There are about 3753 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.
Osteoarthritis is among the most prevalent form of degenerative joint disease in arthritis. The World Health Organisation identified osteoarthritis as one of the top ten most disabling cause of disease in developed countries, and the single most common cause of disability for elderly persons. In fact, worldwide statistics for men and women over 60 years of age with signs of symptomatic osteoarthritis are estimated to be at 9.6% and 18.0% respectively. In Hong Kong, the latest census revealed that 514,000 people suffer from degenerative arthritis, representing 0.7% of the population. Although these values are much lower than the international figures reported by the WHO, it is inevitable that the prevalence of osteoarthritis will continue to rise with an increasing trend of obesity and an aging population in Hong Kong. Similar to any other chronic disease with wide prevalence, the impact of osteoarthritis translates to a substantial socioeconomic burden on a societal level. Total knee arthroplasty has become the gold standard to manage the pain and disability associated with end-stage arthritis who have exhausted all conservative measures. Although contemporary advances in prosthesis design, surgical techniques, postoperative rehabilitation regimes have hasten patient's recovery, the restoration of proprioception and neuromuscular control is often prolonged despite solid rehabilitation regimes. Knee bracing is one of the non-pharmacological modalities designed to evenly distribute load and provide proprioceptive feedbacks for those with knee injuries or knee pain. There are four categories of knee braces for the purpose of prophylactic, functional, rehabilitative and unloader/off-load. This study will mainly be focusing on the effects of the unloader/off-loader brace. Previous studies have demonstrated the effects on alteration of kinematic variables, including range of movement (p=0.002), speed of walking (p<0.001) and knee adduction moment (p=0.001) for knee injuries and osteoarthritis as a part of the conservative management protocol. However, there have few studies that investigated whether proprioceptive knee bracing has any role in functional recovery post total knee arthroplasty.
This research attempts to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled device for measuring the dynamic balance ability of older people with a sensor using an optical principle called Frustrated Total Internal Reflection. The AI-based algorithm embedded in the device performs the data analysis for balance ability assessment and falling risk prediction. As a critical part of the research, a large-scale user study is needed to test the validity of the device regarding the dynamic balance ability assessment and the accuracy of the falling risk prediction provided by the device. Also, we plan to study the factors influencing user engagement in this device through the questionnaire-based survey and interview.
Objectives: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a common disease in patients with ischemic stroke and the most common cause of vascular dementia. Blood pressure (BP)-lowering is generally considered neuroprotective. Nevertheless, in patients with severe SVD burden, the optimal BP target is uncertain. Hypothesis: BP-lowering to a systolic BP of 120-129mmHg in ischemic stroke patients with severe SVD is not associated with impaired cerebral perfusion, nor does it associate with worsening of structural connectivity and cognitive function. Design and subjects: One-year trial where patients aged ≥50 with a history of ischaemic stroke and severe cerebral SVD will be randomised (1:1) to a systolic BP target of 120-129mmHg versus 130-140mmHg. Study instruments: At baseline and one-year, all subjects will receive a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate their cerebral blood flow (CBF) and white matter integrity. They will also receive neuropsychological batteries to evaluate cognitive functioning. In addition, subjects will receive home BP monitoring with periodic medication changes prescribed by medical doctor to ensure the target BP is achieved. Main outcome measures: Primary end-point is the change in CBF. Secondary end-points include changes in structural connectivity and cognitive performance.
To assess the correlation of these urinary biomarkers with the serum sample and evaluated the clinical utility of using urinary sample in the detection and prognostication of MGN. Fifty patients with newly diagnosed biopsy proven MGN would be recruited and followed up for 1 years. Serum and urinary biomarkers would be collected every 4 months and their antibody titres measured with ELISA assay.
