There are about 25435 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in United Kingdom. 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.
Recent advances in technology have resulted in the development of scanners that can n image the heart arteries within 10 to 20 minutes but without the need for admission to hospital or insertion of catheters. This means that coronary heart disease may be more readily identified (or ruled out) and allow better diagnosis and treatment of patients with symptoms suggesting coronary heart disease. Here, we propose to assess the latest and most powerful scanners to see if it can accurately diagnose the extent of coronary artery disease and facilitate the planning of heart surgery.
The aim of this trial is to compare the local anaesthetic ropivacaine to local anaesthetic levobupivacaine in converting the standard patient controlled labour epidural to provide anaesthesia for an emergency Caesarean section. This is a technique commonly known as an epidural top-up. The investigators set out to disprove the hypothesis that there is no difference between the 2 local anaesthetics in the time of onset and number of times epidural top-up needs supplementing during surgery.
Most countries of the world, including the USA are making preparations for a possible influenza pandemic. Such an event will constitute a global public health emergency, but it is impossible to predict when this will happen. Up to 80 million people could die worldwide, so as much as possible needs to be done in advance to find ways of how the impact can be reduced. Although the investigators know that medical interventions such as anti-influenza drugs and antibiotics will be important, even in well resourced countries these might be in short supply. Vaccines will also be important but these will not be available until at least 4-5 months after the pandemic has started. This means that other non-pharmaceutical measures could well be important such as social distancing, school closures and the use of face masks. Guidance also needs to be developed so that families can care for each other whilst minimizing the spread of infection. To do these things, the investigators need to know how influenza is transmitted from person-to person. This is poorly understood at present. The investigators also need to know if face masks work before recommendations for public use can be made. The best way to study influenza transmission and the effectiveness of masks is to perform a study using healthy adult volunteers. The investigators will do this by giving some volunteers normal influenza via nasal drops. When they get symptoms the investigators will create an 'experimental household' by getting them to live with other non-infected volunteers for 48 hours, in a specially designed quarantine isolation unit. Some of the non-infected volunteers will be unprotected; others will be selected randomly to wear either face masks or a special plastic 'cloak' so that they do not touch their faces; another group will wear both. The investigators will then measure the rate at which the different groups get 'flu'. From these data the investigators can work out whether it is touching the face or coughing and sneezing that spreads flu most or whether both are important; the investigators can also deduce how well face masks work to prevent spread. The investigators need almost 2000 volunteers for this study, it will take at least 2 years to complete and it will be very costly, however, the results will be of global importance. If the study is successful, the investigators can tell governments around the world whether face masks work to prevent influenza and be clearer about the guidance that should be given to families.
The purpose of this study is to investigate what effect a local anesthetic nerve block of the arm in patients with end stage renal failure has upon blood flow in the skin of the arm.
In this "randomised Phase II trial" all patients will receive carboplatin, with half randomly selected to receive ZD4054. The other half to also receive a dummy pill or placebo, this is so that we can accurately assess how much extra benefit ZD4054 may give. The trial will recruit 132 patients with metastatic breast cancer from across the UK and assess whether adding ZD4054 to carboplatin delays progression of their disease. It will also show whether the side effects of adding ZD4054 to carboplatin chemotherapy are acceptable. Because ZD4054 has not previously been given with carboplatin to this population, in Stage 1 of the study 6 patients will receive ZD4054 with carboplatin. If there are no untoward side effects with carboplatin and ZD4054 then the trial will proceed to Stage 2 and a further 126 patients will be randomised to receive carboplatin with either ZD4054 or the placebo; neither the patient nor their doctor will know whether she is receiving ZD4054 or placebo.
RATIONALE: Diagnostic procedures, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) imaging, may help find and diagnose metastatic prostate cancer. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying the side effects of C-11 choline and 18F-fluoromethylcholine and to see how well they work when used in PET and CT imaging in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.
Myocardial infarction (heart attack) is usually the consequence of rupture of a fatty 'plaque' in a heart artery. The presence of this fat and debris causes the propagation of a blood clot and blockage of the artery. The heart muscle normally supplied by the artery becomes deprived of oxygen and, if starved for long enough, this area of muscle dies. Much of the heart muscle damage is caused by overactivation of inflammatory cells. Whilst inflammation can be beneficial in healing processes, there is accumulating evidence that overactivation of inflammatory processes contributes to further muscle damage and cell death during myocardial infarction. We have recently developed a means of labelling human blood cells with 'nanoparticles' of iron oxide which can then safely be reinjected into the blood to allow the cells to be tracked and seen in the body using a conventional magnetic resonance scanner. In the proposed study we aim to recruit patients with recent heart attacks to perform similar cell labelling and reinjection of labelled cells into the same volunteer's blood stream via the arm to track the fate of the blood cells over the course of days to months. We think that the labelled inflammatory cells will 'home' to the site of the heart attack and will be visible using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart. We aim not only to highlight the role of inflammatory cells in myocardial infarction, but also propose that, if successful, this technique could be used in the future to assess the effects of antiinflammatory treatments currently being developed for the treatment of patients with heart attacks. The technique could also be extended to allow labelling of other cell types, including stem cells, to let us further understand how these cells may contribute to repair of damaged organs including the heart.
Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide. One of the causes of stroke which can be treated is narrowing of the carotid artery. Currently the only definite treatment option is surgery or endovascular treatment. All patients not qualified for or awaiting surgery are, therefore, left with best medical therapy and with a yearly risk of stroke anywhere between 1% - 35% depending on the severity of the disease. The study will use the properties of a tomato extract containing lycopene. Previously studies have demonstrated beneficial properties of tomato extracts: 1. It decreases lipid oxidation 2. It decreases DNA damage 3. It has properties that reduce the speed and amount of cell divisions that inflammatory and smooth muscle cells undergo (both of these cell types contribute to atheroma formation). The investigators wish to assess whether long-term food supplementation with a tomato extract containing lycopene could influence atherosclerotic plaque characteristics. The investigators will assess this using Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the plaque and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography for counting the number of blood clots that go to the brain's arteries. Furthermore the investigators wish to examine the effect of long-term food supplementation with a tomato extract containing lycopene on blood cholesterol levels and lipid oxidation and blood markers of inflammation and injury of the inner lining of the arteries. This will be a single center, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled study.
This is a single centre pilot trial to establish the feasibility and role of endoluminal HIFU in patients with locally advanced cancer within the pelvis that is either primary or recurrent and with all available current therapy inappropriate and/or exhausted. The aim is to make a preliminary assessment of efficacy & dosage for evaluation in a randomised controlled trial. Whilst efficacy data are limited in a small feasibility study; radiological, biochemical and histopathological analysis of the patient and patient specimens, along with quality of life questionnaires (QoL), will be used to provide preliminary measures of efficacy in this patient cohort. These analyses will allow examination of the biochemical, metabolomic and histological changes associated with HIFU treatment in cancer within the pelvis.
To determine the effects of whether increasing CNP concentrations slightly above normal will improve the functioning of blood vessels after the interruption in the flow of blood. In this study we are looking at the function of the blood vessels of the forearm, as a substitute for those in the heart