Project name: Homo sapiens

Description: The development and validation of accurate biological markers and predictors of disease activity and outcome of Churg-Strauss Syndrome (CSS), a form of idiopathic vasculitis, would have a major positive impact on the clinical care of patients with this rare disease, be an important advance in the design of clinical trials and feasibility of new drug development, and provide important insight into the pathogenesis of this condition. Current measures of disease activity, including erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP), while helpful in selected settings, are mostly considered highly flawed and markers whose poor correlation with disease flares makes them inadequate to help guide therapy. Similarly, ESR and CRP are clearly unhelpful as diagnostic tests for vasculitis. The current state of clinical investigation for vasculitis relies heavily upon determination of disease status solely by clinical presentation and investigator opinion... (for more see dbGaP study page.)

Data type: Phenotype or Genotype

Sample scope: Multiisolate

Relevance: Medical