaire (BICS-Q) and to estimate the prevalence of urinary incontinence and prolapse in a community group of women from an ethnic minority/global majority background 2. Collecting qualitative data via semi-structured interviews with women from an ethnic minority/global majority background who have sought treatment for urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse to explore barriers they may have experienced and how these were overcome and collecting qualitative data via focus group discussions with women from an ethnic minority/global majority background who attend women's community groups 3. Zine making as a research approach is a creative, participatory method that uses the process of creating zines (small, self-published, often handmade booklets) to generate, explore, and share knowledge . Zine making blends arts-based research and participatory action research and is particularly suited for working with seldom heard communities or exploring stigmatised conditions because it gives participants creative control over how their experiences are communicated, which can be empowering, especially for individuals who are under or misrepresented in mainstream narratives . Zine making is also more accessible for individuals who do not speak English as their first or preferred language, or, have other communication barriers .

Heart failure represents a growing public health problem within the UK and particularly within the North West of England. A major challenge is that heart failure is currently diagnosed too late. The researchers have previously developed a risk calculator that accurately identifies individuals at risk of heart failure admission or death before they have developed heart failure. Most risk calculators are never implemented into clinical practice. The researchers will l perform a pilot study to evaluate the risk calculator within primary care in Greater Manchester.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a certain type of heart failure, occurs when the heart doesn't pump blood around the body properly. It can cause breathlessness, tiredness, and swollen feet or ankles. It is not clear why people develop HFpEF and treatment options are very limited. TRAITS-HFpEF is a study that aims to understand why people develop HFpEF, identify new tests and treatments, and gain information on the life expectancy of people living with this condition. It will do this by routinely collecting information on people attending a specialised outpatient HFpEF clinic.

Patients with liver cirrhosis are at high risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which implies significant mortality. At present current surveillance methods detect hepatocellular carcinomas at a late stage resulting in few treatment options for patients and, in the majority of cases, premature death. The goal of this study is to implement Elecsys® GAAD in real-world hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance for those with liver cirrhosis. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does the introduction of the Elecsys® GAAD algorithm to the surveillance pathway increase early detection of HCC? * Does the introduction of the Elecsys® GAAD algorithm to the surveillance pathway reduce false positive tests and unnecessary confirmatory investigations? * Does the new surveillance pathway improve adherence? Researchers will compare Elecsys® GAAD with standard of care tests to see if it results in earlier detection of hepatocellular carcinoma and will explore potential improvements to the surveillance pathway.

