Screening

Q. Will patients need any separate screening bloods as the patient needs to be consented before any trial specific samples can be taken?

A. No, there are no extra bloods needed for screening the patient. Any blood sample results which are taken as part of routine care can be used for inclusion into the trial as long as it is within 4 weeks of randomisation.

Q. The screening bloods include TSATs. Could patients still be included who do not have this done routinely?

A. Part of the exclusion criteria is to exclude patients with iron overload, which is defined as a patient having a known TSAT > 50%. (Therefore, if a TSAT test has not been done already, this test isn’t needed as part of the screening).

Q. Will there be enough time to identify patients before their surgery?

A. This needs to be dealt with locally as the patient pathway may be different in different hospitals.