There are about 173942 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in United States. 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 research is being done to look at the effects of Bromfenac, also called Xibrom for the treatment of swelling in the retina (the light sensitive tissue in the back of the eye) called "macular edema" that occurs after cataract surgery. Swelling in the retina can lead to blurry vision. The most commonly used treatment is eyedrops that decrease inflammation and may help stop some of the swelling. The investigators want to see if the drug Bromfenac(Xibrom) can decrease the swelling in the retina after cataract surgery and improve vision in these patients.
This study will examine whether epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a major component of green tea, affects how the body responds to insulin in healthy and obese people. Insulin is not as effective in people who are overweight, have high blood pressure or diabetes. This condition is known as insulin resistance. Laboratory studies suggest that green tea or EGCG treatment lowers blood pressure, lowers blood sugar and increases blood flow. This study will see if EGCG improves insulin resistance or insulin's effects on blood flow in people with insulin resistance. Healthy normal weight or overweight people between 21 and 65 years of age may be eligible for this study. Participants are randomly assigned to take EGCG or a placebo ( inactive dummy pill ) in two 4-week treatment phases with a 2-week period of no study medication before each treatment phase. After the first 4-week treatment, patients on placebo are switched to EGCG and those on EGCG are switched to placebo. In addition to treatment, participants undergo the following procedures during the study period: - Screening, including medical history, physical examination and blood and urine tests, and finger-stick blood sugar measurement for patients with diabetes - Complete a dietary and physical activity questionnaire and consult with a dietitian - Blood and urine tests - At-home and clinic blood pressure monitoring - Glucose clamp test to measure how the body responds to insulin. This test is done three times during the study. A needle is placed in a vein in each of the subject's arms, one for sampling blood and the other for infusing insulin, glucose and potassium. Glucose and insulin levels, electrolytes, lipids, fatty acids, cytokines and epicatechin are measured. - Forearm blood flow measurement with microbubbles and ultrasound. Before beginning the glucose clamp test, a test of how well the blood vessels relax is done. A device that measures the size of the artery in the upper arm is placed above the elbow. Blood flow in the muscle of the forearm is measured by ultrasound using a small infusion through a vein of microbubble contrast agent consisting of gas-filled bubbles the size of red blood cells. The contrast agent is infused over a 7- to 9-minute period at the beginning of the glucose clamp test and again 2 hours after the beginning of the test.
The pathogenesis of ARDS appears to be from damage to the alveolar-capillary barrier, which is composed of the microvascular endothelium and the alveolar epithelium. This damage may occur from direct or indirect lung injury. The mechanism of injury to the alveolar capillary barrier appears to be through neutrophil-mediated injury, pro-inflammatory cytokines, ventilator-induced lung injury with alveolar over distention and abnormalities of the coagulation system. This results in blood clot formation in the microcirculation of the lung. Thrombolytics can dissolve blood clots and result in increased blood flow to the organs. This treatment may benefit ARDS patients, thus the purpose of this study. Hardaway, et al.studied the effects of thrombolytics on ARDS in pigs. The experimental group showed improved oxygenation and survival as compared to controls. There was no bleeding complications noted with this therapy. Dr. Hardaway followed this animal study with a phase I clinical trial involving 20 patients with ARDS. The patients were treated with IV streptokinase or urokinase. Nineteen of the 20 patients showed an increase in PA02 after thrombolytic therapy. There were no significant bleeding complications in patients that were critically ill on ventilators. We propose an additional phase I pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Tenecteplase for the treatment of ARDS. Unlike the other fibrinolytics studied in this disease state, Tenecteplase, is more fibrin specific and has increased resistance to plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-I) at greater levels than other available fibrinolytics. We have chosen an experimental dose escalation trial design of tenecteplase that has demonstrated initial safety trends in a Phase I acute ischemic stroke trial. The initial dose is 0.1 mg/kg IV and will increase to 0.2 mg/kg, 0.3 mg/kg, with a final cohort of patients receiving 0.4 mg/kg. Drug administration will be a single dose bolus in each cohort. Advancement of dose will occur if safety is not in question in the previous cohort. We hope this will provide an acceptable benefit risk ratio as the mortality of ARDS is approximately 30 - 60%. All patients will be closely monitored for any change in clotting parameters and signs of bleeding. Tenecteplase will be administered via a peripheral IV as described in the package insert.
RATIONALE: Erlotinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as cisplatin, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill tumor cells. Erlotinib and cisplatin may make tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. Giving erlotinib together with cisplatin and radiation therapy may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase I trial is studying the side effects and best dose of erlotinib when given together with cisplatin and radiation therapy in treating patients with stage IB, stage II, stage III, or stage IVA cervical cancer.