The ACCREDIT study - Acute respiratory infections and chronic respiratory disease exacerbations characterisation and personalised treatment platform study 2 (AcCREDiT 2). Patients with respiratory infections (such as pneumonia) or exacerbations of chronic respiratory conditions (such as emphysema) often require hospital admission. Infections or exacerbation are commonly caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi. In at least a quarter of patients no infectious cause of the exacerbation is found. Depending on the cause of the respiratory infections or exacerbations of chronic respiratory condition patients require prompt treatment with anti-infective drugs (antibiotics, anti-fungal or antiviral drugs) or anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids. Patients with respiratory infection or exacerbations of chronic respiratory conditions develop symptoms such as cough, sometimes with sputum, fever or breathlessness. These symptoms can be similar across several conditions, many of which are not due to infection (for example heart failure or blood clots in the lungs). When assessing patients with respiratory symptoms, clinicians face the challenge of limited information in the early stages of care as it takes three days to identify infectious organisms in the laboratory. Even when an infection is strongly suspected, distinguishing bacterial from viral or fungal infections on clinical grounds alone is difficult. This uncertainty often leads clinicians to prescribe a number of treatments, including antibiotics, before a clear diagnosis is made. Timely treatment is crucial for success and improved patient outcomes, especially for critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). However, antibiotics may cause side effects, such as sickness and diarrhoea, and overuse of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance, making antibiotics less effective when they are really needed. Giving antibiotics to patients with an infection or exacerbation and avoiding antibiotics in patients without an infection requires rapid diagnostic tests. Furthermore, giving antibiotics prior to taking samples to diagnose infection can affect the sample being tested making it more likely to not give a useful result. For a diagnostic test for infection to be most useful it needs to be collected before an antibiotic is given - this is true for both clinical tests and those research tests which are clinical tests in development. Modern technologies allow testing for an infection in hours rather than days. In order to understand how effective these technologies are, samples need to be taken from patients before they start treatment. In routine NHS care samples to test for infection should be taken before treatment has been started. However, in research studies samples are often taken up to a day after treatment has started which affects how effective the test is at finding infection. The forerunner to this study, called AcCREDiT, proposed investigating very rapid ways of identifying individuals with respiratory infection and exacerbation. However, the study team encountered challenges during the informed consent process, particularly with acutely unwell patients. Therefore, the AcCREDiT-2 was designed in collaboration with patients and public contributors to look at the feasibility of a modified informed consent process: verbal consent, assent for individuals with capacity to consent for themselves, and deferred consent. AcCREDiT-2 will be an observational study, meaning that no treatment will be changed, and no experimental drugs or tests used to influence the clinical care of participants. AcCREDiT-2 will also be a 'feasibility study', which is a smaller study designed to see what works well before embarking on a larger project. During the study the investigators will collect clinical information and samples, such as blood, sputum and stool, from patients who come to hospital with a presumed respiratory infection or exacerbation of their chronic respiratory condition. The investigators will compare new diagnostic tests to traditional laboratory tests to understand their relative advantages and disadvantages for patient care. This is a 'feasibility' study, a small study ran first to make sure things work properly before expanding to a much larger study.

There are currently no early predictive biomarkers for severity of acute pancreatitis (AP) that would allow stratification of patients for potential early interventional therapies. Hyperglycaemia is frequently observed to accompany and contribute to severe AP. However, the underlying mechanism is multifactorial, including in the acute phase of injury, where elevated adrenaline, cortisol and glucagon and inflammatory cytokine-induced insulin resistance all contribute to hyperglycaemia. The investigators propose that the extent of collateral injury of pancreatic β-cells and consequent loss of insulin secretion during the course of acute pancreatitis (AP) underlies disease severity. The investigators will measure plasma C-peptide (as a reliable readout of endogenous insulin), with moment-to-moment glucose monitoring (using subcutaneous continuous glucose monitoring devices), and bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in a prospective cohort of 30 severe AP patient blood samples taken every 5 days for up to 5 weeks of hospitalization.

STUDY SUMMARY Incisional hernias, or swellings of the abdominal scar after surgery, remain problematic especially after transplant surgery. This is because they can cause complications, including trapping of bowel or the transplant. This can cause life threatening emergencies but is at the very least unsightly and uncomfortable for the patient. Transplant patients are especially likely to develop hernias because of the diseases causing the renal failure and the drugs that they take to dampen the immune system. There is evidence from other surgery that the stitching methods that are used to close the wounds might decrease the risk of surgical hernias. This is achieved by placing smaller and more numerous sutures (stitches) in the wound to increase the strength of the repair. However, this has never been tested formally in transplant where it may provide significant benefit. We intend to do some initial investigation of whether using the smaller stitches may provide benefit over more traditional methods that are currently being used. We will look at early complications after surgery but also the rate of hernia formation later. We hope to improve outcomes and reduce complications for our transplant patients by doing this. In addition we will collect blood and tissue samples from both live kidney donors and the recipients to microscopically analyse their collagen to identify potential factors which may indicate risk of hernia formation.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is no longer able to pump blood around the body properly. It can cause breathlessness, swollen feet and ankles, and tiredness. In about half of patients with heart failure, one measure of the heart's pumping function, called the 'ejection fraction', is normal. This type of heart failure is called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF. HFpEF remains poorly understood. It is not clear why some people develop HFpEF, or what determines the severity of the condition. Treatment options may be limited. UK HFpEF is a study that aims to gain a better understanding of why people develop HFpEF, develop better tests to diagnosis it, identify and test new treatments, and follow the health of the people taking part over many years.

