Refinement of electrophoresis protocols to improve diagnosis.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Clinical and technical applications of serum capillary and gel electrophoresis for diagnosis and monitoring of myeloma with refinement of testing protocols to improve diagnostic sensitivity and specificity.
IRAS ID
226710
Contact name
Sarah Hardy
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 4 days
Research summary
Gel electrophoresis has been utilised for many years as a means to separate serum proteins by their charge at a particular pH to identify abnormalities – namely myeloma. This semi-automated technology is time consuming for Biomedical Scientist laboratory staff, is limited by batch size and can produce inconclusive results causing delayed diagnosis as further tests are then carried out off-site. With the introduction of capillary electrophoresis laboratories are able to increase their throughput with continuous sample loading and obtain higher resolution of protein separation. The first part of this study will evaluate this new method. Accurate diagnosis may however still require additional testing utilising other methods due to the complex nature of electrophoresis results. Some of these are not currently offered in-house at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust; serum free light chains and immunoglobulin D and E for example. Those assays which are not currently performed on site will be appraised to ascertain their usefulness and whether it would be beneficial and cost effective to bring any of these in-house. Together this information will be used to formulate an algorithm indicating when such further tests are required. This will mean faster provision of a comprehensive set of results to Clinicians and relevant treatment can then be tailored appropriately.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0751
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion