Clinical Research Directory

Vitiligo Registry for Adults and Children in the UK

Vitiligo is the most common depigmentation disorder affecting around 1% of the population worldwide. Fifty two percent of patients develop vitiligo before the age of 20 and around 80% develop vitiligo before the age of 30 years old.1 Vitiligo often presents in childhood and tends to be a lifelong disease, requiring prolonged courses of phototherapy. Currently no national or international registry for patients with vitiligo exists. Individual dermatologists maintain a database of such patients, however no coordinated efforts have been made to combine these individual registries into a broader national registry. Finally, recently published British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) guideline for the management of vitiligo, recommended the development of a national registry for people with vitiligo undergoing systemic or light therapy to identify outcomes and safety.

Comparison of a Personalized Maintenance Therapy With the Standard Treatment in Pemphigus

Pemphigus diseases are life-threatening chronic autoimmune blistering diseases characterized by split formation within the epidermis and surface-close epithelia accompanied by acantholysis. Autoantibodies (Abs) are mainly directed against two structural proteins of the epidermal/epithelial desmosome, desmoglein (Dsg) 1 and Dsg3. Two main pemphigus variants can be differentiated, pemphigus vulgaris (PV), and pemphigus foliaceus (PF). Diagnosis of PV and PF is based on the combination of the clinical picture, histological picture of acantholysis, direct immunofluorescence microscopy (DIF) of a perilesional biopsy and serology. The present "Ritux 4" trial is the fourth academic study with the French study group on auto immune bullous skin diseases (Groupe Bulle) to assess the use of rituximab in auto immune bullous skin diseases, in particular pemphigus. The 3 previous trials have been published in outstanding Journals (N Engl J Med 2007, Science Transl Med 2013, The Lancet 2017 and 2020), and have led to the approval of rituximab in pemphigus by the FDA in 2018 and EMA in 2019. In addition, an industry-sponsored trial testing rituximab versus mycophenolate mofetil in pemphigus, that the investigators have largely contributed to design has been very recently accepted for publication in the N Engl J Med (2021). The investigator hypothesize that a maintenance therapy using an infusion of 1g of rituximab at Month 6 in patients whose anti-Dsg Abs have not sufficiently decreased at Month 3 after the initial cycle of rituximab (persistence of anti-Dsg1 Abs\> 20 UI/ml and/or anti-Dsg3 Abs\> 130 UI/ml), and or had an initial PDAI score \>45 ( first year of follow-up), and the re-treatment with 1g of rituximab of patients whose anti Dsg Abs re-increase during the evolution of pemphigus after the initial cycle of rituximab (anti-Dsg1 Abs\> 20 IU/ml, anti-Dsg3 Abs\> 50 UI/ml), could be effective in preventing the occurrence of relapses, thus avoiding to restart a CS treatment, and would provide benefit as compared with the current treatment strategy of retreating patients with 2 g of rituximab (1g at Day0 and Day14) combined with oral CS patients, once a clinical relapse occurs.

A Skin Image Reference Tool to Aid Healthcare Providers' Diagnosis

Consented patients will have three images taken of their dermatologic conditions within the Belle.ai software. These images will be uploaded and saved within the Belle software system where a single AI-generated differential list will be generated based on the three photos. All photos uploaded will be de-identified. The software will not have any unique identifiers of participants saved in the system. The photos will be named based on participant enrollment numbers or unique code numbers and no unique identifiers will be attached to the photos. There will be no data collection form necessary for this study

Psorcast Mobile Study

The purpose of this study is to understand variation in the symptoms of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis using simple, scalable smartphone-based measurements. This study uses an iPhone app to record these symptoms through questionnaires and sensors.

Photodynamic Therapy and Topical Antifungal for Onychomycosis in Patients With Diabetes.

There are different therapeutic alternatives for onychomycosis. Systemic therapy is widely used due to its easy accessibility, low cost and high efficacy, but may be associated with systemic adverse events and drug-drug interactions, so its use in patients with diabetes, immunocompromised and frequently take more than five drugs is not recommended even though these individuals are at serious risk of fungal infection. On the other hand, laser therapy would be contraindicated in patients with neuropathy or peripheral vascular disease (diabetic foot patients) because of possible burns. Topical antifungals or lacquers are associated with a low risk of systemic adverse events and drug-drug interactions and would therefore be the most appropriate treatment for patients with diabetic foot. However, they require very long treatment periods, are generally applied daily for 12 months to allow the normal nail to grow and replace the regions damaged by the infection and have a lower cure rate. Because of all the above difficulties, there is a need to augment topical treatments in routine clinical practice with adjunctive therapies such as photodynamic therapy for the treatment of onychomycosis in patients with diabetes. The main aim of this study is to observe the effectiveness and safety of the combination of photodynamic therapy with the usual antifungal treatment in consultation in patients with diabetes. Secondary aims have been defined as follows: To determine whether 3 sessions of photodynamic therapy combined with topical therapy, over a period of 6 months, is sufficient to achieve clinical, mycological and complete cure of onychomycosis; And to analyse the influence of the type of onychomycosis (ODL, total dystrophic, superficial), the causal fungal agent (dermatophyte, mould or yeast) and the degree of severity of onychomycosis (through the OSI) on the response to treatment. Patients included in the study will be visited every 2 weeks during the first two months, applying photodynamic therapy during visits 2, 3 and 4. Subsequently, a check-up will be performed two weeks after the last application of photodynamic therapy and monthly visits for the remainder of the study. At each visit and at subsequent check-ups, the nail plate and peri- and subungual hyperkeratotic tissue will be debrided and reamed in order to improve the effects of the treatment.

Addressing Inequity in Dermatology

The objectives of this study are to understand the variation in dermatoses presenting in individuals from different ancestry backgrounds. This will be conducted at multiple NHS hospitals in England. The Investigators specifically aim to 1) assess features of dermatoses in individuals of different ancestry. 2) Understand the language used by patients describing their condition.

Collection and Distribution of Biospecimens for Novel Research Uses

iSpecimen aims to create a clinical partner network of hospitals, laboratories, academic institutions, and other healthcare organizations ("institutions") capable of providing researchers and educators ("researchers") with annotated biospecimens for use in biomarker discovery and validation; diagnostic test and instrumentation development and validation; therapeutics development; other medical research including the impact that various specimen collection and handling methods and conditions have on research results; and in education such as researcher or physician training (collectively "research").