Food diary & FFQ

As part of our dietary intervention studies, we use standardised and validated short term (food diary) and long term (Food frequency questionnaires (FFQ)) dietary questionnaires in order to assess participants’ nutrient,  dietary intakes and eating habits. The data collected via tools such as the food diary also helps monitor compliance to the dietary intervention and validate our research findings.

Heart rate variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the variation in time intervals between consecutive heartbeats and is an important metric that reflects the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the heart. Recent studies have highlighted the association of HRV with chronic health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease as well as mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. We are interested in investigating the effects of dietary fibre interventions on HRV status using wearable devices that are able to capture this metric over specific periods of time.

Functional Tests

In our clinical laboratories we use standardised functional measures to assess a participants’ lower body strength and functional mobility, namely with the 30-second sit-to-stand timed-up and the timed-up and go tests.

30 seconds sit-to-stand: We assess the number of times participants can get up from a chair in 30 seconds.

Timed-up and go: Participants are asked to stand up from a chair, walk 3 m, turn around, walk back to the chair, and sit down again. This is being timed.

Muscle Strength

Isokinetic testing is a strength test for the muscles around a joint, for example the knee. The test uses specially designed equipment to measure the muscle contractions and resistance around the joint. Participants are asked to push a lever arm on the machine using the thigh muscles which help us establish the strength of knee muscles at that time.

Hand grip strength testing

Grip strength is a measure of muscle strength and it can be used for measuring upper body strength and overall strength. Participants will be positioned sitting upright on a chair (no armrests) and the elbow flexed to 90 degrees. The grip device (dynamometer) will then be placed into the participant’s hand, and they will be asked to squeeze the device momentarily as hard as possible and then release their grip.

Bioelectrical impedance

A method for estimating body composition, in particular body fat and muscle mass, where a weak electric current flows through the body and the voltage is measured in order to calculate impedance of the body. Most body water is stored in muscle.

Pain Sensitivity measures (Quantitative Sensory Testing - QST)

QST is non-invasive testing during which pain sensitivity is assessed by recording the participant’s pain experience in response to a standardised physical stimulus, such as changes in mechanical pressure (Pressure Pain Threshold test) or sharpness (Temporal Summation test).

Pressure Pain Threshold test: Pressure is applied to the anatomical test site (area of tissue pathology and areas away from the site of clinical pain) to measure the lowest pressure that subjects feel as pain (pain detection threshold) using a hand-held probe. This allows us to look at how pressure-sensing nerve fibers located deep beneath the skin’s surface respond. Lower values may indicate that the nervous system has become sensitive to pain, because the painful joint is sending lots of messages to the brain. We compare different locations to understand whether pain is at the joint or in more places in the body.

Temporal Summation test: To test for sensitivity to sharpness, a “pinprick” stimulator is applied to the skin for less than a second each time, and participants are asked to rate the pain or sharpness they experience on a given scale. High values might indicate greater sensitivity to pain at the level of the spinal cord.

Inflammation

One of the main outcomes of our research studies is assessing markers of inflammation which include pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory markers such as IL-6, IL-1, TNFɑ, IL-10 measured using ELISA. In addition to these, we also measure a wide range of novel inflammatory proteins using the Olink proteomic platform.

Gut microbiome

We conduct both observational and longitudinal analysis of the composition and function of the gut microbiome using 16s RNA as well as in-depth shotgun metagenomic sequencing. For example, metagenomic sequencing allows us to gather information about carbohydrate-active enzymes. These enzymes, crucial for carbohydrate metabolism, may offer insights into how dietary carbohydrates impact our overall health. Additionally, this in-depth sequencing helps us observe changes in the abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes for example due to antibiotic therapy.

Academic Orthopaedics,
C floor West Block,
University of Nottingham,
Queens Medical Centre,
Derby Road, Nottingham NG7 2UHk

Academic Rheumatology Clinical Sciences Building
Nottingham City Hospital
Hucknall Road,
Nottingham, NG5 1PB