ANZCTR search results

This study aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a telehealth supported physical intervention and its effect on functional capacity of palliative care recipients in the community. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are aged 18 years or older, living at home and are receiving community palliative care. You should be able to complete a sit-to-stand transfer without any physical assistance. Study details Participants in this study will be randomly allocated (by chance) to one of two groups. Participants in both groups will be provided with a chair with arms, and be taught by a physiotherapist or occupational therapist the most effective and safest way to move from sitting to standing rom this chair. Participants will be provided with an iPad to use for the duration of the study. It will have a video on it that shows how to safely complete ‘sit-to-stand’ using the chair provided. Participants in one group will be asked to complete 5 x Sit-To-Stand transfers five times a day or as able throughout the 5 week intervention period. Participants in the other group will not be asked to do this. All participants will be asked to complete two self-report questionnaires via an iPad once a week for 6 weeks to assess their functional capacity and quality of life. They will also be asked to wear an activity monitor for three 7 day monitoring periods. Participants may also be invited to participate in an interview about their participation in this study and their perceptions of its relationship to their activity levels and well-being. The findings from this project may have implications for the care of people receiving community palliative care and for further larger scale studies in this area.

Our primary objective is to develop an app capable of remotely performing a six-minute walk test (6MWT), reporting step-count data, reporting GPS data, extracting historical, pre-morbid step-data and providing responses to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessments, namely the world health organisation’s disability assessment schedule 2.0 (WHO-DAS). Ultimately, we want to perform accurate, objective and repeat sequential assessment of a patient’s physical function and level of activity. In this study, we plan to validate the app (Clinical Health Tracker) in 50 patients who attended hospital for a 6MWT over a subsequent five-day study period. The objectives for this component will be achieved by comparing:- The distances reported by the smartphone app during two 6MWT’s performed at recruitment, in clinic, with the actual distance walked and with three remotely performed 6MWTs during the study period. Daily step-counts reported by the app with daily step-counts reported by a Fitbit one. GPS data from the app with data from a BT-3000X GPS transponder WHO-DAS responses from the smartphone app with WHO-DAS responses to the questionnaire asked at the end of the study period. Step-count prior to the smartphone app being installed to step-counts following installation, to assess if the knowledge of being monitored affects the patient’s level of activity. Smartphone app generated GPS and step-count outcomes over a two month follow-up period We aim to validate the smartphone app in 50 individuals who are attending hospital for an outpatient 6MWT. We wish to enrol 50 individuals, 25 iPhone owners and 25 Android phone owners, who have been referred to the 6MWT clinic All patients who are scheduled to attend a 6MWT within CALHN will be written to, advising them of the study. Following consent, we will complete basic demographic details. participants will install our app on their phone using a local Wi-Fi network. Each individual will be provided with a unique ID in order to activate the app and will be provided with written and verbal instructions to the app’s use. They will be provided with a Fitbit one pedometer and a GPS transponder. They will perform their in-clinic 6MWT with the app recording the distance walked and the Fitbit recording the number of steps taken. They will then perform a second 6MWT, in clinic, using the app. They will leave clinic and undergo a 5-day study period, commencing at midnight the same day. They will be instructed to answer the WHO-DAS questionnaire using the app and to perform 3 remote 6MWT’s during the study period. Patients will be visited at home, or given the option to return to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, 5 days following their clinic appointment. The pedometer will be retrieved and step-counts extracted. They will provide verbal responses to the WHO-DAS and patient satisfaction questionnaires. Two months after their follow-up visit they will be phoned to remove the Clinical Health Tracker App.

Gout is a chronic inflammatory arthritis. This study aims to see if krill oil ( a natural anti-inflammatory therapy) can reduce inflammation in people with gout, as well as the current standard of care, colchicine. People with gout, and evidence of inflammation on ultrasound will be randomized to either krill oil or colchicine for 12 weeks, and then return for a follow-up ultrasound to see if the ultrasound detected inflammation has decreased, increased or unchanged. WE will also look to see what effects krill oil has on pain, quality of life, global health, blood test of inflammation and the number of flares of gout.

The objective of this study is to collect data on current general practitioner preferences for management of low back pain. This includes both preferences for imaging of low back pain and preferences for prescription of medication for low back pain.

The study is being done to compare to 2 methods of incision ( a surgical cut to the skin and tissue) in patients undergoing surgical removal of part or all of the thyroid gland.: 1. Using a scalpel (cutting skin and tissue with a metal blade) or 2. Electrocautery (also known as diathermy, a method of cutting skin and tissue using heat). The researchers want to find out which of these procedures can make the quickest incision, the best cosmetic outcome (the best looking scar), is least painful for the participant and heals the best.

