There are about 13446 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Belgium. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an adjunctive treatment for refractory epilepsy. Although widely used, there is still a substantial number of patients with insufficient response. Light, and particularly blue light, can stimulate alertness, attention and cognition through modulation of anatomical targets which are common to the vagal afferent network. This project aims at understanding how exposure to blue enriched light may influence VNS effects in patients with refractory epilepsy by exploring the modulation of a series of biomarkers of VNS action. This could possibly lead to new therapeutic strategies to increase efficacy of VNS.
Research demonstrated that transplant recipients benefit from physical activity, but there is a gap in knowledge regarding the required intensity. In the PHOENIX-Liver study, researchers aim to investigate the adequate intensity of rehabilitation programs after liver transplantation. Patients will be randomized into one of the three PHOENIX-Liver training groups (low, moderate, moderate to high). The six months rehabilitation program is conducted from the patient's home but supervised by a PHOENIX-investigator. At baseline, after three months of rehabilitation and after six months of rehabilitation, a test moment takes place at which physical fitness, cardiovascular health, liver function, and body composition will be assessed. Questionnaires are taken monthly to survey well-being, safety, quality of life, physical activity, and cost-effectiveness. To gather information on the potential for implementation in a real-world setting, a 15-month-long physical activity phase will start after the intervention phase. This entails a maintenance physical activity program tailored to the patients' preferences. A follow-up at UZ Leuven is planned at three and at 15 months where the same clinical evaluations will be conducted as during the test moments of the intervention phase.
Pulmonary congestion secondary to volume overload or interstitial tissue inflammation is common in chronic hemodialysis patients. This pulmonary congestion occurs mainly during the period between dialysis sessions and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular event morbidity and mortality in this population. The evaluation of this pulmonary congestion and the estimation of the dry weight of hemodialysis patients according to conventional methods represent a real challenge for clinical nephrologists. Lung ultrasound is a new diagnostic approach validated in the assessment of pulmonary congestion. It would allow a better assessment of dry weight in chronic hemodialysis patients based on the results of preliminary studies, including our latest pilot study. However, there is little evidence comparing this novel approach to traditional approaches.
Prospective, interventional, open-label, non-controlled, monocentric study in Belgium of Luca, of up to 7 evaluable subjects, undergoing vitreoretinal surgery to treat intravitreal hemorrhage and macular pucker. Only one eye per subject can be enrolled.
Pressure ulcers are a global issue and substantial concern for healthcare systems. A review of the literature between January 2000 and December 2012 has revealed that prevalence rate of pressure ulcers in aged care facilities were between 4.1% and 32.2%, and the incidence rates ranged from 1.9% to 59%. Similarly, a systematic review reported that the prevalence of pressure ulcer varied between 0.3% and 46%, and the incidence of pressure ulcer ranged from 0.8% to 34%. Most epidemiological data were obtained from hospitals (38.7%) and institutional long-term care facilities (29.7%). The costs associated with pressure ulcers are considerable. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (2011), the US healthcare system has allocated approximately $ 9.1 - $ 11.6 billion annually for the health care cost of pressure ulcer. In addition to direct treatment-related costs, the development of pressure ulcer also results in litigation and government penalties, and affects hospital performance metrics. A systematic review has reported that the cost for treatment of pressure ulcer was higher than its prevention. That is, the cost per patient per day ranged from € 1.71 to € 470.49 (for treatment) and from € 2.65 to € 87.57 (for prevention) across all settings. This randomized controlled trial will be performed in a general hospital in a random sample of 308 patients (nursing wards geriatric n=3 and orthopedic (n=3)) who are at high risk of developing pressure ulcers. Patients will be included in the study for a period > 2 hospitalisation days. Skin assessment and risk factor registration will be done on a daily base by the ward nurses. Reliability checks and time measurements will be completed by the researcher.
The effect of LiteVax Adjuvant supplemented to licensed seasonal influenza vaccine on safety and immunogenicity will be investigated in both younger and older healthy participants. Local and systemic adverse events, and humoral and cellular immune responses will be determined at different time intervals after a single administration. Mode of action of LiteVax Adjuvant will examined by detailed genetic analysis and omics approaches such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (GLP-1-RA) such as semaglutide (Ozempic™, Rybelsus™, Wegovy™) were first introduced as a therapeutic agent for type 2 diabetes mellitus but they are being increasingly used to target weight loss in obesity. One of the mechanisms by which weight loss is achieved, is increased satiety and significantly delayed gastric emptying. Tachyphylaxis for this effect has been reported with chronic use of long acting GLP-1-RA (e.g. semaglutide) but this was based on the paracetamol absorption technique or 13C breath test. Recent clinical data suggests semaglutide use does increase perioperative gastric content.This creates uncertainty for anaesthetists who are, anecdotally, more frequently faced with patients who may or may not have full stomachs despite adhering to conventional fasting guidelines. To address this issue the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has recently released guidelines in which it advises to hold GLP-1-RA for one day (if administered daily) or one week (if administered weekly). However, these recommendations are based on sparse empirical evidence and they do not necessarily follow from the known pharmacokinetic properties of these drugs. Typically, GLP-1-RA are administered in increasing doses over several weeks until a therapeutic steady state is achieved. Meanwhile the elimination half-life of e.g. semaglutide is 7 days. This means that holding semaglutide for one day or even one week might not be enough to attenuate its therapeutic effect of delayed gastric emptying. On the other hand if semaglutide were to be held for e.g. 5 terminal half-lifes, this would mean an unpractical 5 weeks during which glycemic control may be worsened and after which semaglutide doses would have to be incrementally increased again. Besides, hyperglycaemia secondary to semaglutide cessation can also delay gastric emptying. Further confounding the assessment of these patients there can be 'background' delayed gastric emptying in diabetic patients and more pronounced delayed gastric emptying in patients recently started on GLP-1-RA. The presence of gastro-intestinal symptoms (nausea, vomiting, dyspepsia, abdominal distension) might offer clinical information regarding increased gastric residue in this population. Gastric ultrasound is a point-of-care clinical and research tool that has steadily gained popularity to assess gastric content in patients not compliant with fasting rules or with certain comorbidities. Clinical decisions can be made based on the visualised content (e.g. solids, fluids or nothing) or through calculation of gastric volume by measuring antral circumference. In this study the investigators will examine gastric contents in patients who are taking semaglutide and in patients who are not. The investigators will then evaluate whether there is a difference in the incidence of full stomachs and whether gastric ultrasound influenced the anaesthetic plan of the treating anaesthetist.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of lepodisiran in reducing cardiovascular risk in participants with high lipoprotein(a) who have cardiovascular disease or are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The study drug will be administered subcutaneously (SC) (under the skin).
The primary objective of this study to evaluate the efficacy of ravulizumab compared with placebo to reduce proteinuria and slow the rate of eGFR decline in adult participants with IgAN who are at risk of disease progression.
Kinocardiography (KCG) is a portable measurement technique developed to estimate cardiac mechanical performance by studying the vibrations produced by myocardial contraction during each heartbeat and transmitted to the body surface. The goal of this observational study is to learn about kinocardiography in patients with aortic valve disease (AVD) or thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA). The investigators believe that this technology will enable us to diagnose aortic valve disease and aortic aneurysm. In patients with AVD of different severities or TAA, the investigators will collect informations from echocardiography and/or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and KCG recordings. Researchers will also compare subjects without any AVD nor TAA to better understand these effects on KCG.