Background The most common dental diseases are tooth decay (caries) and gum disease (gingivitis and periodontitis). Obviously, these diseases are caused by dental plaque (bacterial biofilm). Although most patients brush their teeth every day, they cannot keep all their teeth clean. Areas in the mouth that are difficult to access, such as crowded areas, posterior teeth or interdental areas, are usually affected (site-specific). After a thorough professional tooth cleaning, dental plaque will begin to accumulate on the tooth surface near the gum edge within a few days. Clinical studies indicating that regular disruption to the plaque is needed and can prevent and arrest gum disease. However, dental diseases may take years to develop, the patient usually does not have any pain symptoms unless the disease has progressed to the advanced stage. A significant amount of resources and clinical time have been used to motivate and instruct patients to keep their mouth clean and yet the results are not satisfactory. It is desirable to adopt an automated technique for monitoring oral health daily so we can seek treatment when it is needed. Patients' response to plaque accumulated at the gum margin is by inflammation which brings more blood cells to the site to fight against the bacterial invasion. Inflammation of gum is manifested as an increase in redness (color), an increase in volume (oedema), and loss of surface characteristics (stippling; gum fibre attachment). These affected areas can be identified by visual inspection with the dentist during the consultation or using intraoral photography. The objective of this research is to apply deep neural network technology to detect gum inflammation from intraoral photos. As the target inflammation site is at gum margin with varied shape and size, semantic segmentation at pixel level is needed. In this research, we are planning to have an extensive study of deep neural network (DNN) approach for the automatic multiple level gum disease detection. Standardized intraoral photography will be collected for 1200 cases and will be labelled by several dentists as "diseased" (inflammation), "healthy" or "questionable". Only gum area in which the dentists have same rating will be used to train/validate the system. Using the successfully developed system, one can use his/her mobile device to monitor their gum health when needed. They may be able to prevent the two main oral diseases (tooth decay and gum diseases) with minimal additional cost. It will be an important contribution to the promotion of public dental care. Aim of study This study aims to train and validate the computer to automatically monitor gum inflammation using standardized intraoral photos and selfie by smartphone. 1. to collect 1200 standard intraoral photographs and randomly cropped into training and validation sets. 2. to develop ground truth gingivitis label images into four health status levels (healthy, questionable healthy, questionable diseased and diseased) and verified by dental specialists. 3. to develop intelligent system for automatically detect inflamed disease sites with four health status levels. 4. to develop and standardize the image acquisition protocol for the detection with mobile devices. Hypothesis A diagnostic tool should be able to diagnose true disease and true health which described as sensitivity (positive when true disease) and specificity (negative when true health). The primary outcome will be the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). The hypothesis of this study is the trained gingival detection system is able to detect the changes of gum inflammation with high sensitivity and specificity.
Aim: To determine the feasibility and potential efficacy of a proactive approach using a brief self-determination theory-based intervention to help people attending the ED modify their health-risk behaviours and lead healthier lives. Objectives 1. To assess the recruitment, participation and retention rates of targeted participants in an emergency department 2. To ascertain the feasibility of screening, recruiting and educating people to change health-risk behaviours in the emergency department
The present study aims to conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the effect of CALM intervention and ConquerFear intervention on fear of cancer progression among Chinese patients diagnosed with advanced cancer.
We aim to identify the gut microbiome composition in adults with CWP. We will collect the stool sample of 120 healthy individuals and 120 Chronic Widespread Pain patients. We hypothesize that the intestinal microbiota is altered in CWP compared to healthy subjects without CWP.
This is a randomized placebo-controlled trial to examine the efficacy of two-week bright light therapy for patients with post-COVID-19 fatigue.
The purpose of this trial is: 1. to assess the efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and safety of remibrutinib vs. placebo in adolescents from 12 to < 18 years of age suffering from chronic spontaneous urticaria inadequately controlled by H1-antihistamines 2. to collect long-term efficacy, safety and tolerability data on remibrutinib in adolescents after having completed 24 weeks of treatment 3. to collect safety data in this population for up to three years after the last dose of study treatment