Study of vulnerability to Covid-19 opens to recruitment

The ‘Stratification of Clinically Vulnerable People for COVID-19 Risk Using Antibody Testing’ (STRAVINSKY) study has recruited its first patient in an important step forward in establishing whether antibody levels predict risk of Covid-19 infection in people who are clinically vulnerable.

STRAVINSKY is a new two-year study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which aims to build our understanding of who is most clinically vulnerable to Covid-19 infection and identify individuals or disease groups at highest risk.

Using this information, STRAVINSKY will be able to assess the effectiveness of Covid-19 booster vaccine programmes or new treatments for these patients as well as respond if significant new Covid-19 variants are detected.

STRAVINSKY is recruiting up to 2,600 patients to take part in this research who either have conditions or take medication that affect the functioning of their immune system. This includes people with kidney transplants, chronic kidney disease and other conditions (see the STRAVINSKY study website for the full list of conditions).

Patient recruitment has opened at two of the 11 hospitals that will be running the STRAVINSKY study, with more sites due to begin recruitment in the coming weeks. Sites will contact eligible patients on their databases when they start recruitment.

Sites where the STRAVINSKY project will run are: Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leicester, London, Oxford, Newcastle, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Southampton.

The STRAVINSKY team are running a free webinar via Zoom on Thursday 21 September 2023 at 6pm. During the webinar, you can hear from lead researcher Professor Alex Richter on STRAVINSKY’s aims and what is involved in taking part in the research project. You will also have an opportunity to ask questions.