New national clinical trial to be set up in bangor
Bangor is to be the centre for a major national clinical trial aimed at improving the treatment of a serious rheumatic disease.
A medical team based at Gwynedd Hospital has been awarded a grant of almost a quarter of a million pounds to run the trial for patients suffering from scleroderma, also known as systemic sclerosis.
Peter Maddison, professor of rheumatology has been awarded £236,000 from the Arthritis Research Campaign to co-ordinate the study.
The hospital's rheumatology unit was set up to serve the North Wales area only four years ago, and Professor Maddison's grant is the first ever to be awarded by the ARC - a leading medical research charity - in North Wales. The trial will be a multi-centre study involving the participating clinics of the UK Systemic Sclerosis Study Group, to be co-ordinated from Bangor.
"We're delighted that our study is the first to be funded by a new Clinical Trials Programme run by the ARC, and the British Society for Rheumatology," said Professor Maddison. "We have an active research programme at Gwyedd Hospital, but this is our largest research grant to date."
Scleroderma is a relatively uncommon but serious auto-immune disease, which affects the body's internal organs and blood vessels and can sometimes be fatal.
"The importance of this study is that no therapy has yet been established to alter the course of scleroderma, and this is the first study to target the vascular (ie the blood vessel) component of the disease," explained Professor Maddison. "We aim to assess the effect of a drug called Quinapril in preventing vascular damage in scleroderma."
Quinapril blocks the action of an enzyme known as ACE (or angiotension converting enzyme), a protein in the blood which is released by the action of an enzyme, causing a constriction of blood vessels, and thus raising the blood pressure.
Around 300 patients across the UK will be recruited for the three-year, randomised, placebo-controlled trial. Half the patients will be given Quinapril, and the other half will receive an identical dummy tablet. Drugs known as ACE inhibitors are already used in the treatment of heart disease, and for kidney problems in scleroderma.
The Arthritis Research Campaign is the fifth biggest medical research charity in the UK, and in the past 12 months spent £21m on research. It relies entirely on public donations to fund its programme. There are active fundraising ARC groups in Bangor and Llandudno.
