MYOVAS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Vascular assessment in antisynthetase syndrome, dermatomyositis, and systemic sclerosis
IRAS ID
331680
Contact name
Hector Chinoy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a group of rare autoimmune diseases involving weakness and inflammation of muscle and other organ systems. Early diagnosis of IIMs is vital for patient’s quality of life. Anti-synthetase syndrome (ASyS) and dermatomyositis (DM) are subtypes of IIM. It is difficult to tell the difference between ASyS with and without skin symptoms, and DM. If we can more easily understand this difference, we can use more specific treatments for individual patients.
This research will use techniques which have been shown to work in other tissue disorders – specifically in patients with Reynaud’s phenomenon. These techniques are nailfold capillaroscopy and thermography and we hope to use these techniques to help our understanding of ASyS and DM. They have previously been able to differentiate between primary Reynaud’s (which has no underlying cause) and Reynaud’s secondary to a connective tissue disorder called systemic sclerosis (SSc).
We will study 20 patients with IIM, 20 patients with SSc, and 20 patients with DM at Salford Royal Hospital and North Bristol Trust using these techniques along with Laser Doppler Imaging (LDI) which can assess blood flow. Patients attending Salford Royal will undergo nailfold capillaroscopy on each finger, thermal imaging prior to and following a cold challenge, LDI, photographing of both hands and physician and patient questionnaires. Patients attending North Bristol will undergo nailfold capillaroscopy on each finger, baseline thermography, photographing of both hands and physician and patient questionnaires. They will not undergo cold challenge as no temperature-controlled lab is available, or LDI as no laser Doppler is available. We expect this research to last in total for two years. The study will end when the final patient has been recruited and the data analysed.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/NW/0014
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion