There are about 28871 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Canada. 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.
This study is a multi-centre, blinded, randomized controlled trial. LTCF residents ≥ 65 years who have received three doses of mRNA vaccine will be randomized to vaccination with a fourth dose of Pfizer-BioNtech mRNA- COVID-19 vaccine or to vaccination with a control (Prevnar-13 vaccine).
The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic on global healthcare systems has prompted a search for novel tools to stem the tide. New digital health tools can provide possible health solutions in this time of unprecedented medical crisis to mitigate the impact of this pandemic. This proof of concept study will determine the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a mobile application for contactless screening and vital signs measurement (MAC-VITAL) such as blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO2), temperature from surgical patients peri-operatively. Contactless measurement of vital signs will bridge the current gap between virtual care and in-person medical assessments.
Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) is a focal, action-specific movement disorder with prominent effects on speech (1, 2). Patients with SD lose their ability to speak normally due to involuntary contractions of their laryngeal muscles. As a result, SD tremendously affects an individual's quality of life by limiting their ability to communicate effectively. The current standard of care for SD involves botulinum toxin (BTX) injections into the laryngeal muscles. BTX causes a weakness in the injected muscles thereby lessening the spasms (3). The primary neurological problem is not changed but weakening the muscles temporarily diminishes the symptoms. However, BTX therapy is associated with several limitations (3, 4). First, the clinical effect produced by BTX is temporary and repeated injections are required approximately every 3 months. Second, there is a delay in the onset of benefits provided by BTX injections; this delay results in a sinusoidal symptom curve where SD is optimally controlled for only a portion of each treatment cycle and patients' spasms return prior to the next injection cycle. Furthermore, the injections can be very painful and some patients develop antibodies to BTX (3, 4). Oral medications used in dystonia, such as anticholinergics, benzodiazepines, and baclofen, provide minimal relief and have numerous side effects at the doses required to influence a patient's voice. Thus, on basis of these limitations, we set out to explore new and innovative strategies to treat SD and provide patients with long-term benefit. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure that involves the implantation of electrodes to deliver electrical stimuli to specific brain regions. It is the gold-standard surgical treatment for other movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and generalized dystonia. During a DBS procedure, an electrode is inserted very precisely into the brain and is linked to a pacemaker implanted under the skin of the chest or abdominal wall. When the pacemaker is switched on, a very small electric current passes into the brain, blocking the damaging signals that cause the condition.
Health care professionals are dedicated to the ongoing evaluation of the peri-operative experience, and always striving to improve patient satisfaction. There are extensive protocols and communication strategies to optimize pre-operative education, intra-operative comfort and safety, and post-operative pain control, but most strategies are carried out by the treating team. The idea of using mindfulness to empower patients to be active participants in reducing pain and anxiety has already been successful in a number of medical settings. Multiple studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based cognitive therapy, a modification to treat depression. Mindfulness has been shown to reduce catastrophizing, depression and disability, all of which are of concern with respect to long-term success after arthroplasty. There is limited evidence to demonstrate the usefulness of mindfulness as a peri-operative intervention. Although there is evidence that a brief mindfulness meditation session can impact experimental pain scores and anxiety, there is no current literature that has evaluated the impact of such a session as part of the peri-operative teaching protocol with respect to pain and anxiety. Our objective is to assess the capability of a short-term mindfulness intervention (serving as a compliment to the pre-operative pathway for total joint arthroplasty) to reduce peri-operative pain that can be integrated with the existing arthroplasty pathway. In addition, we explore the utility of using such a tool to reframe patients' expectation of the peri-operative period as evidence by its impact on anxiety and post-operative patient satisfaction. Thirty-two participants will be recruited and randomly assigned to either control or treatment groups. The control group will receive standard care associated with total joint arthroplasty. The treatment group will receive a 45-60 minute mindfulness meditation teaching session administered by a credentialed mindfulness instructor and affiliated with the University of Calgary Psychosocial Oncology Mindfulness Program in addition to standard care for arthroplasty surgery. The treatment group will be assigned "homework" recordings of body scan exercises and asked to listen to the recording daily for the two-week period prior to surgery. Patients will be asked to listen to their body scan meditation immediately prior to entering the operating room and daily each post-operative day while in hospital. Longitudinal assessments encompassing the preoperative, peri-operative and post-operative periods will be acquired using validated pain scores and anxiety outcomes scores including the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the short-form State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.
The investigators intend to screen for new donors, given that there may a donor effect (PubMed ID: 25857665), with some donors not inducing remission in any patient whilst others inducing remission in 20-40% of cases. It is important to give UC patients participating in RCTs stool that has been demonstrated to be effective in some patients. We therefore propose to conduct an open label study in patients with active UC to ensure new donors are effective at inducing remission in some patients. Patients that have FMT will relapse within 18 months (PubMed ID: 25857665) although further FMT therapy induces remission so it is possible that maintenance FMT will result in long term remission, but this needs evaluation. We will therefore follow UC patients that have responded to FMT long term in this open label study.
