ANZCTR search results

The Fremantle Pain Medicine Unit has been introducing education for people with persistent (ongoing) pain, and many of these techniques/strategies can be useful for people with other health conditions. The aim of the project is to up-skill inpatients in the use of active self-management strategies through early identification and early intervention by HEALTH teams [Hospital Education, Activities and Living to Take Home]. This process will commence whilst patients with complex or chronic conditions are inpatients, thereby providing benefits for patients and for the health care system. This randomised controlled trial will measure the impact of a screening tool to enable early inpatient self-management training with the primary outcome to reduce surgical inpatient length of stay and cost of the inpatient stay. It is also expected to generate an improvement in patient outcomes beyond the hospital episode by matching of patients problems with appropriate resources.

The purpose of this study is to find out if a man-made heart hormone (“MAD001”) improves the treatment of people diagnosed with acute decompensated congestive heart failure (ADCHF). This substance improves several heart functions, lowers blood pressure and increases salt (sodium) and water removal from the body, when given to animals, healthy humans and persons with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF). The purpose of this study is to determine if this substance also improves heart functionality, and to a lesser extent increases sodium and/or water removal, in persons with ADCHF to improve their condition.

Observational study examining changes in femoral vessel relationship and size in two different leg positions

Excess fat mass, associated with adolescent obesity, has been related to insulin resistance and inflammatory markers, which increase the risk of health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. Exercise is an appropriate intervention for obesity and type 2 diabetes, but research has not investigated the benefits of resistance training for obese adolescents. The purpose of this study is to understand the benefits of resistance training on body composition, biochemical markers, aerobic fitness, and muscular strength in obese adolescents. The project will include a 16-week resistance training exercise program (3 sessions per week) with two testing sessions before and after. The testing sessions will include a full body scan (to measure body composition), a blood sample (to measure biochemical markers), a VO2Max test (to measure aerobic fitness) and a strength test. This project will build a stronger foundation for more relevant recommendations for exercise in obese adolescents.

The aim of the study is to document risk factors for stillbirths > = 32 weeks gestational age, compared with approximately matched controls (i.e. women expected to have a healthy live born outcome who match the same week of gestational age as the stillbirth mother). Women who are >= 32 weeks gestational age who have a stillbirth (cases) are matched with 2 women who also are in the same week of gestational age (controls). An identical interview (which is audio taped) is conducted on both cases and controls to assess for risk factors associated with stillbirth. The interviews are then analysed, along with any autopsy or placental histopathology results, to investigate all known or plausible risk factors that can potentially cause stillbirths. The ultimate aim of the study is to focus on finding answers for truly unexplained stillbirths to hopefully help prevent such stillbirths from occurring in the future. Following delivery and parental consent, both cases and controls will have placental pathology and virology investigations. Additionally, for case study participants who consent to a post-mortem of their stillborn, autopsy investigations will also apply. For viral investigations, this study is collaborating with a separate research team from Prince of Wales Hospital to investigate the role of undiagnosed viral infections as a possible cause of stillbirths. Samples taken from both cases and controls are examined using a multiplex PCR test to see if there is any evidence of viruses which were previously undiagnosed. The differences in results of any viral infections found in the case group will be compared to that of the control group. The research team from Prince of Wales Hospital has obtained prior ethics approval in 2005 (Sydney South West Area Health Service HREC - RPAH Zone: ethics protocol X04-0135 and South East Sydney & Illawarra Health Service HREC: ethics reference number 04210). Study type: Prospective case control study Other research sites: This same study is currently being conducted at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Royal North Shore Hospital and North Shore Private Hospital, Mater Hospital (North Sydney), Westmead, Liverpool and Nepean Hospitals.

The proposed research involves a multicentre project of pragmatic randomised controlled trials of acupuncture vs pharmacotherapy in patients presenting to the Emergency Department(ED) with low back pain, migraine and acute ankle injuries. For each trial, patients will be randomly assigned to three groups: an acupuncture alone, pharmacotherapy alone and a group combining acupuncture and pharmacotherapy

Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) is a very common condition that interrupts feeding and sleep routine in up to 30% of newborn infants. GOR disease affects 3-5% of newborns and is defined when more serious complications are associated with GOR. Typical GOR disease symptoms include vomiting, failure to thrive, pain, irritability/crying/back-arching), oesophagitis and respiratory disorders (apnoea/coughing). The diagnosis and treatment of GOR disease in infants is fraught with difficulty due to the wide range of clinical presentations and the lack of diagnostic modalities and appropriate diagnostic criteria. These issues lead to failure to accurately diagnose reflux disease, allowing more severe problems to manifest, or alternatively, over-diagnosis of reflux disease leading to the prescription of unnecessary and costly acid suppression therapies and surgical interventions. This research project will evaluate positioning as a simple, non-pharmacological approach to the treatment of GOR related symptoms in infants 0-6months of age. We believe that position control therapy (PCT) is simple for parents to perform and can be safely combined with pharmacological therapy for added efficacy.

Most dialysis patients are susceptible to cardiovascular disease (CVD) because of inflammation due to the kidney disease and dialysis. Regular exercise training has been shown to reduce inflammation in healthy people and people with CVD, but as yet it is not known whether exercise can help reduce inflammation in people undertaking dialysis.

Most newborn infants less than 30 weeks' gestational age at birth require either nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) or intubation and mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory distress syndrome at the point of delivery, whether in the delivery suite or in the operating theatre. This is an interventional study looking at whether using a targeted expiratory tidal volume mode of ventilation from the point of delivery until admission in the neonatal intensive care unit may improve a newborn infant's blood gas parameters on arrival in the neonatal intensive care unit. Monitoring and adjusting ventilation to achieve normal arterial carbon dioxide levels is standard practice once the baby is within the neonatal intensive care unit. Current best practice recommends using handbagging ventilation or intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV); volumes of each breath are not usually measured until the newborn is connected to a ventilator in the neonatal intensive vare unit . The use of an advanced neonatal ventilator which can target set expiratory tidal volumes in the resuscitation, stabilisation and transport of such a premature neonate may allow better arterial blood gases on arrival to the neonatal intensive care unit. Further, the impact of the use of an advanced neonatal ventilator from point of delivery may influence the initial respiratory course as well as the cerebrovascular circulation. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) may demonstrate the value of using an advanced neonatal ventilator in the initial ventilatory management of critically ill newborn babies.

The aim of this project is to undertake a pilot randomised controlled trial to determine the acceptability to randomization and a sample size for an appropriately powered RCT to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of moxibustion for cephalic version of a fetus presenting as breech. Moxibustion would be compared to standard hospital management to establish whether there is evidence of some benefit from moxibustion in a controlled setting. The rationale for this design is that it would best answer practical questions regarding the design of a future clinical trial.