ANZCTR search results

Empyema is the accumulation of infective fluid around the lung and occurs in about 1 percent of pneumonias in children. The bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae is a leading cause of empyema. There has been a national vaccination program in Australia for the past 5 years which covers 7 types of Streptococcus. There is evidence in other countries that a type called Serotype 1 is emerging and this is not covered by the vaccine in this country. There is also evidence that following the introduction of the vaccine in other countries there has been a rise in the number of empyemas in children. The aim of this project is to accurately assess the types of Streptococcus causing empyemas in children in Australia using molecular techniques which can increase our identification of the bacteria causing empyema greater than our current standard techniques. The significance of the project is that it has the potential to affect the national vaccination program. If the project highlights that there is a large proportion of types of Streptococcus causing disease in children not covered by the current vaccine, then it may influence the Department of Health and Ageing in changing to another vaccine with a broader coverage. In addition, it is not known how best to manage children with empyemas and we will get data from different sites on how they are treating these children. We aim to develop a position paper for the Australian Paediatric Respiratory Group on managing children with this disease in Australia.

A randomized comparison of two types of troponin testing for ED patients.Currently ED patients with possible coronary syndromes wait significant times to be "cleared " or declared low enough risk for stress testing or discharge. One component of this wait is the time for troponin results to become available which may be reduced by using bedside or point of care(POC) tests.This could result in acute ED bed space being more efficiently utilized.Many other factors however may affect the speed of patient flow and a controlled trial will help to quantify this.

Up to today, there is no gold standard available for the assessment of pain in young children after operations. Aim of this trial is to investigate the correlation between pain obtained by behavioural or nurse rated assessment with skin conductance readings obtained at the same time. We hope that by that means we may be able to measure pain objectively and be able to conclude about wether or not a child requires acute pain relief. We will include 180 patients in 3 age groups (1-3, 4-7 and 8-16 yrs) and observe their pain (nurse assessed, behavioural, self assessed) in the recovery room. At the same time we will obtain skin conductance readings via 3 sticky dots on the hand (a method which itself is absolutely pain-free). From these readings we will try to find correlations or certain patterns that might allow conclusion about the level of pain by simple skin conductance assessment.

This trial is a before and after study design on one group of patients to assess the effects of Clinical Pilates intervention. Patients presenting to the Physiotherapy Department either through self-referral or referral from a MO or Specialist will be assessed for suitability for inclusion in the trial and will be given the appropriate information and informed consent will then be sought. The primary aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Clinical Pilates on pain and function in patients with Chronic Low Back Pain. The hypothesis is that there will be clinically and statistically significant positive outcomes based on current clinical practice in the physiotherapy department at HMAS Kuttabul.

Vapocollant spray is used overseas to decrease the pain of intravenous cannulation. However, no randomised controlled trial has been reported to provide evidence for this.

This study investigates whether a new form of treatment (NET) has a beneficial effect on tender or painful trigger points. Trigger points are locations on a muscle surface which are abnormally tender and are a source of self-perpetuating and continuing pain. This study looks at trigger points in the neck region. Participants will be assessed for the presence of trigger points. They will be given one course of NET treatment. They will return after 3 days to have their trigger points assessed for any change in their tenderness and the degree of neck pain. The treatment group results will be compared to a control group who receive a sham treatment which has no therapeutic value.

The aim of the study is to test the scientific theory that persons can be reinfected with H.pylori on multiple occasions. If so, then a genetically modified H.pylori strain may be the ideal delivery system for live oral vaccines.

Hypothesis/research questions: That mothers can be effectively coached on a number of simple measures that will improve skin barrier function in their infants that will reduce the incidence of Atopic Dermatitis And that improvement in skin barrier function will reduce the incidence and severity of atopic dermatitis in the short term and ultimately, food allergy and asthma associated with atopic dermatitis And that null mutations in the fillagrin gene increase the risk of future development of atopic dermatitis, food allergy and asthma associated with atopic dermatitis. And that null mutations in the fillagrin gene are predictive of infants who stand to obtain the greatest benefit from interventions to improve skin barrier function. To test our hypothesis we propose to conduct a prospective randomised controlled study. The study will investigate the impact of a number of simple intervention measures on epidermal barrier protection as measured by transepidermal water loss in infants and young children. In addition, this randomized, controlled study will measure the prevalence and severity of atopic dermatitis.

This study has been designed to assess whether a ventilation strategy which maintains alveolar patency by the application of recruitment manoeuvres and elevated PEEP and which limits airway pressures by allowing permissive hypercapnia will reduce lung injury as assessed by serum cytokine levels.