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We aim to: 1. Determine a practical method for measuring exposure to prednisolone and whether exposure to prednisolone correlates with blood glucose. 2. Determine if divided daily prednisolone dosing strategies reduce free prednisolone and glucose levels compared with daily dosing in post-kidney transplant recipients. 3. Determine if afternoon home blood glucose and HbA1c are superior to FPG and OGTT for diagnosing post transplant diabetes.

This study will investigate the effectiveness of Elderberry lozenges in the prevention of upper respiratory symptoms associated with long distance travel.

As many as half of all patients with heart failure exhibit Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR), a form of disordered breathing in which short periods (approx 30 sec) of regular breathing alternate with periods during which breathing stops (apnea). Patients with heart failure and CSR have a markedly poorer outcome compared to heart failure patients whose breathing is normal during sleep. While the reasons for the differential outcome are not fully known, it is likely that the direct consequences of CSR, which include increased sympathetic activity and frequent declines in blood oxygen level, contribute to impairment of cardiac function. When effective treatment causes CSR to revert to a continuous breathing pattern, the available evidence shows that patient condition and survival improve. However, the current front-line therapy, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) ameliorates CSR in only 50% of heart failure patients. We plan to use a novel loop gain theory developed in our laboratory that enables us to calculate a precise level of inspired CO2 for each patient that will convert CSR into a continuous pattern. The work planned in this program will employ a manual method to deliver an optimised CO2 treatment for each patient during the night whenever the patient begins to exhibit CSR. In order to carry out our study, we will recruit patients with heart failure and suspected CSR for overnight sleep studies which involve measurement of respiratory, cardiovascular and sleep variables. Based upon our studies over the past two years in such patients, carried out at the Alfred and Monash Medical Centre, CO2 treatment will restore continuous breathing in all patients. In the current study we will determine how termination of CSR affects patients in terms of respiratory and cardiovascular function, as well as sleep architecture and quality (duration of sleep and time in its various stages). We anticipate that our proposed study will show that restricting the time a patient spends breathing with a periodic pattern while asleep will provide an acute benefit and justify a major program of device development to translate our technique into a home-based device for overnight patient use. Success in our program has the potential to benefit many of the approximately 25 million people world-wide with congestive heart failure, a condition that remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the western world and now constitutes the leading cause of hospitalisation in developed countries.

The aim of this study is to focus on the clinical utility of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) quantitation by assessing on-treatment serum HBsAg kinetics in newly diagnosed HBeAg-negative and positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients who will be treated with pegylated interferon-based therapies or nucleos(t)ide analogues as endicated in our Hepatology Clinic. We suggest that approximately 100 eligible CHB patients will participate and be followed up during 3 years in this prospective analysis. Serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, liver chemistry tests and HBsAg (Abbott Architect HBsAg QT assay) will be assessed at baseline and during treatment (weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, 24, 36, 48, 52, 64, 72, 84, 100). Decline in HBsAg and HBV DNA over time will be determined, results will be stratified according to treatment groups and baseline characteristics and then analyzed with regard to our primary and secondary outcomes.

The aim of the study is to determine that carbon dioxide (CO2) , instead of air insufflated during colonoscopy reduces pain experienced by patients post colonoscopy. the Hypothesis: Those receiving carbon dioxide (CO2) insufflation during colonscopy will experience less post colonoscopy pain than those receiving air insufflation.

A email questionnaire will be distributed to the principle physiotherapist working in the Cystic Fibrosis service at each site contributing to the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Data Registry in 2010. The questionnaire investigates the current level of physiotherapy provided to patients with cystic fibrosis receiving home intravenous antibiotics. It covers location and type of service provided, frequency and what the current model of care is based on.

A randomised controlled trial was used to investigate the effect of Swedish massage with ginger oil on older people with chronic low pain pain. Treatment group received Swedish massage with aromatic ginger oil (2% essential ginger oil with Jojoba oil) and Control group received the usual care of traditional Thai massage.

Hamstring tightness and insertional tendonopathy is a common condition that frequently coexists with osteoarthritis about the knee. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the definitive treatment of advanced symptomatic knee ostoearthritis but does nothing to treat hamstring tightness and insertional tendonopathy which can then interfere with the recovery from TKA by causing pain and altering gait mechanics. Little data exists on the coexistence of these two conditions however. The author proposes a prospective randomized blinded trial to assess the effect of hamstring stretching on knee extension angle,gait, fixed flexion deformity and symptoms in the osteoarthritic knee and to assess the effect of hamstring stretching the same parameters after TKA. Patients presenting to participating orthopaedic surgeons for treatment of knee osteoarthritis with flexion, varus or flexion and varus deformity >= 10 degrees and scheduled for TKA will be eligible for enrollment in the study. Clinical assessment of the knee, gait analysis and validated outcomes scores to be assessed at time zero, after four weeks of stretching and six weeks after TKA. Final examination and scoring at 6 months post op. Symptoms to be assessed using standardized assessment forms (Euroqual, WOMAC, Oxford Knee Score, Knee Society Knee Score, KOOS). Unilateral TKA participants will be randomly allocated to either a control (CTKA) or treatment (TTKA). Bilateral TKA patients will also be randomly allocated to either a control (CTKA) or treatment (TTKA).The TTKA treatment groups will undergo a stretching program 4 weeks before and 6 weeks after TKA surgery. The Participants will be instructed in performing a hamstring stretch by a physiotherapist. Participants will be required to perform a 2 x 2 mins progressive hamstring stretches twice daily (total of 8 min hamstring stretch on each leg). Instruction video to be provided to each patient on portable USB drive. Reminder text messages twice weekly to be sent. Gait lab technician and clinical assessor and inpatient physiotherapist to be blinded.

In Rockhampton 64.1% of adults are overweight or obese and half of the adults do engage in sufficient levels of physical activity (PA) to achieve health benefits. A new partnership between Queensland Health, Central Queensland University and the Rockhampton Regional Council the biggest employer in the region, may improve the health of workers by introducing the 10,000 Steps Workplace Challenge. The effectiveness of this program will be studied. We will examine whether the 10,000 workplace challenge increases physical activity, reduces total sitting time, reduces obesity, and increases quality of life. The benefits may extend to a reduction in chronic disease and health care costs within the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service.

Approximately 20-40% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. In patients undergoing IVF treatment for infertility this rate is compounded by a high rate of embryo implantation failure. Based on data collated in the most recent ANZARD report, only 28% of the 50,495 embryo transfer cycles that took place in Australia/ New Zealand in 2008 resulted in a clinical pregnancy, and approximately 1 in 5 of these pregnancies ended in miscarriage. Despite numerous tests available to try and diagnose the cause of miscarriage (mostly involving the genetic diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities), there are few treatment options available for this patient demographic. EmbryoGen 'Registered Trademark' is the first embryo culture media to show an improved live birth rate in women who have previously experienced miscarriage. We wish to see if this applies to patients undergoing treatment at PIVET Medical Centre