The Leicester Cardiovascular Bioresource (LCB) will be developed in parallel with the BRICCS and will collect and store plasma, DNA and other biological samples (e.g. vascular tissues) from the selected groups of patients being investigated and treated in UHL.

We anticipate collecting, in the first five years, in excess of 20,000 new samples, each linked to patient information available via BRICCS. Given its scale and the mixed ethnic population base, LCB will become a major resource, contributing to our local programmes (particularly in genomics) as well as building national capacity in this field.

Each patient will have a unique identifier that would be used to collate their data from hospital blood tests or imaging tests. The unique patient identifier will be replaced in working datasets with an anonymous patient identifier. The anonymous patient identifier will be used to denote results from plasma, urine and genetic tests. Data on working datasets is thus pseudo-anonymised, so that working copies do not contain patient's names and addresses.

The participants will be recruited by research nurses and clinical research assistants working within the clinical areas, explaining the aims of the study and gaining consent electronically. For emergency inpatients, verbal consent after explanation will be sought and this verbal consent will be recorded on the electronic consent form. A research nurse or doctor will then obtain signatures on the consent form within 72 hours.

Where necessary, translators will be used to help explain the aims of the study.

Outpatients will be sent the combined patient information sheet/consent form (CPISCF) and a letter of invitation from their hospital consultant, inviting them to participate in this study, together with their clinic appointment letters. In this way, patients will have more than 72 hours to read the form and consider whether they wish to participate. Signatures of patient and the recruiting doctor/nurse will be obtained after explanation of the aims of the study.

All information which is collected during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential.

For further information regarding the LCB please contact:

Gavin Whyman, LCB Manager, on 0116 258 3473 or email gjw11@le.ac.uk