Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2006

Mentor: Marlyn Mayo
Department: Internal Medicine, Digestive and Liver Diseases
Room number: J5130
Mail Code: 9151
Phone number: 89117
E-mail: marlyn.mayo@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Development and validation of a new measure of pruritus

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0502-235

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A

Project Type Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

Grading pruritus (itching) is difficult because it is a subjective sensation. Traditionally, people have used a visual analog scale (i.e. grade your itch from 0-10) to measure pruritus, but this may not be very accurate. Dr. Mayo has just completed a pilot study of sertraline as a treatment for cholestatic pruritus. During that trial, information was gathered on different ways to measure pruritus (severity, location, duration, etc…) The goal of this summer project is to analyze that data to decide which questions are useful and create a new measure of pruritus. Then the student will validate the new scoring system by using it in a new population of subjects with pruritus. In addition to interviewing and examining subjects with cholestatic pruritus, subjects with pruritus due to primary skin disorders and other forms of metabolic pruritus (such as dialysis patients) will be tested to determine the general usefulness of the new assay. The student will spend time in the liver clinic, dialysis center, and dermatology clinics testing the new measure that they have created. It is anticipated that this should be a concise project that can be completed by the end of the summer because it is a stepping stone to a larger, multi-center study on cholestatic pruritus that Dr. Mayo is undertaking. It is ideally suited for a student considering internal medicine, dermatology, or psychology.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Sandra Saldana - Doris Duke fellow

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