This study explores the role of treatment with interferon-gamma to improve outcomes in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA). CPA is a progressive infection caused by the fungus Aspergillus affecting patients with chronic lung disease like Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD) or previously treated tuberculosis (TB). It causes gradual destruction of lung tissue by slowly enlarging cavities, frequent secondary infections and poor quality of life. Because of its indolent nature and nonspecific x-ray findings, it often remains unrecognised for years. Around 3600 people live with CPA in the United Kingdom. Mortality from CPA may be up to 40% in five years. Treatment for CPA relies on antifungals for prolonged periods, but only around 60% of patients improve. It is often long-term or lifelong as the response is slow and some patients experience relapses. In addition, only one class of oral antifungal drugs is licensed for CPA, and they are associated with side effects and high cost. Better treatments are needed for CPA. We do not know why many patients do not respond to treatment. Maybe CPA patients have a weakened immune system and are more susceptible to Aspergillus. Our data suggest that CPA patients produce lower amounts of ΙFNγ, a substance that facilitates the immune system's response against Aspergillus. We have also shown that, when given to patients with CPA who have failed to improve on antifungal treatment, interferon-gamma leads to improvement in important patient-centred outcomes like flares of lung disease or hospital admissions. Interferon-gamma is already in use in the National Health Service of the United Kingdom for other indications. Therefore, its use in CPA should be explored. However, CPA is a rare condition and the tolerability of interferon-gamma is not fully established in these patients. To understand whether a large-scale study is feasible in CPA, we first need preliminary data in smaller numbers of patients. We are conducting a randomised trial of interferon-gamma in addition to antifungals in CPA. Patients with CPA starting antifungal treatment are eligible. Participants (25 per group) are randomly assigned to interferon-gamma for 12 weeks (in addition to antifungals) or antifungals only. To test whether the treatment works, we will use measurements of the cavities on chest CT scan and scores on a quality-of-life questionnaire. We will assess for tolerability of treatment at intervals similar to clinical practice. Criteria for progression to the large-scale study will be set based on the proportion of patients willing to participate, and on the proportion who complete the treatment. Data collected on those parameters will allow us to determine the number needed for a definite study. If the large-scale study confirms our observations that interferon-gamma improves outcomes in CPA, then treatment duration can be shortened and relapses avoided. In addition, interferon-gamma can then be explored in other chronic lung disease.

Asthma is a serious long-term lung condition caused by swollen airways that narrow. This causes wheezing, chest tightness, and breathlessness. Most asthma is well-controlled with medication. However, 5-10% of asthmatics have severe asthma where treatment does not control symptoms and up to 67% of asthmatics have uncontrolled asthma, caused by not always taking medication as recommended, lifestyle choices or other health problems worsening their asthma. In the UK, asthma affects around 800,000 young adults. This group is at high-risk of having poor asthma control, worse outcomes than other age-groups. This is because young adults need care that differs from other age-groups and current care is not meeting these needs. There is little information on the experiences and needs of this group and very few studies exist, exploring how to improve care. This study will explore the experiences and needs of young adults (age16-25) with severe and uncontrolled asthma. Methods. The investigators will perform two study-arms with young adults with severe/uncontrolled asthma in Manchester and Liverpool severe asthma centres: Study-arm 1: Interview participants using photographs chosen by them to help explain their experiences of living with asthma and support that they need. Study arm 2: Perform group interviews to understand participants' thoughts around the insights from study-arm 1 combined with their own experiences. To explore and develop ideas on how to improve future care. At the end of both study arms, a workshop involving patients and stakeholders involved in delivering care will take place, to identify a joint goal of how to improve care in this cohort and map ways in which to achieve this. Together, the study results and workshop will increase our understanding of the experiences and needs of young adults with asthma. Helping us to identify new ways to improve care which can be tested in future research.