The primary aim of this study is to assess the changes on the shape and function of the left ventricle in patients with severe mitral valve regurgitation due to congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy who undergo mitral valve reconstruction with a Geoform ring. Three-dimensional echocardiogram will be used for precise evaluation of the shape and function of the ventricle.
Asthma and smoking during pregnancy cause significant morbidity in both the mother and the offspring. Asthma represents the most common respiratory disorder during pregnancy and smoking rates during pregnancy range from 15-30% in the United States. Maternal asthma and smoking during pregnancy have been shown to increase the rate of intrauterine growth retardation and preterm delivery, as well as increase the risk of wheeze, asthma, respiratory infections, and otitis media in children. However, controlled asthmatics during pregnancy have similar pregnancy outcomes to non-asthmatic pregnancies. Measurement of the fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) is a new, easily performed, non-invasive method that has been used to assess airway inflammation in adults and children. The long term goal of this study is to establish baseline FENO values and to monitor airway disease in pregnant asthmatics, pregnant smokers and pregnant controls, and to correlate these levels with other inflammatory markers in the mothers and their offspring. These values will be correlated with current methods to diagnose and monitor disease control in these patients. The use of FENO levels in the pregnant asthmatic may prove to be a better method for monitoring disease control and titrating steroid doses in this population. Finally, this study may identify children at higher risk of developing asthma or allergic disease. This could serve to identify factors that may be modified to prevent or limit the development of these diseases in this population.
The TURNS is a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded contract for the evaluation of new compounds for the treatment of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia (HHSN 27820044 1003C; P.I.: Steve Marder, M.D.). Despite advances in the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of antipsychotic medications for the treatment of schizophrenia, many patients continue to be plagued by impairments in social and work functioning. Persons with schizophrenia commonly show deficits in a number of areas of cognition that include impairments in attention, memory, and executive functioning (the ability and organize one's behavior). Importantly, a large body of literature now shows a link between cognition and community functioning in schizophrenia. It is believed that treatments that improve cognitive deficits may lead to improvements in work and social functioning. A promising approach to improve the community functioning of patients with schizophrenia is to develop new agents that treat the cognitive deficits of the illness. One type of pharmacological compound that has shown promise at improving cognition is a group of drugs called ampakines. These drugs are believed to improve the activity of a neurotransmitter system in the brain called the glutamate system. Increased activity of this system has been linked to improvements in cognitive functioning. The current study is an eight-week trial comparing two doses of the ampakine drug, Org 24448, that will be added to patients' current atypical antipsychotic medication. One hundred thirty-five patients with schizophrenia, drawn from seven sites, will participate in the study. Cognition will be measured using a variety of paper-and-pencil and computerized measures from the consensus-derived NIMH Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) cognitive battery. Psychiatric symptoms and the ability to perform community-based tasks of daily living will also be measured. Because previous trials with this drug and other similar drugs have detected lasting cognitive benefits, this trial will also repeat clinical assessments four weeks after completion of the study medication.
The main purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of human simulation in the training of the leadership, cognitive, and psychomotor skills required to lead medical crisis management teams. All participants in the study are trainees in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Multi-Disciplinary Critical Care Training Program (MCCTP.) All trainees will have received the standard critical care medicine-training curriculum including basic airway management, management of hypotension, unstable cardiac arrhythmias, difficult airway management and crisis team training. The participants will have also completed six months of baseline clinical training, which includes responding to medical emergencies at UPMC. The specific aims of this study are: 1. To assess the effectiveness of Human Simulation Training (HST) as an educational tool for teaching medical crisis management. 2. To determine the effect of HST on objective measures of performance in the domains of communication, leadership, cognition and psychomotor skills.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in organ transplant recipients. Management of tuberculosis in this setting is challenging due to the complexity of diagnosis and the potential toxicity of anti-TB therapy, especially in liver transplant candidates and recipients. Although the tuberculin skin test (TST) is recommended for screening of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in all candidates for liver transplantation, the performance of the TST in this setting is less than optimal, due to a lack of specificity (false-positive results due to interaction with BCG vaccine and other mycobacterial infections), and a lack of sensitivity in a population that is relatively immunocompromised. Recently, a new test named QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-G) has been approved for the diagnosis of LTBI. QFT-G detects the release of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) by sensitized white cells after incubation of whole blood with TB antigens. QFT-G is expected to be more specific than TST. However, there are no studies defining the performance of QFT-G in a population of patients on a waiting list for liver transplantation. We plan to estimate the usefulness of the QFT-G test for the diagnosis of LTBI in a cohort of patients with end-stage liver disease. We hypothesize that the QFT-G test will correlate better with the risk of LTBI. This study advances research on the prevention of a serious bacterial infection that can have devastating consequences in the post-transplant setting. The new diagnostic strategy may more accurately determine the presence of LTBI, thereby allowing appropriate therapy.
To evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of voriconazole + micafungin versus voriconazole alone as primary therapy for invasive aspergillosis.