This randomised controlled trial will assess a pharmacist led intervention to reduce medicine induced deterioration and adverse reactions. Medicine induced deterioration encompasses the spectrum of side effects that are frequently not recognised as medication related but are misattributed as geriatric syndromes, frailty or “changes due to aging”. The aim of the service is to enable early identification of signs and symptoms of medicine-induced deterioration so that worsening frailty and subsequent adverse events, such as injurious falls, fractures and delirium are prevented. In implementing the service, the pharmacist will use a suite of validated tools to assist in the detection of signs and symptoms of medicine-induced deterioration. The validated tools will encompass assessments to monitor changes in cognition, change in 24-hour movement behavior, including sleep, as well as grip strength. In addition, pharmacists will assess the potential for adverse medicine events via review of the resident care assessment record and through patient or carer reported changes in health since the medicine regimen was changed. The pharmacist service will be compared with usual care. The trial, involving 354 patients will take place in aged-care facilities in South Australia and Tasmania. The expected clinical outcome is a reduction in medication-induced deterioration, as measured by change in frailty score.

Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have damage to their airways which makes it difficult to fully exhale, causing air to become trapped in the lung. This leads patients to breathe at abnormally high lung volumes. Increased lung volume squashes the small blood vessels surrounding the lung and may reduce the flow of blood back to the heart. A reduction in the volume of blood into the heart may reduce the ability of the heart to function properly. Gentle compression of the abdomen and chest surrounding the lung has been shown to reduce the lung volume at which patients with COPD breathe. We predict lowering lung volume with gentle lung compression will relieve the pressure on small blood vessels and have beneficial effects on heart function. The purpose of the research study is to determine whether breathing at lower lung volumes is advantageous in patients with COPD. In this research study you will perform various lung function tests and undergo cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to assess heart function. We will then place an elastic corset around your abdomen/chest to provide gentle lung compression which will slightly decrease the lung volume at which you breathe. We will then ask you to repeat the lung function tests and cardiac imaging.

Purpose and Hypothesis: The purpose of this project is to examine whether Autologous Conditioned Plasma (ACP) therapy can enhance semitendinosus healing after Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Knee function and muscle-tendon regeneration will be compared 1-year post-surgery between a group receiving ACL reconstruction and a group receiving ACL reconstruction combined with Arthrex’ ACP application to the donor site. Previous studies have found donor hamstring muscles experience substantial wasting (e.g., reduce in size and strength) following ACL reconstruction. Specifically, semitendinosus and gracilis muscles and muscle-tendons experience little regeneration, retraction of the muscle belly, atrophy, strength deficits, and impairments of function. We hypothesize ACL reconstruction combined with ACP application, referred to as “ACLR+”, will result in better muscle and tendon regeneration and improved knee function at 1 year following surgery. Specifically, we hypothesize individuals receiving ACLR+ will have knee flexion strength more similar to their contralateral leg than those receiving standard ACLR. Further, we hypothesize individuals receiving ACLR+ will have muscle-tendon morphology (i.e., muscle-tendon volumes, lengths, and cross-sectional areas) similar to the muscles and tendons in the untreated contralateral leg. Conversely, those receiving standard ACL reconstruction will have a significantly smaller and lower quality donor muscle and tendons compared to the contralateral leg.

In this study we propose to identify a cohort of 200 men who have a higher-than-normal amyloid in the brain, who are experiencing Subjective Memory Complaints but are not symptomatic for Alzheimer's disease. These men will be treated with testosterone (intramuscular injection), with and without DHA (oral administration) over 56 weeks. The study will evaluate the ability of testosterone & DHA to reduce the levels of LH, beta amyloid levels and subsequent impact on amyloid PIB-like load in the brain. This study will look at the effects of study treatment on brain images (MRI, PET scans), participants’ scores on psychometric tasks, neuropsychological questionnaires (measurement of memory loss and thinking ability) tests and the effect of treatment on different blood biomarkers. This study will look at the effects of study treatment on brain images (MRI, PET scans), participants’ scores on psychometric tasks, neuropsychological questionnaires (measurement of memory loss and thinking ability) tests and the effect of treatment on different blood biomarkers.

The diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with increased incidence and prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, nightly SDB-severity rather than the categorical diagnosis of SDB may directly influence AF-risk during the respective day thereby creating a dynamic substrate for AF. While chronic structural alterations induced by SDB have been already described in AF patients with SDB, the role of night-to-night variability in SDB severity is unclear and clinical evidence for a dynamic AF substrate in patients related to nightly SDB severity is lacking. By simultaneous long-term night-by-night SDB and AF monitoring, we examine the dynamic intra-individual relationship between daily SDB-severity and risk of incident AF during the respective day.