Feasibility Study: Screening for carotid disease in OPD.

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Feasibility Study: Screening for Asymptomatic Carotid disease (ACD) in Vascular and cardiac patients.

  • IRAS ID

    263675

  • Contact name

    Charles McCollum

  • Contact email

    charles.mccollum@manchester.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Manchester

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 6 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    Carotid artery disease causes one third of strokes or mini-strokes. It is caused by a fatty build-up in the artery wall (known as atherosclerotic plaque). The plaque can be present and stable for a long time and not cause any symptoms or signs; this is called asymptomatic carotid disease (ACD). Plaques can become unstable and then they are at risk of causing a stroke or mini stroke (TIA). There is controversy about how to manage Asymptomatic Carotid Disease as the majority will not have a stroke from this disease.\nTo investigate who is at highest risk of stroke we need 4000 people with asymptomatic carotid disease (ACD). This feasibility study proposes to assess recruitment to this large cohort study by using a ‘Quick Scan’ or ultrasound to identify carotid disease. 100 peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients will be prospectively screened for carotid artery disease when they attend the Wythenshawe vascular lab for routine scans. Cardiac patients all have a carotid ultrasound before bypass surgery. To identify the percentage with ACD we simply need to reconfigure the database to allow rapid identification of cardiac patients with any carotid artery disease.\nThe ‘quick scan’ results will be compared to a full standard carotid ultrasound to ensure accuracy. The aims are to determine the proportion who consent to carotid screening and the feasibility, cost and accuracy of the new “quick scan“, as well as the proportion who screen positive for ACD. Consenting patients PAD patients will have 2 extra scans lasting roughly 30 minutes at their routine appointment. A funding application has been submitted to the University of Manchester ‘Confidence in Concept’ (CiC7) stream, but is still being considered.\n

  • REC name

    Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    19/YH/0263

  • Date of REC Opinion

    25 Jul 2019

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion