View clinical trials related to Liver Diseases.
Filter by:The primary objective is to determine whether donor stem cells administered via hepatic artery infusion can produce liver cells in patients with severe hepatic dysfunction post stem cell transplantation (SCT) and the safety of this procedure. The secondary objective is to improve liver function and improve survival.
In this study, the effect of the medication gabapentin to treat itching secondary to liver disease is being studied. There are some funds to cover travel expenses for patients who are not from New York (NY). Gabapentin is approved to treat seizures in human beings. In this study, patients with liver disease who meet inclusion criteria are admitted to the research hospital of the New York Presbyterian Hospital to record scratching behavior by the use of a machine designed for that purpose. Blood work will be obtained. After completion of recording, patients are assigned by chance to receive active medication or placebo (a capsule that does not contain active medication). The patients will come to the outpatient office of the research hospital 2 weeks into the study for an interview and blood work. After 4 weeks, patients are readmitted to the hospital to record scratching behavior. After data are collected, the code is broken, if patient had been on inactive drug, active drug will be supplied as per protocol for 4 weeks. Blood work will be obtained. If patient had been randomized to active medication, the study will provide one week supply of drug. After that, the referring physician, with whom the study was previously discussed, could prescribe the medication as it is available.
This is a study to determine whether choline, when added to total parenteral nutrition (TPN), can help prevent the development of hepatic steatosis, a liver disease, in patients on TPN.
White blood cells can cause liver damage if they inappropriately accumulate in the liver in large numbers. Such an event can occur if an individual's blood is exposed to endotoxin, a substance released from the cell walls of many species of bacteria. The purpose of this study is to isolate neutrophils, an important white blood cell, from the blood of normal volunteers, and put them in tissue culture with isolated liver cells. The experiments will determine how endotoxin can increase the ability of neutrophils to damage liver cells. All studies supported by this grant will be done with isolated cells in tissue culture. This experimental model will reveal possible mechanisms that can in the future be evaluated in human diseases such as bacterial sepsis.
This is a phase I study of the experimental anticancer drug oxaliplatin. It is designed to establish the maximum dose of the drug that can be given safely to patients with cancer who have impaired liver function and to determine the drug's side effects. It will also examine how liver function affects the drug's elimination from the body. The liver plays an important role in the elimination of many anticancer drugs, and patients with impaired liver function should not take certain drugs or should take them in reduced doses. Patients 18 years of age and older with cancer that has metastasized (spread from the original tumor site) and for whom standard treatment is not available or is no longer effective may be eligible for this study. Candidates will be screened with various tests and procedures that may include physical examination, computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, chest X-rays, and blood and urine tests. Participants will be given oxaliplatin in doses determined according to their level of liver function. Patients may have normal liver function or mildly, moderately or severely impaired liver function, or may have had a liver transplant. Oxaliplatin will be infused intravenously (through a vein) over two hours on the first day of 21-day treatment cycles-that is, once every 3 weeks. Treatment will continue as long as the cancer is under control and side effects do not require stopping the drug. Urine will be collected over 48 hours after the infusion to determine how much of the drug is eliminated in urine. Blood tests will be done to monitor safety of the treatment, and imaging studies, such as X-rays, CT and MRI scans, will be done periodically to evaluate the tumor's response to treatment. Special blood tests will also be done to study how oxaliplatin is eliminated from the body. With the first dose of the drug, blood samples will be collected just before the infusion begins, just before it ends, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1, 2, 4, 6, 24, 48, and 72 hours after the infusion, and again 1 week and 3 weeks later. Additional blood samples may be collected at the third treatment cycle.
Enterococci, especially vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE), are increasing in prevalence in many hospitals in the United States. Patients undergoing liver transplantation are at particular risk for developing infection due to VRE. The effect of prior colonization with VRE on the outcome of liver transplantation is unknown. This prospective study will ascertain the prevalence of gastrointestinal colonization with vancomycin resistant enterococci among patients awaiting liver transplantation at the University of Michigan Health System. Risk factors for acquisition of the organism, natural history of colonization and outcome in colonized patients will also be determined. All patients currently listed on a priority waiting list for liver transplantation at UMHS will be invited to participate. Patients will receive a standardized letter from their primary gastroenterologist describing the rationale for the study. Patients will be contacted by telephone by a member of the study team in order to arrange an appointment in the GCRC at the time of their regularly scheduled Transplant Clinic appointment in order discuss their potential participation in the study. Patients who give informed consent, will be interviewed using a standard interview questionnaire. Demographic and historical data relevant to the risk of VRE colonization will be collected during the interview. A sample will be obtained via rectal swab for culture. Rectal swabs for culture and collection of information on the standardized questionnaire will be repeated every six months while the patient is awaiting liver transplantation. When a patient undergoes liver transplantation, a culture will be obtained at the time of admission and weekly after post-operatively until discharge. All patients will be followed for 60 days after transplantation to assess several primary outcomes, including operative and post-operative complications, VRE infection and mortality. Rectal swabs will be the only procedure performed for the purposes of this study. Culture results will not be made available to the transplant team in order to avoid bias in clinical care. All data will be entered into an electronic database. GCRC statisticians will assist in the analysis of risk factors and outcome analysis.
The diverse clinical syndromes associated with hepatitis C underscore the multifactorial and polygenic nature of HCV infection. Both viral and host factors likely contribute to variations in infection outcome, disease susceptibility and progression, and treatment response. This protocol will focus on the immunogenetics of HCV infection. Various candidate genes, most of them related to host immune response in microbial infection, have defined genetic polymorphisms that have been associated with variable manifestations of infections including malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, AIDS and hepatitis B. In this proposal, we plan to collect peripheral blood mononuclear cells as a source of DNA from approximately 1500 patients with HCV infection, analyze genetic polymorphisms of various candidate genes in association with viral clearance, disease progression or treatment response, and characterize the functional consequences of these polymorphisms in patients with well-defined clinical sequelae of HCV infection. We will also collect blood from patients with other forms of liver diseases (approximately 300) or normal volunteers (approximately 200) as controls. By identifying relevant host factors genetically and investigating their molecular interactions with HCV, we may gain additional insights into HCV pathogenesis and uncover new potential targets for vaccine development and treatment intervention.
To compare the clinical, biochemical, and histological status of Non-A, Non-B post-transfusion hepatitis patients with that of patients who did not develop post-transfusion hepatitis.
To elucidate the role of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) in the development of chronic liver disease in patients with hemophilia.
To determine the prevalence of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) in a large cohort of hemophiliacs and to elucidate the role of HDV in the development and progression of liver disease in this population.