There are about 3698 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Hong Kong. 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.
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction (MI). Using coronary computer tomography angiogram (CCTA), it is found that a significantly higher prevalence of high-risk coronary plaque (non-calcified plaque [NCP]), supporting the notion that more aggressive cardiovascular (CV) evaluation strategy should be considered in these patients. Carotid ultrasound screening in this population may be a better alternative than traditional risk score to identify patients at high CV risk as the latter underestimated CV risk. Previous study from our group have demonstrated that achieving treatment target (minimal disease activity [MDA]) can prevent progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Nevertheless, 38% of this Treat to Target (T2T) cohort still had carotid plaque progression. Project description it is hypothesized that combination of a T2T stratgy together with high-intensity rosuvastatin treatment (Group 1: T2T-statin group) is more effective in preventing progression of coronary and carotid atherosclerosis than T2T stratgy alone (Group 2: T2T-only group) in high-risk PsA patients with carotid plaque. The primary outcome is to ascertain the effect of T2T strategy with high-intensity rosuvastain (Group 1: T2T-statin group) on the change in CIMT over a period of 12 months compared with T2T strategy alone (Group 2: T2T-only group)
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women in worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related death. As the corner stone of BC screening, mammography is recognized as one of useful imaging modalities to reduce BC mortality, by virtue of early detection of BC. However, mammography interpretation is inherently subjective assessment, and prone to overdiagnosis. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI)-Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems, characterized by embedded deep-learning algorithms, have entered into the field of BC screening as an aid for radiologist, with purpose to optimize conventional CAD system with weakness of hand-crafted features extraction. For now, stand-alone performance of novel AI-CAD tools have demonstrated promising accuracy and efficiency in BC diagnosis, largely attributed to utilization of convolution neural network(CNNs), and some of them have already achieved radiologist-like level. On the other hand, radiologists' performance on BC screening has shown to be enhanced, by leveraging AI-CAD system as decision support tool. As increasing implementation of commercial AI-CAD system, robust evaluation of its usefulness and cost-effectiveness in clinical circumstances should be undertaken in scenarios mimicking real life before broad adoption, like other emerging and promising technologies. This requires to validate AI-CAD systems in BC screening on multiple, diverse and representative datasets and also to estimate the interface between reader and system. This proposed study seeks to investigate the breast cancer diagnostic performance of AI-CAD system used for reading mammograms. In this work, we will employ a commercially available AI-CAD tool based on deep-learning algorithms (IBM Watson Imaging AI Solution) to identify and characterize the suspicious breast lesions on mammograms. The potential cancer lesions can be labeled and their mammographic features and malignancy probability will be automatically reported. After AI post-processing, we shall further carry out statistical analysis to determine the accuracy of AI-CAD system for BC risk prediction.
The purpose of this which studied the biological therapy can be safely withdrawn in perianal Crohn's disease patients with radiologically healed fistula on MRI pelvis.
Cognitive behavioural family intervention (CBFI) is a brief psychosocial intervention that incorporates the model of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) into the family context. It builds upon the current trend of family interventions/psychoeducation with refocusing on the cognitive model within the family interpersonal relationship. Existing literature indicates that CBFI may be effective in improving positive and negative symptoms of people diagnosed with schizophrenia immediately following the programme. This mixed-method is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a CBFI programme for people with schizophrenia and their families in a local context. The findings may accumulate more evidence that CBFI is a brief and effective psychosocial intervention that is adapted to Hong Kong clinical settings.
Seasonal influenza virus causes an estimated 0.3-0.6 million deaths per year. Avian influenza virus H5N1, H7N9 and H5N6 has fatality rate of over 30%. Swine influenza viruses from pigs have also infected humans. Molecular assays are now used routinely in the detection of influenza viruses. The M gene is often used as the target for all influenza A viruses because the nucleotide sequence of this gene is relatively conserved among all the influenza A viruses. The World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have published protocols for molecular detection of influenza A virus M gene. However, recent studies have shown that mutations in the M gene have led to a reduced sensitivity of RT-PCR assay targeting this gene. Therefore, it is important to use alternative conserved genes as the target of RT-PCR. In this study, our aim is to evaluate two new RT-PCR assays that are based on PB2 and NS gene segment.