A complication of diabetes mellitus is damage to nerves called neuropathy. There are several mechanisms involved that will lead to the development of neuropathy. Neuropathy can lead to foot ulcers, infections and amputations. Patients with neuropathy may also experience pain, which can be difficult to control and the medications are limited by side effects. Despite this there are no approved treatments to reverse the progression of neuropathy and the management of patients is focused on controlling blood glucose and other metabolic factors to prevent neuropathy and its symptoms from getting worse. Patients with type 1 diabetes are prescribed multiple daily injections (MDI) of insulin to manage their glucose control. However, insulin pump therapy and, more recently, automated insulin delivery (AID) or the Artificial Pancreas can be used as the insulin delivery method for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Manchester Diabetes Centre is the first adult diabetes centre in Europe to pioneer and use a commercially-approved AID in clinical practice. Insulin pump therapy and AID have the advantage of being able to provide insulin at variable doses, which is closer to the natural process occurring within an individual without diabetes. Both are currently considered to be the most physiological method of insulin delivery and have been shown to improve glycaemic control, quality of life (QOL) and reduce the risk of hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose level). The investigators have previously shown in a small group of people that use of an insulin pump therapy may improve symptoms of painful neuropathy via a more stable glucose profile. The peaks and drops in insulin may make neuropathy worse. In this study the investigators aim to investigate the use of insulin pump therapy and AID in their effect on neuropathy. This will be in comparison to a control group of patients on MDI. The investigatorsbwill use a variety of neuropathy measures and symptom questionnaires to assess structural and functional neuropathy status. The investigators hypothesise that those patients receiving the newer technologies will demonstrate an improvement in symptoms and nerve regeneration. This finding would have a significant impact for patients as it would provide evidence to suggest that those patients with neuropathy should be put onto an insulin pump or AID to improve neuropathy and its symptoms. As these are treatments that are already available on the NHS to patients satisfying specific criteria this study aims to show benefit in this cohort of patients which can be implemented immediately in clinical practice.

1. At target LDL-C levels, apoB100 concentrations will be higher than recommended levels in the following populations: 1. Tertiary centre lipid clinic patients with raised TG treated with statins. 2. Patients with type 2 diabetes treated with statins. 3. Patients with Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) stages 4 and 5 treated with statins. 2. Despite achieving LDL-C and non-HDL-C targets, a significant number of statin-treated patients have residual cardiovascular risk related to raised hsCRP. The relationship between hsCRP and Lp-PLA2 (markers of inflammation) and LDL particle number measured by apoB100 is stronger than that of measured and calculated LDL and non-HDL. In statin treated patients there will be higher levels of hs-CRP and Lp-PLA2 in patients achieving LDL targets but not apo B targets. 3. We hypothesise that non-diabetic patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia (fasting serum triglyceride \>5.5 mmol/l) have evidence of greater nerve damage compared with matched controls. 4. LAL deficiency is underdiagnosed in patients with severe hypertriglyceridaemia, low HDL-C, hyperlipidaemias, non alcoholic fatty liver disease and idiopathic high liver enzymes.

The incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) is significant in the super-obese and diabetics. Inflammation is believed to play an important part in the development of CHD, and the large collection of abdominal fat in the obese person is a vast source of inflammation. Diabetics have abnormal glucose and cholesterol metabolism which ultimately compromise their bodies' circulatory system and nerve function. Cholesterol plays a vital role in CHD. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles carry cholesterol and deposit it in blood vessel walls which become damaged as a result. When LDL particles undergo changes chemically (called oxidation) or as a result of high circulating blood glucose (called glycation), they become more harmful to the body. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles have a protective function in CHD. Not only do they transport cholesterol away from the blood vessels to the liver to be broken down, they have properties against oxidation and inflammation. These properties are related to the activity of an enzyme on HDL called paraoxonase 1(PON1). Super-obese patients are increasingly treated by weight-reducing surgery (bariatric surgery). In this study we examine whether weight loss following bariatric surgery results in reduced inflammatory state, improved HDL function (higher PON1 activity), better control of blood glucose and less nerve damage. We will study PON1 activity, inflammation and glucose control in patients with type 1 diabetes (with and without kidney damage) and type 2 diabetes. We will also study the effects of rapidly rising blood glucose levels on PON1 and glycated LDL in patients undergoing oral glucose tolerance test.