PRIEST

People who develop an Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) often have a poor prognosis and many go on to develop chronic kidney disease (CKD). The recognition that AKI and CKD are linked is recent and the molecular pathways that control the transition from acute injury to chronic disease are not well defined. Currently there are no specific treatments that reduce the risk of progressing to CKD after AKI.

Preliminary investigations (not yet published) suggest that AKI causes sustained activation of the endothelin (ET) system to the long-term detriment of renal and systemic haemodynamic function. These pilot data form the basis of our project that seeks to determine whether the ET system is active in patients with AKI and, thus, represents a potential target for therapeutic intervention.

KRAKIL aims to recruit altogether 100 patients from across the emergency department, acute medical unit and inpatient wards at the Royal Infirmary. 50 of which with AKI’s and 50 matched controls with normal kidney function. We will monitor their bloods and urine for 90 days and compare the data from between the two groups.

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Trauma remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity. 10% of blunt force trauma patients admitted to a major trauma centre will have sustained one or more fractured ribs, which may cause significant pain and problems with breathing.

To establish the outcome of rib fractures and their treatments it is important to know what to measure, and how to measure this accurately. A patient reported outcome measure (PROM) is a questionnaire used to measure patient reported outcomes, to show how the patient is doing from their perspective.

Whilst there is ongoing interest in surgery to fix broken ribs, there is no PROM specifically designed for patients with broken ribs following chest trauma. Therefore, it is not clear whether the symptoms that are most important to these patients are being represented by the current outcome measures. This study aims to create a PROM specific to rib fracture patients to give us a better understanding of whether a new treatment actually makes a difference to the patient’s recovery.

The 1st part of the study involves asking patients with rib fractures to help design a new PROM. This will be conducted through focus groups at a site in Nottingham. The 2nd part of the study entails field testing, whereby patients with rib fractures will be asked to test this new PROM. This will be conducted across multiple secondary care settings in the UK, including the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. The study is expected to run for approximately 2 years, with recruitment targets of 50 patients for the PROM Creation phase and 250 for the Field Testing phase.

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