There are more than 498,563 clinical trials published worldwide with over 60,000 trials that are currently either recruiting or not yet recruiting. Use our filters on this page to find more information on current clinical trials or past clinical trials (free or paid) for study purposes and read about their results.
The prevalence of obesity in children is reaching epidemic proportions. Excess adiposity is more than just a cosmetic problem, having substantial metabolic consequences. Insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, impaired glucose tolerance, and frank diabetes are often seen in obese children. In this study the prevalence of impaired glucose (carbohydrate) tolerance in lean children with a family history of diabetes and obese children with acanthosis nigricans with or without a family history of diabetes mellitus will be studied.
The objective of this study is to determine if the action of the drug called clopidogrel, that you will start taking, will be decreased by another drug called atorvastatin, that you will also start taking. Clopidogrel is an oral antiplatelet agent that has been shown to prevent strokes and heart attacks. Atorvastatin is a cholesterol lowering agent. Twenty adults 18-75 years of age requiring cholesterol-lowering agent and antiplatelet agent therapy will be recruited for this study during their cardiology clinic visitation. In one group, antiplatelet agent (clopidogrel) regimen will be administered first, then followed by cholesterol-lowering medication (atorvastatin). In the second group, atorvastatin will be administered first, followed by clopidogrel. A new test called the erythromycin breath test will be administered to you three times during the study to measure how your liver will metabolize these drugs. Blood samples will also be obtained to assess platelet function. The criteria for exclusion are patient refusal or inability to give written consent, patients with allergic reaction to erythromycin, patients with known bleeding problems, liver disease, significant lung disease kidney disease and pregnancy. Patients with psychiatric impairment and documented history of substance abuse will also be excluded from the study.
This study is to determine whether a compound, nitric oxide, made within the body, is the factor responsible for the changes in blood pressure and renal (kidney) functions that may occur during the course of cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis (liver scarring which causes poor liver function) will be eligible to participate. A group of healthy subjects will also be studied to compare the effects of the treatment to patients with cirrhosis and to confirm safety. A total number of 30 patients with cirrhosis and 10 healthy subjects will be enrolled in the study.
This protocol seeks to define aspects of intestinal and hepatic uptake and metabolism of several amino acids. The major hypothesis to be tested is that the splanchic bed (intestine and liver) conserves essential amino acids and metabolites while synthesizing and metabolizing nonessential amino acids. The aims of the study include defining the relative roles of enteral and hepatic extraction/metabolism in the disposition of glutamate, alanine, methionine and other amino acids. Emphasis will also be placed on studies of the transamination of alpha-ketoisocaproic acid (KIC) to leucine since this reaction is of potential importance in the design of nutritional regimens for patients with renal disease.
This study will examine whether estrogen administration in postmenopausal women can alter the response to changes in brain chemistry brought about by dietary manipulation. Women who are recently menopausal (50-60 yrs. of age) and over 20 years postmenopausal (>70 yrs. of age) will take estrogen or placebo for three months. At the end of that time they will participate in three challenges using dietary techniques to briefly change the relative amounts of neurotransmitters in the brain that are believed to be related to mood regulation (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine). Previous research has shown that these dietary manipulations can briefly produce negative changes in mood. The investigator hypothesizes that estrogen administration will blunt or buffer these negative effects in a quantifiable way. The investigator believes that this will provide a direct test of the ability of estrogen to meaningfully change the brain chemistry of mood in a clinically measurable and positive way. The proposed procedure will also allow assessment of the effects of estrogen on brain neurotransmitter systems after many years of very low estrogen levels.
The overall purpose of this research is to look at how two of the most commonly prescribed newer antipsychotic medications, risperidone and olanzapine, affect substances in the body such as glucose and insulin. Undesirable changes in blood sugar control, or glucose regulation, and type 2 diabetes can occur more commonly in individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy subjects and subjects with other psychiatric conditions. While abnormalities in glucose regulation were first reported in schizophrenia before the introduction of antipsychotic medications, antipsychotic treatment may contribute significantly to abnormalities in glucose regulation. Attention to the way that antipsychotic medications may affect glucose regulation has increased as doctors have become more concerned in general about disease- and drug-related medical complications, including weight gain during antipsychotic treatment.
The purpose of this clinical trial is to establish the safest doses for the combination of a farnesyl transferase inhibitor, R115777 plus topotecan in patients with advanced solid tumors, previously treated or beyond standard therapy of clinical benefit. Maximum tolerated dose, dose limiting toxicity and the activity of this combination will be assessed. This chemotherapy regimen is a two-pronged attack at the way cancer cells replicate. R115777 is a compound that may inhibit cancer cell growth by interfering with the p21 ras oncogene, while topotecan, a topoisomerase-1 inhibitor, works on cancer cells not subject to control by the ras oncogene. Animal studies suggest that the combination may be synergistic. Another advantage is that R115777 can be taken by mouth.
Research participants will be asked to undergo complete medical history, physical examination and blood tests. The purpose of these tests is to determine whether persons are predisposed to develop diabetes mellitus after kidney transplantation and also to make an early diagnosis if a patient develops diabetes mellitus. Medical information collected as part of the standard transplant evaluation and posttransplant medical care may be incorporated into this study. It is important to realize that research subjects will not be given an experimental drug as part of this study. After kidney transplantation, research subjects will be followed in the posttransplant clinic visits. The study will last up to 6 months. During this time the subjects may be asked to participate in clinical assessment visits (medical history and physical examination), and also during the third or fourth month after transplant will be asked to do a repeat glucose tolerance test.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is an often devastating autoimmune disease which affects 1 in 2,000 women in the United States. Recently, several research laboratories have reported that a protein, named CD40-ligand (CD154), is overexpressed by a subset of white blood cells, called lymphocytes, in patients with lupus. Expression of CD154 appears critical to the generation of antibodies that cause disease in lupus. Blocking CD154 interactions in the immune system has been shown to decrease disease activity in animal models of lupus. We propose to study the regulation of CD154 in patients with lupus in hopes of inhibiting its abnormal and deleterious expression.
The study proposes to evaluate cognitive development in infants four months or younger by functional MRI and event related potential recording. fMRI imaging will be obtained following an auditory stimulus inside the 4 tesla magnet at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and will be correlated with ERP response to the same stimulus.