View clinical trials related to Severe Persistent Asthma.
Filter by:Investigational device: AKITA 2 device versus conventional metered-dose inhaler (MDI) Objectives: To explore if inhalative fluticasone application by means of the AKITA technology would result in a better symptom control in patients with severe persistent asthma as compared to inhalative application of fluticasone by a conventional MDI. Study design: open label, cross-over (one AKITA, one MDI arm) Patients: 20 Patients with severe persistent asthma
The Canadian Severe Asthma Network (CSAN) was developed to gain a better understanding of the clinical, environmental, socio-economic, work-related, and biological characteristics of severe asthmatics (SA) that may account for poor response to clinically available therapies for asthma. This network of clinical and basic researchers will be a means by which Canadian investigators can develop and conduct research in this small patient group, which could lead to better clinical management of SA. Patient information will be entered into the CSAN database (created by PI Dr. Vethanayagam in connection with Mr. Jack Yeung) and will help researchers and doctors from multiple hospitals and universities across Canada to understand this subpopulation of asthmatics better. It will help to answer questions regarding SA epidemiology, asthma education, inflammatory monitoring, risks of near fatal asthma (NFA), symptom perception, changes in lung structure and function, co-morbidities, and the effectiveness of developing regional severe asthma clinics. Two of the early projects the investigators will be working on are psychosocial co-morbidities in asthma and medication coverage related to asthma. There will also be biobanking of sputum samples and/or bronchoscopy samples (such as BALs & lung washings) that are being obtained for clinical purposes. Also, for those consented for biobanking blood and urine will be collected, separate from clinical care, and stored in the biobank. The Canadian Biosample Repository (CBSR) will be storing our biobanked samples. The investigators will be following the CBSR policies for storage and security. Tissue research will be conducted in the future, and separate ethics approval will be obtained for each project.
This study has two purposes: 1. to determine whether lovastatin, a commonly used medication to lower cholesterol in the blood, can produce beneficial changes in airway inflammation and in the airway smooth muscle 2. to examine whether lovastatin will have favorable changes in asthma symptoms of patients with moderate or severe asthma.