Permeability and MRI in Cirrhosis (PerMinC)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Small bowel permeability and associated changes of MRI measures in patients with liver cirrhosis
IRAS ID
237087
Contact name
Guruprasad Aithal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham Research & Innnovation
Duration of Study in the UK
8 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Most people with liver disease do not have symptoms. Over time they develop ‘cirrhosis’ - severe liver scarring. In the UK, death due to cirrhosis has doubled over the last decade – mostly as a result of increasing rates of alcohol consumption and obesity.
When a patient is diagnosed with cirrhosis the things that will determine their prognosis;(the forecast of the course of the disease) are:
1. The extent of scarring in the liver,
2. The pressure in the veins around the liver (portal pressure)
3. The ability of the bowel to keep bacteria within itself (bowel permeability).
The bowel is usually excellent at keeping bacteria inside by having an intact wall. Certain diseases (e.g. cirrhosis) and drugs (e.g. aspirin or alcohol) make the bowel wall leakier. Bacteria can then cross into the bloodstream. Infections from bacteria that usually live in the bowel cause most serious symptoms in liver disease such as confusion (encephalopathy), bleeding (from high pressure varicose veins called varices), and common infections which all lead to life-threatening events. The process by which this happens is not fully understood. There is no agreed way of predicting to whom this will happen nor how to measure its occurrence, despite its having an important effect on prognosis and the success of treatment.
In Nottingham, we have recently shown that newly developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of the bowel can in Healthy Volunteers, separate normal and 'temporarily' leaky bowels in those given aspirin.
The aim of this study is to assess whether these newly developed MRI scans can separate normal and leaky small bowel as defined by the current "gold standard" test in patients with cirrhosis.
It is hoped this will lead to a new widely available, cheap and reliable way to monitor the leakiness of bowels in patients.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0405
Date of REC Opinion
1 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion