Clinical Trials
Clinical Trials
This programme is using Rituximab for the treatment of fatigue in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). It is a National Institute for Reproductive Health funded clinical trial under the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme.
Fatigue is a significant problem for many of our patients. Our pioneering collaboration between the Clinical Hepatology Research and MR Teams at Newcastle has demonstrated that the way the muscle responds to energetic demand is altered in patients with PBC. This is postulated to be associated with the level of an anti-mitochondrial antibody that is characteristically altered in these patients.
This study trials the use of the drug Rituximab in patients with PBC. Rituximab is an existing and effective treatment to reduce the production of antibodies in the body and we believe will therefore reduce the fatigue in our patients.
You can find out more about this work on Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre’s website.