This study is a prospective randomized controlled trial evaluating the use of a fluorescent dye, indocyanine green (ICG), in the identification of important bile duct anatomy during emergent same-admission cholecystectomy. Participants will be randomized into either the control arm, which uses the standard of care white light during laparoscopy or the intervention arm, which will use ICG fluorescent cholangiography as an adjunct to white light to visualize the biliary anatomy. The investigators hypothesize that the use of fluorescent cholangiography will increase the rates of identification of important biliary anatomy during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The effectiveness, feasibility, and safety will be compared between the two groups using a post-operative survey form the surgeons will complete prior to exiting the operating room.
Hematoma is a common complication of alloplastic breast reconstruction. This can lead to pain and discomfort experienced by the patient, in addition to greater use of valuable healthcare resources. Previous studies have shown correlation between the use of tranexamic acid (TXA), an anti-fibrinolytic, and reduced post-surgical bleeding complication events. In this randomized control trial (RCT) assessing TXA use in alloplastic breast reconstruction, one breast will be randomized to have TXA applied topically, while the other will have normal saline (NS) placebo applied. The primary objective of this prospective blinded randomized control trial study is to determine if the administration of topical TXA in alloplastic breast reconstruction reduces the incidence of surgical site hematoma compared to placebo within 2 weeks following surgery. The results of this study will be used to inform the design of a larger multicentered RCT on TXA in breast surgery.
Hematoma is a common complication of bilateral breast reduction (BBR) surgery. This can lead to pain and discomfort experienced by the patient, in addition to greater use of valuable healthcare resources. Previous studies have shown correlation between the use of tranexamic acid (TXA), an anti-fibrinolytic, and reduced post-surgical bleeding complication events. In this randomized control trial (RCT) evaluation TXA use in BBR, for which one breast will be randomized to have TXA applied topically, while the other will have normal saline (NS) placebo applied. The primary objective of this prospective blinded randomized control trial study is to determine if the administration of topical TXA in BBR reduces the incidence of surgical site hematoma compared to placebo within 2 weeks following surgery. The results of this study will be used to inform the design of a larger multicentered RCT on TXA in breast surgery.
Throughout the past twenty years, numerous specific pharmacologic agents targeting the endothelial dysfunction associated with PAH have emerged. Short term placebo-controlled randomized trials assessing PAH-specific monotherapy with these molecules have reported improvements in pulmonary hemodynamics and exercise capacity. A recent meta-analysis also documented a reduction in short-term mortality of about ≈40% with such therapies. Several randomized clinical trials evaluating PAH-specific combination therapy have been conducted. Our recent meta-analysis showed that combination therapy was associated with a 35% risk reduction for the occurrence of clinical worsening compared to monotherapy. Nonetheless, the investigators also showed 17% of PAH patients receiving combination therapy still experienced clinical worsening over a median exposure of 16 weeks. Moreover, long-term survival on PAH-specific also therapy remains poor in the modern era, with a yearly mortality rate of 15 % in incident idiopathic PAH. The identification of innovative therapeutic targets and validation of these complementary therapeutic interventions are thus urgently needed in PAH. The investigators and others (K. Stenmark, University of Colorado and H. Bogaard, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, personal communications), have published strong evidence that BRD4 plays a key role in the pathological phenotype in PAH accounting for disease progression and showed that BRD4 inhibition can reverse PAH in several animal models. Intriguingly, coronary artery disease (CAD) and metabolic syndrome are more prevalent in PAH compared with the global population, suggesting a link between these diseases. Interestingly, BRD4 is also a trigger for calcification and remodeling processes and regulates transcription of lipoprotein and inflammatory factors, all of which are important in PAH and CAD. Apabetalone, an orally available BRD4 inhibitor, is now in a clinical development stage with a good safety profile. The overall objective of the study is to explore the efficacy and safety of apabetalone as an add-on therapy for adult PAH patients and to inform the conduct and the design of a Phase 3 trial. The primary objective of the study is to assess the efficacy of apabetalone as evaluated by the change in PVR over a period of 24 weeks compared to placebo in adult subjects with PAH on stable background therapy. Secondary objectives include changes at week 24 in 6MWD, plasma NT-proBNP concentration, WHO functional class, ESC/ERS risk stratification score, health-related quality of life and additional hemodynamic data from right heart. Exploratory objectives are to evaluate the effects of apabetalone compared to placebo in adult subjects with PAH on mortality and clinically relevant morbidity events, and on circulating levels and transcription changes in whole blood markers of metabolism, vascular calcification, inflammation, DNA damage and leucocyte expression of BMPR2.
This will be a five year study that will be a prospective, randomized, controlled trial (RCT) to assess the effect of a virtual early intervention care delivery model in the provision of therapy to enhance the neurodevelopmental trajectory of infants with brain injury. In addition, the investigators will enhance understanding of the social and parental contributors to outcomes and the early health economic impact of a virtual clinic. The results of this study will help inform the design of a larger, multi-center randomized controlled trial.