BronchUK: protocol for an observational cohort study and biobank in bronchiectasis.

Bronchiectasis has been a largely overlooked disease area in respiratory medicine. This is reflected by a shortage of large-scale studies and lack of approved therapies, in turn leading to a variation of treatment across centres. BronchUK (Bronchiectasis Observational Cohort and Biobank UK) is a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study working collaboratively with the European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration project.

Reliability of the Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire for Identifying Symptomatic PAD in General Practice.

The Edinburgh Claudication Questionnaire (ECQ) was developed to help identify peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in the general population but has not been validated against diagnostic arterial imaging methods such as Duplex Vascular Ultrasound Scanning (DUS). In the present study, we assessed the accuracy of the ECQ for diagnosis using DUS. As part of a National Institute of Health Research funded project looking at novel diagnostic methods, 250 patients were studied from 15 general practices across North East England from May 2015 and November 2016.