We are proud to work in a department that is able to deliver high quality research. It is very clear from the medical literature that institutions that do research have better outcomes.
The ICU here at the RBH is also known as the University of Reading, Department of Critical Care Medicine. We were awarded this title in 2022. We are very proud to be associated with the University and this reflects our excellent clinical outcomes over time, our well established education programme across the entire multi-disciplinary team as well as our deep roots in research.
We have contributed a huge number of studies over time and our track record in research goes back over twenty years.
The NIHR is the research arm of the NHS. Our research is predominantly funded by the NIHR. We work collaboratively with colleagues in Oxford, Belfast and Edinburgh and well as researchers in critical care up and down the country and abroad including Scandinavia and Australia. Our research has focused on studies into infection and its treatment, as well as management of patients who are being ventilated as well as those who have undergone a cardiac arrest.
More recently we have started to collaborate with colleagues at the University of Reading and the University of Oxford. This is an exciting development for us. We have two students undertaking further studies under joint supervision between us and the universities. They are working on studies on ventilators and on studies into the function into the components of blood that work on clotting.
Our research team is multi-disciplinary and we know that this is one of our strengths. We meet regularly to keep track on the studies running currently as well as keeping an eye on what’s coming up in the future. We are very proud to have patient representation on our committee. Patient experience is one of the forces that drive us.
If you are interesting in taking part in research studies please follow this link: I want to take part in a research study | NIHR
The blood that circulates within our bodies consists of many different cells, each with unique functions. One type of blood cell is the platelet; these cells become activated and attach to sites of injury to help form a blood clot and reduce or prevent further bleeding. In some unwell individuals, the number and/or function of these platelets can become altered. In many critically ill patients, the number of platelets can be reduced below a safe level, a condition known as thrombocytopenia. Thrombocytopenia is problematic, as in many cases, it is linked to worse patient outcomes.
Within critically unwell patients, one group at risk of both thrombocytopenia and other bleeding disorders (e.g. overactivation of clotting) are patients with liver disease. Patients with liver disease in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) include those with established diseases such as alcohol-related cirrhosis, as well as those with liver dysfunction as part of their critical illness, for example, patients with sepsis.
Historically, platelet studies have focused on the number of platelets rather than their function, as their number is easier to study and is included as part of routine blood count analysis. However, these studies are problematic because the relationship between the number and function of platelets is complex; a normal number of platelets does not always correlate with normal functionality. The relationship between function and number is further complicated when introducing external factors such as critical illness and liver disorders.
In this study, RBH and the University of Reading will collaborate to analyse the platelets using a range of complex, state-of-the-art techniques to study blood samples taken from patients with liver disease and critically unwell patients in the ICU at RBH. The goal is to analyse their platelet function in the laboratory and monitor how the function changes throughout their time in the ICU. This information will allow us to relate patient experiences, such as bleeding, clotting, and organ dysfunction, back to the laboratory results. While participation in this study will not have immediate benefits for the patients, upon the completion of this study, its results will be used to support future studies in making improvements to treatment strategies for this patient category.