View clinical trials related to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
Filter by:This is an open label pilot clinical trial on a cohort of 15 Lupus patients from the Center for Rheumatic Disease. Clinical evaluations and laboratory tests will be done and then if eligible, the patients will receive oral atorvastatin, at a fixed dose of 40mg/day. Statins have been shown to induce clinical improvement in rheumatoid arthritis patients, as well as lupus patients. The effectiveness has been noted within 8 to 14 days, we will do our study for 3 months. Clinical and laboratory tests will be checked at the 1 and 3 month interval. We hypothesize that statin drugs (atorvastatin) slow the progression of SLE(Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) disease activity and down regulates TLR(Toll-like receptors) 2,4,and 9 pathways in addition to lowering lipid levels.
It is difficult to predict how a women with an autoimmune disease will do during pregnancy. Some women will improve, others will worsen. Some pregnancies progress normally and others become very complicated. The Duke Autoimmunity in Pregnancy (DAP) Registry will enroll women with autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, and Sjogren's syndrome who wish to become, or already are, pregnant. We will follow these women throughout pregnancy to better understand how their autoimmune disease affects their pregnancy, and vice versa.
Lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that can present with many varied symptoms, including joint pain, fevers, kidney disease, and rashes. Lupus can affect anyone, but it is most common in younger women. The Duke Lupus Registry will collect information and blood samples from patients with lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus or cutaneous lupus) seen in the Duke Rheumatology clinics. The goal of this Registry is to understand how lupus changes over time so that we can improve the treatment of patients with lupus.
Glomerulonephritis and renal failure represent one of the most life-threatening manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Although immunosuppressive therapy is often effective for the treatment of acute lupus nephritis, a significant proportion of patients show persistent proteinuria after resolution of the acute nephritic process, and develop progressive renal failure. There is preliminary evidence that calcitriol and other vitamin D analogs can reduce proteinuria in patients with chronic kidney diseases. The investigators plan to conduct a randomized control study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of calcitriol in the treatment of SLE patients with persistent proteinuria. Sixty patients with clinically quiescent SLE and persistent proteinuria despite conventional therapy will be recruited. They will be treated with calcitriol for 48 weeks. Proteinuria, renal function, lupus disease activity, serum and urinary inflammatory markers will be monitored. This study will explore the potential anti-proteinuric and immunomodulating effects of calcitriol in the treatment of SLE, which is a common and life threatening disease in young adults.
This study is designed to explore the use of myfortic ® in patients with active lupus erythematosus. Similar drugs in this class are increasingly used in organ transplantation and in autoimmune diseases. With the established safety profile of myfortic ® in allo-transplantation and the already existing data of mycophenolate mofetil in autoimmune diseases, this study should help to demonstrate the beneficial effect of myfortic ® on lupus activity. The aim of the study will be to show a decreased disease activity with myfortic ® compared to standard maintenance therapy with azathioprine.
The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate whether acupuncture is safe and acceptable to people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Twenty-four SLE patients were assigned randomly to receive either 10 sessions of acupuncture, 10 sessions of a minimal-needling control intervention, or their usual medical care alone. It was hypothesized that acupuncture would be safe for people with SLE, and that participants would be able to complete their assigned treatment within 5 to 6 weeks.
- Daily stress can worsens the clinical course of lupus. - Objective: to determine the efficacy of the stress management therapy in a group of patients with lupus. - 45 patients with lupus and high daily stress participated in this clinical trial. - Two groups resulted: a control group (CG) that received the usual care and a therapy group (TG) that received a cognitive behavioral therapy. - The therapy consisted of ten consecutive weekly sessions. - The measured variables were psychological, clinical, immunological and quality of life. At the basal moment and after 3, 9 and 15 months. - Statistical analysis showed a significant reduction in the levels of depression, anxiety and daily stress in the therapy group, compared to the usual care group, a significant improvement in quality of life, improvements in the reported symptoms (cardiovascular, respiratory, cutaneous and musculoskeletal.
The purpose of this study is to determine how the body absorbs and chemically changes a single infusion of TRU-015 in subjects with kidney disease caused by lupus.
The treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been aimed at decreasing mortality and morbidity because the etiology of the disease is unknown. The general aim of this multicentre randomized placebo-controlled trial of low dose intermittent methotrexate with folic acid is to establish whether methotrexate shows efficacy and safety in controlling disease activity in SLE and preventing flares in disease activity or development of end-organ damage. A second aim will be to document the steroid sparing effect of methotrexate in SLE. A Third aim will be to measure toxicity and utility of methotrexate with folic acid and to perform effectiveness and utility analyses.
Cyclophosphamide is widely used in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases such as lupus nephritis. However, there is considerable variability in the response to cyclophosphamide treatment. Cyclophosphamide is a pro-drug that requires initial activation by CYP liver enzymes. Recent clinical studies have indicated a possible role of one CYP enzyme, CYP2C19 in this activation step. This enzyme has a genetic polymorphism (variants which lack functional activity) and people who have inherited these variants are poor metabolisers of certain drugs. The aim of this study is to determine whether response to therapy in a New Zealand population of lupus nephritis patients is determined by cyclophosphamide bioactivation (the metabolic phenotype) and CYP genotype. Currently there is no way of predicting a patient's response to cyclophosphamide. An understanding of the factors which contribute to the therapeutic failure in lupus nephritis is particularly important due to the high morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. There are other treatment options for lupus nephritis patients who fail to respond to cyclophosphamide. If successful, this study may help identify patients who are unlikely to respond to cyclophosphamide and thus should not be unnecessarily be exposed to the drug and may justify the use of newer, more costly immunosuppressive drugs such as mycophenolate mofetil and rituximab.