This is a phase 2a, open-label, randomized study. The study is designed to test the hypothesis that the nucleoside inhibitor sofosbuvir combined with NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir and NS5B non-nucleoside inhibitor CDI-31244 with/without the protease inhibitor asunaprevir will result in high SVR rate with a shortened treatment duration (2 weeks) in non-cirrhotic HCV genotype 1b-infected subjects.
Older people with DM are at greater risk of cognitive decline than their counterparts with DM. Cognitive impairment in older people with DM may be associated with non-AD related brain atrophy and white matter disease. The investigators therefore propose to compare DM and non-DM older people with amnesic MCI in brian volumes, white matter disease and amyloid load. 30 older people with aMCI, 30 older people with aMCI and DM, age 65-85 will be recruited. They all will have amyloid PET scan and MRI brain scan.
Having the advantages of being minimally invasive and simple, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) remains one of the treatment options for renal stones less than 2cm. Although SWL is the most minimally invasive surgical approach for stone, there are still some concern about its short and long term side effect. While, there are some evidences that SWL might lead to increase in new onset hypertension, investigator's recent study suggested it might also cause worsening of blood pressure control in patient with known hypertension. Therefore, further studies are needed to confirm the initial finding. This study recruits patients who have hypertension and are currently diagnosed to have renal stone and planned for SWL, in order to to investigate the effect of SWL on blood pressure control. After informed consent and background information have been obtained, patients will be randomized to either have routine SWL (treatment arm) or 6 months later (control arm). Group 1 patients will have blood pressure monitored for one day at home by an handy automated blood pressure measuring machine before SWL and 6 months after SWL. Group 2 patients will have blood pressure monitoring immediately and then 6 months later, just prior to the SWL.
Background According to the International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD) recommendations, "low-risk" peritoneal dialysis (PD)- related peritonitis caused by coagulase-negative staphylococcal species, Streptococcal species, or negative bacterial culture should receive antibiotics for 2 weeks. However, relapsing, recurrent, or repeated episodes are common. Objectives To compare the incidence of relapsing, recurrent, and repeat peritonitis with a 3-week course, as compared to the conventional 2-week course, antibiotic for PD-related peritonitis. Hypothesis Treatment of low-risk PD-related peritonitis for 3 weeks reduces the incidence of relapsing, recurrent, and repeat peritonitis. Design and subjects Randomized control trial of 310 episodes of "low-risk" PD-related peritonitis. Study instruments and interventions Patients will be randomized to receive treatment of the effective antibiotic according to the ISPD recommendations for 2 weeks (Conventional Group) or 3 weeks (Extended Group). All patients will be followed for 6 months after completion of treatment. Main outcome measures Complete cure of the peritonitis episode, defined as survival for 6 months without relapsing, recurrent, or repeat peritonitis episodes. Data analysis Data will be analyzed by both intention-to-treat and per protocol approach. The incidences of complete cure, relapsing, recurrent, and repeated peritonitis episodes will be compared. Expected results Based on our pilot study, we expect to find a significantly lower rate of relapsing, recurrent, and repeated peritonitis episodes in the Extended Group. By proving that "low-risk" peritonitis episodes require 3-week course of antibiotic therapy, our result will change the current recommendation and make treatment for 3 weeks course the standard of care.
Elevated CVD risk is a significant public health problem that contributes greatly to the increased morbidity and shortened lifespan of individuals with RA and PsA. Over the past decades, there has been great progress into the understanding of the severity of CVD risk in these patients but these risk factors are not well managed. The development of the high-risk strategy is therefore necessary, with more intensive therapy reserved for patients identified as high-risk, e.g. because they have high-risk FRS. However, these risk scores under-estimated CV risk in patients with RA and PsA. An intermediate approach is to use quantification of preclinical vascular disease to further identify high-risk patients. Results from this study will provide clinical implications in terms of detecting and managing cardiovascular morbidity in patients with RA and PsA.