Birmingham Children's Hospital

The Birmingham Children’s Hospital is the fourth NCG-designated Lysosomal Storage Disorders paediatric centre in the UK (existing centres are in London, Manchester and Cambridge) and offers comprehensive, national diagnosis and treatment for children with lysosomal storage disorders, in addition to the service already provided for other rare disorders. The unit is already well established as one of the three major centres for rare metabolic disorders in the United Kingdom.

The multidisciplinary metabolic team, led by 4 Consultants Dr. Anupam Chakrapani, Dr Chris Hendriksz, Dr Suresh Vijay and Dr Paul Gissen, it includes clinical nurse specialists, dieticians, biochemists, a pharmacist, link worker and administrative staff with input from several paediatric sub-specialties. Long-term care is provided in conjunction with community-based teams and in close liaison with family support organisations.

The unit is involved in research and has its own dedicated Wellcome research facility.  Research projects include non-invasive investigation of brain chemistry in patients with neurometabolic diseases using MRI scanner and development of a method for speedy genetic diagnosis in metabolic disease. The introduction of this method into clinical use will occur in several stages with the first batch of diseases, which includes Niemann Pick type C disease, DNA testing will be available in 2010.  The Unit also actively contributes to the further education of other professionals that may come across these patients.  

  

The LSD Team Consists of

Metabolic consultants

Dr Hendriksz

Dr Chakrapani

Dr Vijay

Dr Gissen

on 0121 333 9907/8 or fax 0121 333 9909

Nurse Specialists
Catherine Stewart - 0121 333 9962
Louise Simmons - 0121 333 9956

Support Worker
Satnam Chahal - 0121 333 9962