Clinical trial NCT02523625: Giant Cell Arteritis: Improving Use of Ultrasound Evaluation
Official title: Can we Use Ultrasound in the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Patients With Giant Cell Arteritis?
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Giant Cell Arteritis
Keywords: Ultrasound
Lead sponsor: University of Oxford
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Lisbon
First posted: 2015-08-14
Enrollment: 250
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients with suspected or diagnosed giant cell arteritis

Brief summary: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an inflammatory disease causing new, unaccustomed headache in the elderly and which can lead to blindness in 20-30% of untreated cases. The study group have previously shown that ultrasound is a viable non-invasive alternative to temporal artery biopsy in diagnosing GCA. However, there is significant variation in ultrasound assessment (measuring a dark "halo" around the abnormal blood vessels) between sonographers in different centres, requiring a labour intensive and time consuming training programme. The study group propose to standardise the training programme, and use ultrasound and clinical evaluation to define changes occurring over time and with treatment in patients with a diagnosis of GCA made based on ultrasound changes alone. The study group will explore the use of algorithms to automate or semi-automate image interpretation.

Detailed description: Objectives and Project Plan:

* Project Purpose:

The purpose of the project is to develop the technology to reliably acquire and analyse ultrasound images through the use of a training programme which are comparable to those from scanning by an expert sonographer in the diagnosis (i.e. as a diagnostic tool) and monitoring of patients with GCA following treatment (i.e. as a response indicator), and patient stratification according to initial or early scan changes to determine the most appropriate treatment (i.e. as a prognostic tool).

* End Point:

The end point will be the production of an effective training programme which can be used to obtain reproducible accurate ultrasound images of the temporal artery which can be automatically analysed and used in real time in the management of patients with suspected or confirmed giant cell arteritis.

* Milestones:

The project is in 3 phases. In phase 1 (0-12 months) the study group will create a bank of images for training from healthy volunteers and patients with GCA; in phase 2 (13-18 months) the study group will test the programme on sonographers assessing patients with GCA; in phase 3 (19-42 months) the study group will acquire serial images, clinical data, serum and plasma from cohorts of patients with newly diagnosed and flaring GCA so that they can analyse and develop new software algorithms. The study group can use images already acquired from a previous diagnostic study in GCA, and test the algorithms on the new cohorts..

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy volunteer or
* Patient with a suspected diagnosis of GCA but found not to have GCA
* Recent diagnosis of GCA within 1 month or
* Suspected flare of GCA within one month
* Ability to provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unable to provide written informed consent

Primary outcomes:
measure: Size of halo detected (mm) on ultrasound of temporal arteries
timeFrame: 24 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Circulating serum Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) levels
timeFrame: 24 months
measure: Circulating serum Pentraxin 3 levels
timeFrame: 24 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Oxford
name: Raashid A Luqmani, DM FRCP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Ponte C, Rodrigues AF, O'Neill L, Luqmani RA. Giant cell arteritis: Current treatment and management. World J Clin Cases. 2015 Jun 16;3(6):484-94. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v3.i6.484.
citation: Diamantopoulos AP, Myklebust G. Long-term inflammation in the temporal artery of a giant cell arteritis patient as detected by ultrasound. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. 2014 Jun;6(3):102-3. doi: 10.1177/1759720X14521109. No abstract available.
citation: Schmidt WA. Ultrasound in vasculitis. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2014 Jan-Feb;32(1 Suppl 80):S71-7. Epub 2014 Feb 17.
citation: Diamantopoulos AP, Haugeberg G, Hetland H, Soldal DM, Bie R, Myklebust G. Diagnostic value of color Doppler ultrasonography of temporal arteries and large vessels in giant cell arteritis: a consecutive case series. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2014 Jan;66(1):113-9. doi: 10.1002/acr.22178.
citation: Muratore F, Boiardi L, Restuccia G, Macchioni P, Pazzola G, Nicolini A, Germano G, Possemato N, Cavazza A, Cavuto S, Cimino L, Pipitone N, Catanoso M, Addimanda O, Salvarani C. Comparison between colour duplex sonography findings and different histological patterns of temporal artery. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2013 Dec;52(12):2268-74. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/ket258. Epub 2013 Sep 17.
citation: Habib HM, Essa AA, Hassan AA. Color duplex ultrasonography of temporal arteries: role in diagnosis and follow-up of suspected cases of temporal arteritis. Clin Rheumatol. 2012 Feb;31(2):231-7. doi: 10.1007/s10067-011-1808-0. Epub 2011 Jul 9.