- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT03395431
Fingerprick Autologous Blood (FAB) in Severe Dry Eye Disease (DED) (FAB)
The Feasibility of Fingerprick Autologous Blood (FAB) As a Novel Treatment for Severe Dry Eye Disease (DED)
Study Overview
Status
Conditions
Intervention / Treatment
Detailed Description
Autologous serum (AS) eye drops have been found in uncontrolled trials to be beneficial in DED patient by improving the ocular surface and reducing symptoms. Obtaining autologous serum requires frequent drawing of blood from the patient- a feature that excludes patients with anaemia or heart failure from using AS. Furthermore it also appears that 100% autologous serum is more beneficial than 50% serum and requires larger volumes of blood and/or more frequent venesection. Patients using AS also require access to a fridge as the product needs to be stored at low temperatures; a factor that is likely to be inconvenient for patients. In addition, AS is obtained by processing clotted blood which is often too expensive for the health service to consistently purchase, given the initial cost of £1653.56 and subsequent three-monthly cost of £1131.27 per patient.
The relatively high cost represents the biggest hurdle in the use of AS and is often the reason for delay or inaccessibility in starting treatment for DED using AS. However, we propose that finger prick autologous blood may be a simpler, cost-effective and possibly more acceptable method for treating dry eye disease. For this reason, this study proposes to test the use of finger prick autologous blood (FAB) technique in which whole blood is applied to the eye from a cleaned finger.
The proposing team have completed an exploratory study on the use of finger-prick autologous blood (FAB) for persistent epithelial defects and severe dry eye disease and preliminary results indicate improvement with no adverse events reported. The exploratory study included 16 patients with a diagnosis of severe to moderate dry eye syndrome and used the FAB method for treatment. The findings of the study demonstrated mean improvements in visual acuity, Oxford corneal staining grade, tear breakup time, Schirmer's test and dry eye disease questionnaire score. The response rate from participants was good with only a single patient who met the inclusion criteria not wishing to participate in the trial on the advice of their general practitioner. Both the amount of staining (indicating inflammation and ocular surface damage) and their DED questionnaire scores (indicating severity of their symptoms and impact on quality of life) showed mean improvement which reached statistical significance.
Study Type
Enrollment (Anticipated)
Phase
- Not Applicable
Participation Criteria
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Genders Eligible for Study
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patient age ≥ 18 years
- Severe symptomatic dry eye disease diagnosed by: Ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score of greater than 33; OR Oxford Corneal Staining grade 2 or greater; OR Schirmer's without anaesthesia <5mm at 5 minutes
- Patients on artificial tears and/or lubricating drops/gel two or more times a day
- Patient able to give consent
- Patients able and willing complete the quality of life (QoL) questionnaires required for the study
Exclusion Criteria:
- Fear of needles
- Unable or not willing to carry out repeat finger pricks
- Patients with infected finger/s or systemic infection or on systemic antibiotics for infection.
- Patients with active ocular infection, active immunological corneal melt, or recurrent corneal erosion.
- Pregnant or breast feeding women
- Previous use of FAB treatment (e.g. from exploratory study)
- Systemic illness causing immune system deficiency
- Graft versus host disease
- Previous use of autologous serum within 3 months
Study Plan
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
- Allocation: RANDOMIZED
- Interventional Model: PARALLEL
- Masking: SINGLE
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: FAB group
Arm A - Finger prick autologous blood (FAB) plus conventional treatment The patients will use FAB alongside conventional therapy as recommended by their treating ophthalmologist.
A fingertip of the hand will be wiped with an alcohol steret and self-pricked using a standard diabetic lancet.
The drop of blood is produced as normal and applied to the lower fornix of the affected eye(s) with the lower lid pulled down slightly by the patient.
The blood will be applied 4 times a day.
A fresh finger should be used for each eye.
FAB should be applied at least 15 minutes after any artificial tears and no other drops applied for at least half an hour afterwards
|
Intervention involves the instillation of whole blood obtained from the prick of a clean finger 4 times a day.
Other Names:
|
NO_INTERVENTION: Control group
Arm B - Conventional treatment only The patients will use conventional therapy (artificial tears, cyclosporin drops and punctal plugs/cautery) as recommended by their treating ophthalmologist
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Number of patients recruited into the study within the specified time frame
Time Frame: 12 months
|
This will involve specifically assessing the number of eligible patient in study population consented and randomized.
|
12 months
|
Number of patients who adhere to trial protocol
Time Frame: 12months
|
Measured by self-reported adherence to trial protocol
|
12months
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Reduction in corneal inflammation as indicated by staining on front of the eye
Time Frame: 3 months
|
Assessed using the Oxford Corneal Staining Guide graded on a scale from 0 to 5 in order of increasing severity
|
3 months
|
Patient pain and symptoms scores
Time Frame: 3 months
|
This will be assessed by Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score assessed on a scale of 0 to 100 with higher score representing severity
|
3 months
|
Improvement in objective signs of dry eye disease as indicated by visual acuity
Time Frame: 3 months
|
This will be assessed using the Snellen chart
|
3 months
|
Willingness for patients to be randomised and acceptability of the intervention
Time Frame: 3 months
|
This will be assessed by structured qualitative interviews
|
3 months
|
Impact on patients' quality of life
Time Frame: 3 months
|
This will be assessed by EQ-5D-5L score with higher scores indicating improvement in quality of life
|
3 months
|
Cost to the NHS and patient
Time Frame: 3 months
|
This will be assessed by use of additional NHS services and privately purchased over the counter treatments related to dry eyes disease
|
3 months
|
Intraocular pressure (IOT)
Time Frame: 3 months
|
Intraocular pressure will be measured to assessed safety of the intervention
|
3 months
|
Collaborators and Investigators
Sponsor
Collaborators
Publications and helpful links
General Publications
- Poon AC, Geerling G, Dart JK, Fraenkel GE, Daniels JT. Autologous serum eyedrops for dry eyes and epithelial defects: clinical and in vitro toxicity studies. Br J Ophthalmol. 2001 Oct;85(10):1188-97. doi: 10.1136/bjo.85.10.1188.
- Tsubota K, Goto E, Fujita H, Ono M, Inoue H, Saito I, Shimmura S. Treatment of dry eye by autologous serum application in Sjogren's syndrome. Br J Ophthalmol. 1999 Apr;83(4):390-5. doi: 10.1136/bjo.83.4.390.
- Fox RI, Chan R, Michelson JB, Belmont JB, Michelson PE. Beneficial effect of artificial tears made with autologous serum in patients with keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Arthritis Rheum. 1984 Apr;27(4):459-61. doi: 10.1002/art.1780270415. No abstract available.
- Than J, Balal S, Wawrzynski J, Nesaratnam N, Saleh GM, Moore J, Patel A, Shah S, Sharma B, Kumar B, Smith J, Sharma A. Fingerprick autologous blood: a novel treatment for dry eye syndrome. Eye (Lond). 2017 Dec;31(12):1655-1663. doi: 10.1038/eye.2017.118. Epub 2017 Jun 16.
- Balal S, Udoh A, Pappas Y, Cook E, Barton G, Hassan A, Hayden K, Bourne RRA, Ahmad S, Pardhan S, Harrison M, Sharma B, Wasil M, Sharma A. The feasibility of finger prick autologous blood (FAB) as a novel treatment for severe dry eye disease (DED): protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2018 Oct 31;8(10):e026770. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026770.
Study record dates
Study Major Dates
Study Start (ANTICIPATED)
Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)
Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
First Posted (ACTUAL)
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
Last Verified
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- IRAS 233813
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.
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