View clinical trials related to Fever.
Filter by:The purpose of the investigators project is to examine if the investigators may affect a reduction in respiratory infections in a pediatric long term care facility by institution of a comprehensive oral care program. The investigators wish to base their project on work such as of Yoneyama et al 2002, which hypothesized and showed that "silent" aspiration of oropharyngeal contents is a causative factor in development of respiratory infection in elderly institutionalized clients. It was found that an advanced oral hygiene program greatly reduced the incidence of respiratory infection. Although no similar research projects were found to have involved children, the investigators hope that a similar program of oral care will allow the investigators to likewise reduce the incidence of respiratory infection among the pediatric clients in our facility. The investigators propose to examine two groups of children which are fed by gastrostomy feedings only. One group will continue to receive oral care as performed today. The study group will have their teeth brushed three times a day by the nursing staff by using a suction connected toothbrush, daily examination of the oropharynx by the nursing staff, and use of chlorhexidine varnish or another suitable antibacterial agent in the oropharynx. The investigators will retrospectively examine our records (a 12 month period) for febrile days, antibiotic use and hospitalization days due to respiratory causes. The investigators will then compare these to the febrile days, antibiotic use and hospitalizations to the 12 month period [post implementation of the oral care program. The importance of this program is to examine whether by implementation of a relatively inexpensive and low-tech intervention may meaningfully reduce the morbidity and mortality due to respiratory infection among our clients (which from our experience is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in the investigators institution). The investigators expect that by reducing the incidence of respiratory disease among our clients that the investigators will greatly reduce suffering among the children and their families, improve their quality of life and ease the financial and organizational burdens as a result of caring for respiratory infections. As was noted before, no prior research was found which studied the pediatric population in a long term care facilities. It is our belief that this project represents a unique research opportunity which may bring great benefit to the children and caregivers.
The goal of this clinical research study is to find the dose of EZN-2232 that can be given to MBL deficient pediatric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety of the study drug will also be studied.
Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a genetic disease, caused by mutations in the FMF gene, entitled MEFV. The disease is characterized by painful attacks of inflammation in sites lined by serous membranes (e.g. abdominal pain caused by inflammation of the peritoneum, a serous membrane surrounding all internal organs within the abdomen). Continuous colchicine treatment prevents attacks in most patients. The pathogenesis of the disease, what leads to the attacks and how colchicine helps, are questions not yet resolved. Elucidating the role of the inflammatory proteins is an important step towards the understanding of these questions. To date only small numbers of cytokines and inflammatory proteins have been studied individually. We propose to study a large number of these proteins in the RNA and protein levels addressing the interaction between them and the effect of colchicine on their expression. Blood samples will be drawn from consenting patients in remission, during attacks, under and without colchicine treatment. (20 patients in each category).Twenty healthy volunteers will donate control blood samples for the study. RNA will be produced from the neutrophils, and cytokines and various proteins' RNA expression will be determined. Major expressed proteins will be measured in the same samples and the results will be analyzed with regard to the activity of the disease, MEFV mutations and colchicine treatment status. The information obtained by the study may allow us to determine the sequence of events associated with FMF attack development, and perhaps take us one step further in the understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease.