Patients’ experience in the ELUCIDATE trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patients’ experience in the ELUCIDATE trial
IRAS ID
127522
Contact name
Barbara Potrata
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Faculty of Medicine and Health Research Office
Research summary
In the recent years Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) has become one of the most common diseases in the UK. This condition causes the scarring of a liver (liver fibrosis) which over the years can become severely scarred (cirrhosis), resulting in dangerously high blood pressure in the main vein leading to the liver, liver failure and liver cancer. If cirrhotic patients are identified early they can be offered a number of effective therapies. Even though a number of tests exist for diagnosing when liver fibrosis (scarred liver) turns into cirrhosis (scarring becomes severe) they are not sensitive enough and some of them involve substantial procedures like scans or removing liver samples with needles. There are a number of substances in the body (biomarkers) which help to indicate the development of cirrhosis and recent studies have indicated that a group of biomarkers are more effective in detection of liver damage than individual ones. These may be measured by a simple blood sample.
One such group of markers which help to indicate the onset of cirrhosis is the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) test which is now being studied in the ELUCIDATE trial. However, the patients might have very different experiences of their disease being monitored by this and similar tests. For example, while some patients like feeling in control by knowing what is going on with their health others might feel very anxious about their condition potentially getting worse even though this might never happen. The aim of this study is to explore such experiences of being monitored by ELF tests to see how acceptable the test is to the patients and to better support them while they are being monitored.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/SW/1009
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion