ANZCTR search results

The aim of this pilot pragmatic randomised controlled trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of a new online self-help program for people who are having difficulties controlling their gambling. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of the program under two different conditions: 1. pure self-help - delivered without any practitioner guidance; and 2. guided self-help - delivered with practitioner guidance via email. It is hypothesised that the guided self-help intervention will lead to better outcomes than the pure self-help intervention.

The primary purpose of this study is to compare the effects of targeted hip strengthening with those of traditional care in a total knee replacement rehabilitation program. The hypotheses of this study are: 1. The targeted hip strengthening program will result in greater performance and patient reported outcomes when compared to usual care rehabilitation. 2. The targeted hip strengthening program will result in greater increases in hip strength than the usual care rehabilitation program.

The objective of this project is to develop methods to allow adaptive radiotherapy for cervical and other gynaecological cancers. Adaptive radiotherapy refers to incorporating patient specific changes over time to tailor the delivery of radiotherapy throughout the course of treatment. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are aged 18 years or older, and have been diagnosed with a gynaecological cancer for which you have been recommended radiotherapy to the pelvis. Study details Participants will undergo usual radiotherapy treatment, with additional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans taken just prior to beginning treatment, and weekly during radiotherapy treatment until a maximum of 6 scans have been taken. The results of these scans will not alter the treatment received by participants. Data will be used to aid development of new radiotherapy treatment protocols. It is hoped that the findings of this study will lead to the development of the technical requirements required to implement adaptive radiotherapy using MRI. The potential benefit of this is to improve outcomes for women with gynaecological cancers, and reduce the rates of side effects from treatment.

The COPS trial is a prospective multicentre randomised study to examine the effect of adding low-dose colchicine to standard medical therapy in patients who have had a heart attack. A total of 1009 participants will be recruited from hospitals across Australia over the study period. Participants will be randomised to either (a) standard medical therapy or (b) standard medical therapy plus low-dose oral colchicine. Participants will be followed up for 12 months for predefined major adverse cardiovascular outcomes via telephone interviews. We hypothesise that the addition of colchicine to standard medical therapy will reduce long-term major adverse cardiovascular events in patients who have had a heart attack.

Objective: To investigate the feasibility and usefulness of an online information and skills development intervention for carers of individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). Method: Thirty-seven carers and seventeen individuals with AN were recruited; carers completed the intervention Overcoming Anorexia Online (OAO), with random allocation to receiving additional clinician guidance (OAO-G) or no guidance (OAO-NoG). Level of expressed emotion, distress, depressive symptoms, experience of caregiving and impact of eating disorder symptoms were assessed in carers and perceptions of changes in their carers’ expressed emotion were assessed in individuals with AN. Participants completed questionnaires at pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up. Results: Significant reductions were found for carer intrusiveness, negative experiences of caregiving and the impact of starvation and guilt. Within group effect sizes suggested mixed findings with respect to whether greater benefits were conferred for carers receiving clinician guidance. Decreases in perceived intrusiveness of the carer by the individual with AN were associated with a large effect size. Discussion: Results demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of an online intervention for carers. Further examination of the efficacy of the intervention for both carers and individuals with AN is warranted.

Multi-centre study investigating whether specific nutritional interventions improve pressure injury healing compared to standard care. Consenting eligible patients with pressure injuries stage 2 or greater at 5 south East Queensland hospitals will be randomized to receive standard ward based nutrition, intensive dietetic nutrition intervention or prescription of a wound healing formula. Data will be collected at baseline and weekly including a range of relevant demographic, nutritional and pressure ulcer measurements.

Brief summary: Current clinical management of OSA is to use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as a first-line treatment. However, patient tolerance and compliance with CPAP is an ongoing problem in sleep medicine. This study recognizes that alternative treatments better targeted to underlying causal deficits may lead to improved treatment outcomes for patients. Oxygen therapy combined with a sedative (Zopiclone) is one form of combination treatment that could potentially treat a sub-group of OSA patients who have unstable breathing and heightened awakening responses underpinning their OSA. The aim of this study is to investigate if oxygen combined with a commonly used sedative, Zopiclone, could be used to effectively treatment OSA in some patients. Participants will be recruited from the study “CRC Respiratory Phenotyping for Obstructive Sleep Apnea”. The current study is a sub-study of CRC Respiratory Phenotyping for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (ACTRN12615000918527).

The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan is more sensitive in detecting small metastatic disease in renal cell cancer than conventional computed tomography (CT) scans. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you have been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in the past 6 weeks. Study details: All participants will undergo a 68Ga-labelled PSMA PET scan in addition to the standard pf care staging CT scans offered. A standard imaging to diagnose renal cell carcinoma is using multi-phase contrast CT scan which participants would have had for the diagnosis. The imaging is then compared to PET scan, which involves receiving a radio-isotope via a drip. This scan is commonly used in prostate cancer staging. You will be required to have an injection, wait 90 minutes, then lie down on a table inside the PET machine for 30 minutes. Scans will be assessed for small metastatic disease and patient records will be assessed to determine if the use of PET scan has changed patient management. It is hoped that the findings of this pilot trial will help to establish whether PSMA PET may be more useful in identifying micrometastases than the CT staging scans alone which are currently being offered. In total, all participants of the trial would have had 1 multiphase CT scan to be eligible for referral, and 1 non-contrast single phase CT scan will be performed with 1 PET scan.

The aim of the trial is to establish if the use of an online psycho-education and cognitive-behavioural intervention will decrease the likelihood that a young person will experience being cyber bullied, and also reduce the impact of any bullying experienced. The program is designed to decrease vulnerability to bullying by building coping responses over time.We hypothesise that young people who complete the on-line intervention will experience decreased bullying (particularly cyber bullying), increased self-compassion, and decreased emotional and behavioural symptoms, relative to young people who do not complete the intervention.

Current standard practice at The Alfred Hospital involves closing the sternum following cardiac surgery with stainless steel wires. Alternative sternal closing techniques also exist, however to date closure of the sternum using stainless steel wires remains the standard technique because of its low cost. The cable tie method of sternal closure however is a widely used sternal closure technique that is used as a standard method by many surgeons in Australia and around the world, as this method potentially provides better stability of the sternum and less postoperative sternal pain. The aim of this research is to compare the outcomes in patients who have their sternum closed either with the Zipfix cable ties or stainless steel wires. The researchers will investigate whether patients who have their sternum closed with Zipfix cable ties experience less pain compared to patients that have their sternum closed with stainless steel wires. They will also determine whether patients who have their sternum closed with the cable ties have reduced sternal mobility in the early postoperative period. We hypothesize that use of the zipfix system for sternal closure after cardiac surgery improves sternal stability and reduces post operative pain, compared to conventional stainless steel wires.