There are about 9403 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Switzerland. 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.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a severe neurodegenerative condition, mainly characterized by progressive weakness and wasting of the limbs, the respiratory and bulbar muscles. Respiratory insufficiency leads to a fatal outcome after a mean diseases duration of only three to five years. The disease is characterized by pathological accumulations of a protein called TDP-43, which can be found large cortical and sub-cortical areas of post-mortem ALS brains. No causal treatment for this condition is known to date, and there is a large unmet need to develop new strategies in order to halt or slow down its progression. The aim of this study is to test the safety and tolerability of Tideglusib, a treatment that is already in clinical trials for other neuromuscular conditions, in patients with ALS. It is assumed that this drug may have a significant therapeutic benefit in this population due to his mode of action: In the ALS mouse model, Tideglusib decreases significantly the amount of accumulated TDP-43 proteins within the cells.
The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of an application for smartphones based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that was designed to increase treatment adaptation (i.e. learning therapy skills) and treatment utility (i.e. feedback for the patient). The use of this avatar- led application will be tested by patients with mental disorders adjunctive to their therapy. Patients will be given a smartphone for one week with the application developed specifically for this purpose. The study will be a single group design and patients will be assessed two times: before and after having tested the application. Measurements will include acceptability (adherence, utilization, utility, satisfaction) of the application, as well as patients characteristics, such as diagnostic interviews, questionnaires about symptomatology, well-being, social interactions, and an exit questionnaire when leaving the study to assess what was learned.
Aging of the population is dramatically increasing the number of hospitalized patients, with the consequent challenges of limited medical personnel and resources in hospitals. Wireless technologies that create highly connected healthcare environments are developed to help hospitals address these issues, once these technologies are perfectly integrated in the hospital environment with respect to IT infrastructure for big data storage. Such devices have proven remarkable efficiencies in monitoring patients with high patient safety, data accuracy and security, which are essential to provide high quality patient care, reduce health-related costs and optimize the management of high numbers of patients. Cough is the most common condition that results in a visit to the physician. Often coughs are benign, but sometimes can be the sign of exacerbations of a chronic respiratory disease. Exacerbations are defined in the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) document "as an acute event characterised by a worsening of the patient's respiratory symptoms that is beyond normal day-to-day variations and leads to a change in medication". It is assumed that, if coughs were remotely monitored, hospitals might be unburdened, patients would be empowered to self-manage their health, and that prevention of serious respiratory diseases might be facilitated, thus improving health outcomes. Unfortunately, remote monitoring for cough that rely on self-reporting is impractical, as patients do not record data very reliably. On the contrary, a microphone on the bedside table connected to a medical data analysis platform might monitor patients' cough exacerbations at night and alert the medical staff immediately.
Background Based on various suggestions, social behavior is mediated by a change in steroid hormones. These have diverse effects on the (neuro-)development during critical stages, whereby especially androgen and insulin metabolism seem to play a key role. Various lines of evidence indicate that metformin could influence and improve the symptoms of social withdrawal. Therefore, the investigators will analyze urinary samples of patients before and after treatment with metformin to elucidate the changes in steroid hormone profiles and measure changes in social behavior to examine a potential correlation. Material & Methods Steroid hormone analysis including the most prominent androgen, estrogen, progesterone, aldosterone, corticosterone, cortisone and cortisol metabolites analyzed with gas chromatography mass spectrometry and a questionnaire (Autism-Spectrum Quotient) will be performed prior to and after 12-weeks metformin treatment. Discussion It is likely, that due to different pathophysiological mechanisms such as an effect on respiratory chain in mitochondria or via AMP activated protein kinase a general reduction of total androgens will be detected prior versus post metformin treatment. The encompassing measurement of steroid hormones will allow to detect influences on different metabolites and in consequence enzyme activities. The potential changes prior versus post shall give hints concerning the involvement of specific cascades involved, with potential pharmacological targets for future research.
In a randomized, sham-controlled crossover trial the investigators will test whether supplemental oxygen given during cardiopulmonary exercise testing will improve exercise performance and physiological parameters in patients with interstitial lung disease.
This study compares the actual standard of care of intubation in Swiss pediatric intensive care units vs the use of apneic oxygenation using either high flow or low flow oxygen to prevent hypoxemia and to prolong apnea time during intubation of critically ill children, with the final aim to improve airway management safety at PICUs. Primary study objective: To demonstrate that airway management supported by oxygen supplementation (either HFNC or low flow oxygen) can prevent significant desaturation (SpO2 > 85%) among patients in pediatric intensive care units (PICU) and neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
a translated and cultural adapted version of the HDQ will be tested on two occasions with headache patients who are currently in physiotherapeutic treatment due to their headache condition
Investigation of Natural Cycle In vitro Fertilisation (NC-IVF) treatment with ovulation induction with a nasal GnRH agonist instead of regular NC-IVF treatment with subcutaneous application of hCG with the objective of increasing treatment tolerability and reducing discomfort while being equally successful in terms of embryo transfer rates.
randomized, controlled single center, single investigator study mainly in colorectal screening population in daily practice with and without artificial intelliegence (AI) named DiscoveryTM from Pentax medical. Patient randomly are allocated to one of four groups: Pentax i10 colonoscopes without any additional device, Pentax i 10 with DiscoveryTM (AI), Pentax i 10 with EndocuffTM and Pentax i10 with EndocuffTM and DiscoveryTM (AI). The different groups are compared in terms of the different parameters: e.g. time of endoscopy, polyps (PDR) and adenoma detected (ADR).
Recent results demonstrated an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers (HCW), particularly when access to personal protective equipment (PPE) was inadequate. (ref). During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to PPE has become complicated by a surge in worldwide demand combined with production limitations and logistical barriers. Since their introduction in hospitals in the 1990s, filtering facepiece (FFP) masks, mostly of the FFP2 type, are used by HCWs to protect themselves against bioaerosols due to tuberculosis, measles, and selected respiratory viruses. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked debate around reasonable and safe use of the different types of face masks to protect the HCWs who provide direct care for COVID-19 patients. At the heart of the discussion are the respective contributions to SARS-CoV-2 transmissions by droplets and aerosols, and the corresponding risk levels resulting in COVID-19 infection. The objective is to perform a cluster-randomized, parallel, controlled, non-inferiority study among Swiss nursing and retirement homes to evaluate the efficacy of surgical masks vs. FFP2 masks during patient care and prospectively observe possible infections amongst both vaccinated and unvaccinated staff. Staff in nursing homes will be randomized to use either surgical or FFP2 masks for patient care consistently. Considering an attack rate of 0.8% over three months among healthcare workers, a non-inferiority margin of 5%, and an intracluster variability of 0.01, - we require a minimum of 625 participants per group. The COVID-19 attack rate will be tested by initial serology testing and weekly pooled saliva specimen for SARS-CoV-2 testing. (Re)-Infections will be tracked by weekly pooled saliva-based PCR testing. Exposure to COVID-19 other than during work time will be explored by questionnaires and focus group discussions.