View clinical trials related to Pneumonia.
Filter by:Cystic fibrosis patients suffer from a chronic destruction of the lung, frequent and finally chronic pneumonia and a reduced life expectancy. Unfortunately, no curative treatment for cystic fibrosis is available, neither are treatments established that prevent the disease. Our data identify ceramide as a potential novel target to treat cystic fibrosis. Two smaller trials support the notion that inhibition of the acid sphingomyelinase by amitriptyline improves the lung function of CF-patients even at a dose that is low enough to avoid adverse effects. In the present proposal the investigators, therefore, aim to test in a larger cystic fibrosis patient population whether an inhibition of ceramide release in the lung caused by the lack of functional CFTR improves the lung function of cystic fibrosis patients. Inhibition of ceramide-release in the lung will be achieved by treatment with amitriptyline, which is used as an anti-depressant drug for almost 50 years. Although it is not absolutely specific, it seems to be relatively specific for the degradation of acid sphingomyelinase (typically 60-80% of cellular acid sphingomyelinase are degraded), which releases ceramide from sphingomyelin. If the data confirm the beneficial effect of amitriptyline already observed in our preliminary studies, the present clinical study may establish a novel treatment to improve clinical symptoms of cystic fibrosis and, moreover, to prevent or at least delay the onset of cystic fibrosis. Hypothesis - Amitriptyline reduces ceramide concentrations in respiratory epithelial cells (measured in nasal epithelial cells obtained by brushing nasal mucosa). - Amitriptyline treatment reduces cell death in bronchi and deposition of DNA on the respiratory epithelium, which permits elimination of P. aeruginosa from the lung (measured as P. aeruginosa counts in tracheal fluid). - Amitriptyline treatment results in normalization of the function of leukocytes (number determined in serum and tracheal fluid) - Amitriptyline reduces systemic and local inflammation (measured as cytokines in plasma and tracheal fluid). Based on these effects amitriptyline increases the lung function of cystic fibrosis patients (measured by FEV1).
In the 21st century, threats to human health of new respiratory infectious diseases increased. The project aim is to establish pneumonia pathogens network in Beijing and understand the pathogen spectrum distribution.
The purpose of this study is to investigate inherited genetic factors that play a role in the development of familial pulmonary fibrosis and to identify a group of genes that predispose individuals to develop pulmonary fibrosis. Finding the genes that cause pulmonary fibrosis is the first step at developing better methods for early diagnosis and improved treatment for pulmonary fibrosis. The overall hypothesis is that inherited genetic factors predispose individuals to develop pulmonary fibrosis.
This study is a prospective observation study for lower respiratory tract infections in medical intensive care unit. Microbiologic and clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with severe pneumonia in medical intensive care unit will be monitored and analyzed.
Background: in various pediatric pulmonary diseases such as asthma, cystic fibrosis or bronchopulmonary dysplasia an increased inflammation is present. Measuring this inflammation is often hardly possible and requires invasive techniques such as bronchoscopy. With the use of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) or exhaled breath (EB) analysis it is possible to measure the inflammation in an non-invasive way. However, there is a great need to further standardise these measurements and to identify possible confounding factors.
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a bacterium that causes severe infections in children and adults such as meningitis, pneumonia, and blood stream infection. There are many types of these bacteria defined by the type of sugar coat that they have. These are classified as serotypes. There are common serotypes that cause severe disease and are preventable by vaccination of children. Other less common types are more difficult to prevent. The investigators aim to determine the serotypes that cause invasive pneumococcal disease in Lebanon and to study their sensitivity to different antibiotics. The investigators will collect bacterial isolates from different hospitals in Lebanon isolated from the blood or spinal fluid of patients with invasive pneumococcal disease. This information will help the investigators determine the usefulness of available pneumococcal vaccines in preventing these infections. The data will be distributed to all primary care physicians treating children in Lebanon and will be shared with the Ministry of Health.
1. BACKGROUND Pneumonia occurring outside of the hospital setting is regarded as community acquired pneumonia. However, pneumonia occurring in non-hospital long-term care facilities constituted a distinct type of pneumonia from CAP. Kollef et al has justified health care associated pneumonia (HCAP) as a new category of pneumonia [1]. The HCAP patients are associated with severe disease, higher mortality rate, and greater length of stay and increased cost [1]. HCAP are often at risk for multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) [2]. Health care facilities have not been defined in Taiwan. Respiratory care ward (RCW) is a special unit to take care long-term ventilatory dependent patients in Taiwan. Some of the patients get pneumonia and are referred back to medical centers. Besides, community-acquired P. aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii or MRSA have been reported [3-8]. Therefore, the core-organisms of HCAP in Taiwan might be multi-drug resistant and the causes of inadequate initial antibiotics treatment. The common pathogens were also unknown. Till now, there are no data about the pathogens of HCAP in Taiwan. We define the health-care facilities and initiate a retrospective study to characterize the microbiology and clinical outcome of Community acquired pneumonia and Health-Care-Associated pneumonia in Taiwan. Further analysis will perform to confirm the differences between CAP an HCAP in Taiwan. 2. Objectives: I. To characterize CAP and HCAP i. Microbiological epidemiology ii. Disease severity: PSI iii. Outcome : length of stay, mortality , antimicrobial susceptibility and treatment outcomes II. To characterize HCAP from RCW i. Microbiological epidemiology ii. Disease severity: PSI iii. Outcome : length of stay, mortality 3. Study design: This is a retrospective multi-center cohort study to characterize microbiology, and clinical outcomes in Taiwan. Data sources: CAP or HCAP registered in 4 medical centers from Jan 1 2007 to Dec. 31 2007. (2 in north Taiwan, 1 in central Taiwan, 1 in south Taiwan) Expected case number: 800 HCAP and 1800 CAP
Inclusion of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation and presenting a pneumonia in order to determine serum pharmacokinetics of nebulized amikacin. The primary aim is to determine the dose of amikacin to be nebulized in order to observe amikacin serum concentrations close to but inferior to those observed after standart intravenous amikacin infusion.
Poor oral hygiene is associated with respiratory pathogen colonization and secondary lung infection.The possible association between oral care and incidence of VAP, and the role of dental plaque, mouth and tracheal colonization have not been firmly established. The investigators' hypothesis was that improving oral care with electrical toothbrushing might be effective in reducing the incidence of VAP.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether moxifloxacin in comparison to levofloxacin plus metronidazole are effective and safe in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia with aspiration factors.