This page provides an overview of the recently finished ASPECT-PCD study.
The ASPECT-PCD study aimed to understand more about the assessment of personalised airway clearance techniques (ACTs) in children and young people with PCD. ACTs are recommended to all with PCD, and the routines advised are tailored to the needs of each individual. However, tests we currently use to assess if ACTs are working, such as lung function can be limited in their ability to detect change following an ACT.
In this study, a new and safe type of imaging called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to assess children with PCD before and after they completed their usual ACT routine. By asking children with PCD to inhale a special gas (hyperpolarised xenon), the MRI scanner could take pictures of the gas inside the lungs. In PCD, this technique has shown areas where mucus is blocking the airways.
The study also explored if the MRI pictures could inform physiotherapists about patients’ lung health. To this, they explored how physiotherapists currently decide what ACT regimen they recommend to patients and then if providing physiotherapists with the information from the MRI changed their recommendations.
The ASPECT-PCD study was led by Lynne Schofield, a physiotherapist in the North of England PCD service. Children and young people with PCD were invited to take part from a number of centres across the North including Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Sheffield. The study would not have been possible without the time and commitment of 35 brilliant children and young people took part. A big thank you goes out to those individuals, plus their families who supported them to come to the MRI unit in Sheffield. As the study also involved asking physiotherapists, doctors and nurses about airway clearance and MRI, thanks also to the 17 clinicians who gave their time to take part.
The team have also created a short video summarising the study:
We will share further information on the findings of the study on this page as it becomes available.
Publications
Personalising airway clearance in chronic suppurative lung diseases: a scoping review - PMC (this link will open a .pdf of the paper in a new tab)