There are about 3194 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Portugal. 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.
The insertion of peripheral vascular catheters (PVCs) is the most often invasive procedure performed in hospital settings. During hospitalization, the majority of patients need to have a PVC inserted. These devices are not risk-free, affecting patients' safety and well-being. In clinical settings, health professionals must deal with difficult venous accesses due to the patient's age, physical characteristics, clinical status, and medication, which hinder the PVC insertion. When veins are not visible or palpable, this may lead to successive puncture attempts, causing pain to the patient and discomfort to the nurse, which results in increased costs. Guidelines state that puncture should be attempted only twice per professional, to a maximum of four attempts; against this recommendation and due to the patient's therapeutic needs and clinical situation, health professionals attempt to puncture multiple times in a single scenario. In this regard, health professionals should consider using specific technologies that help to select the vein and reduce the number of puncture attempts and catheter-related mechanical complications. Taking into account the multiplicity of existing technologies in the international market that assist health professionals in peripheral venous catheterization, ultrasound and infrared devices emerge in the literature as two of the most commonly used during this procedure. These technologies were developed with the purpose of improving peripheral intravenous catheterization success rate and thus reducing the number and extent of the negative effects of multiple or unsuccessful attempts, with the additional purpose of avoiding the frustrations of health professionals in these scenarios. However, such technologies are still underused in clinical practice, since health professionals are not familiar with the use of these devices. Moreover, the costs associated with their purchase and maintenance may be considered as excessive in relation to the traditional method. The project investigators aim to determine whether the use of either ultrasound or near-infrared vascular imaging will significantly improve the success rate of peripheral intravenous catheterization in adults on first attempt by nurses compared with the standard approach, reduce immediate related complications and improve patient and provider satisfaction.
A huge body of scientific evidence has suggested that xanthohumol (XAN) consumption, a polyphenol present in beer, has a positive effect on energy metabolism. This compound is known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties which confer potential to be used as a food supplement. Nevertheless, XAN lipophilic properties prevent the extensive use of this molecule as a functional food compound. The company TA-XAN S.A.M. (Wiesbaden, Germany) has patented a method to overcome this solubility problem. So, the main aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of XAN consumption on metabolic syndrome progression in individuals recently diagnosed.
Given the lack of knowledge on lipodystrophies, the medical and social responsibility for the persons affected by it calls for the monitoring of the progression over long periods of time. Sensible clinical and basic research into rare diseases such as lipodystrophy is only possible in multi-location networks with sufficient case numbers. Also, reliable information on the incidence of certain manifestation patterns, health status, etc. is of utmost importance for health care and health policy in this rare disease. Therefore, the European Consortium of Lipodystrophies (ECLip), an association of European experts on lipodystrophy, has launched a registry (OSSE) for lipodystrophies which is committed to help to improve the research conditions by consolidating this kind of information in a registry.
The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact on pyrexia-related outcomes of an adapted pyrexia adverse event (AE)-management algorithm, as well as safety, efficacy and health-related outcomes.
This study will look at the change in participant's body weight from the start to the end of the study. This is to compare the effect on body weight in people taking semaglutide (a new medicine) and people taking "dummy" medicine. In addition to taking the medicine, the participant will have talks with study staff about healthy food choices, how to be more physically active and what a participant can do to lose weight. The participant will get semaglutide for the first 20 weeks. Then the participant will get either semaglutide or "dummy" medicine - which treatment the participant gets after the 20 weeks is decided by chance. The participants will need to take 1 injection once a week. The study medicine is injected with a thin needle in a skin fold in the stomach, thigh or upper arm. The study will last for about 1.5 years.
This is a parallel randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled clinical trial in which a total of 72 drug-naïve MDD subjects (36 per arm) are randomized to one of two groups: Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) combined with either active or sham tDCS. The primary outcome is mood improvement, as measured by the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). The secondary outcome is to test whether tDCS combined with CBT can engage the proposed mechanistic target, of restoring the prefrontal imbalance and connectivity, by changes over EEG.
The primary hypothesis in this trial is that the treatment with vericiguat 10 mg or 15 mg in patients with HFpEF improves the KCCQ PLS (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Physical limitation score) compared to placebo after 24 weeks of treatment.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of several factors (light, extrinsic stain removal and operator's experience) in tooth color assessment. Tooth color will be assessed by two different operators with visual shade guides under standardized light conditions and using a light correcting device (Smile Lite) or with a dental spectrophotometer in human subjects. Color measurement will be made before and 1 week after dental prophylaxis.
This study focuses on treatment outcomes of human metastatic cancer which usually fares with dismal (<5%) survival at 5 years following first diagnosis of a metastasis. However, a subgroup of patients with an initial oligometastatic presentation (i.e. 1-5 clinically detectable lesions) have been reported to respond to complete surgical removal of detectable deposits with up to 20% disease-free survival at 10 years. Patients relapsing with a second oligometastatic presentation respond to a second round of ablation with encouraging rates of 5-year disease free survival. Based on patterns of response to therapy and relapse, we propose investigate on the hypothesis that metastatic disease may be limited in extent, slowly growing and amenable to successive eradication of metastatic deposits. For visible tumor ablation, we propose to employ the effective and safe technique of Single Dose Image-Guided Radiotherapy (SDRT) and to optimize its use in conjunction with systemic therapy. Where SDRT at a full ablative dose (24Gy) is deemed unfeasible, hypofractionated SBRT (9Gy x3) will be offered. Response assessment will be via local control, poly-metastasis-free survival and overall survival rates. Preliminary phase I/II studies indicate remarkable benefits from the SDRT/SBRT in patients with limited metastatic disease. The expected outcomes may be significant conceptual and practical changes in the management of selected metastatic settings resulting in long-term periods of disease-free and overall survival in settings presently associated with dismal prognosis.
The increase in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), directly associated with the aging of the population, is a concern for public health in Portugal. Given the high prevalence of risk factors and the increasing number of cases of CD throughout Alentejo, where there is no cardiac rehabilitation (CR) coverage, there is an urgent need for the implementation of a CR program. CR has evolved over the past decades to multidisciplinary approaches focused on education, individualized training, modification of risk factors, and overall well-being of cardiac patients. Studies suggest that high intensity interval training (HIIT) allows greater patient benefits compared to moderate continuous training (MCT), reversal of DC and increased aerobic capacity in CR patients. This study intends to compare HIIT and MCT interventions investigating direct and indirect associations between informally performed physical activity (AF), sedentary behavior, cardiovascular fitness and quality of life (QoL) among patients enrolled in RC programs in phase III.