Dyspnoea perception in stroke and glioma patients (version 7)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dyspnoea sensitivity in patients with cerebral ischaemic stroke or low-grade glioma involving the insular cortex; pilot study
IRAS ID
117397
Contact name
Chapman Tom
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford Brookes University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Breathlessness (‘dyspnoea’) is an unpleasant feeling of breathing discomfort. Patients complain of breathlessness as much as they do of pain, it is hard to relieve and can make life unbearable. The few options available to relieve breathlessness do not work well. Better options will be possible if we can find out which part of the brain is responsible for feeling breathlessness.
We know there are different types of breathlessness and have a good idea of the signals that go to the brain to report breathing problems. We are less sure about the parts of the brain involved in ‘feeling’ breathlessness in response to these signals. Recent brain-imaging studies have suggested that the part called ‘insular cortex’ is essential to be able to feel breathlessness, but imaging studies make many assumptions; we can’t rely on them alone to say for sure that these parts of the brain are essential to feel breathlessness. By testing breathlessness in patients with brain tumours affecting the insular cortex (‘low-grade glioma’) and in stroke patients who have damaged different parts of their brains, and comparing these to tests in healthy volunteers gives us another way of looking at this.
We will use a standard test of breathlessness in which patients breathe a small amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) while the number of breaths taken per minute, and the size of each breath, is kept at their baseline level. Patients will use a ‘visual analogue scale’ to tell us how much breathlessness they have. In patients with a reduced feeling of breathlessness, we will examine which area is most commonly damaged on their brain scans. This may lead to a new way of screening stroke patients for breathing problems they are unaware of, and could possibly lead to new ways to treat breathlessness.REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SC/0231
Date of REC Opinion
9 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion