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Cardiovascular disease is very common in patients who require dialysis treatment for kidney failure. There are two main types of dialysis treatment available for patients with kidney failure. Firstly there is peritoneal dialysis where fluids are run into and out of a soft plastic tube inserted into the patients’ abdomen with a minor surgical procedure. Toxins are removed as they diffuse across the membrane in the abdomen and are flushed out in the fluid. The second type is haemodialysis where toxins are removed from the blood stream as the blood is circulated through a filter outside the body. There may be differing effects on the circulation and elements in the blood stream from these two quite different treatments. The aim of this research study is to see which treatment has the best effect on the heart and blood vessels and substances in the blood stream that indicate the degree of stress and inflammation present in the body. The heart and blood vessels will be assessed by a variety of probes outside the body that measure their “stiffness”, thickness and ability to contract and relax. We are aiming to find out whether one or other form of dialysis may be more beneficial over the first year by assessing the heart and blood vessels and substances in the blood. This may lead to recommendations for the initial form of dialysis treatment used.

This study looks at the effectiveness the drug Sorafenib on treating patients who have had kidney cancer removed surgically. Who is it for? You can join this study if you have had primary renal cell carcinoma and this has been removed by surgery, and you are at high or intermediate risk of relapse. Trial details Participants will be randomly divided into three groups. Group 1 will receive a non-active substance (placebo) for 3 years. Group 2 will receive Sorafenib for 1 year followed by placebo for 2 years. Group 3 will receive Sorafenib only for 3 years. Treatment is by tablets taken twice a day. At the moment there are no treatments that have been proven to reduce the risk of kidney cancer returning after it has been removed by an operation. Sorafenib is a drug that acts starving cancers of their blood supply and will often shrink or stop cancer growing for prolonged periods of time. The study aims to see whether Sorafineb reduces the risk of kidney cancer returning and whether it increases survival rate.

This study will seek to find out whether cocoa (chocolate) or tomato extract are acceptable to take and effective in reducing the blood pressure of people with blood pressure in the prehypertensive range (80-89 /120-139 mm Hg).

Clinical observations suggest that the endoscopic grade of reflux oesophagitis varies significantly in patients presenting in two different hospitals A and B. These Hospitals are located in socioeconomic diverse areas, which has a big impact in health care utilization and patient’s follow-up. But this difference and a reason have not been studied prospectively so far. This is an epidemiological study using questionnaires for patients with symptoms Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease such as heartburn and regurgitation. Symptomatic patients referred for endoscopy will be asked complete the surveys providing information of their gastointestinal symptoms, psychological and emotional status, lifestyle and sociodemographics. Surveys are mailed in the post at time points zero, 2 months and 6 months. The aim is to assess patient’s outcome in a routine clinical care setting in a follow-up over 6 months. We like to determine possible predictors of response/non-response, symptom improvement and efficacy of the common treatment with proton pump inhibitors.

This is a phase II clinical trial that will use double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multi-center, parallel group study design to evaluate the efficacy and safety of T89 in patients with chronic stable angina pectoris.

Type 2 diabetes is Australia's fastest growing chronic disease. Simple strategies to prevent this disease at an early stage (pre-diabetes) in people at high risk are urgently needed. Recently, a lack of calcium and vitamin D has been associated with the development of diabetes. This 6-month study will determine if taking vitamin D and calcium supplements could decrease diabetes risk and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight or obese people with pre-diabetes who lack vitamin D. It will also increase our understanding of the mechanisms through which vitamin D and calcium alter diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk.

In Australia every year about 400,000 children become acutely unwell with fever. Some have life-threatening illnesses such as meningitis and blood infection. Accurate and prompt diagnosis is essential so that effective treatment can be given as soon as possible and the likelihood of rapid and complete recovery can be maximised. Routinely, this diagnostic process involves the attending physician taking a history, examining the patient and then ordering relevant tests. For most bacterial diseases in children the definitive test results are only available after a lag phase of at least 24 hours. Thus, it is possible for children who do not have disease to receive unnecessary treatment, and children who do have disease not to be treated. The traditional diagnostic decision making process does not give clinicians the best available information. Ideally, the clinician should know how likely different diseases are in febrile children and how accurate the history taking, examination, and diagnostic test processes are. These questions have been addressed through careful evaluation and follow-up of approximately 17,000 febrile children, less than 5 years old, who attended the Emergency Department of The Children’s Hospital, Westmead, between July 2004 and June 2006 (Phase 1 of the study). These data are currently being completed and analysed and will inform a diagnostic algorithm that calculates the likelihood of serious bacterial infection in individual patients and displays it to the treating physician using interactive software. This new method will be compared with the usual diagnostic process using a cluster randomised controlled trial, in which clinicians will be the unit of randomisation.

We intend to evaluate the EpiSure, a new epidural syringe that uses a novel spring-loaded mechanism to locate the correct place in the back for epidural insertion. Early data regarding this device suggests that it may ease the process of inserting an epidural and reduce complications, particularly in anaesthetists who are relatively new to the procedure of epidural insertion. We will compare effectiveness of pain relief and outcomes in patients whose epidurals are inserted with the EpiSure with those whose epidurals are inserted with traditional syringes.

After cardiac surgery the lungs may suffer from a small amount of collapse and may require extra assistance to re-expand. If this occurs nasal high flow therapy may be applied (delivery of warmed and humidified medical gas via the nose at flow rates up to 50 L/min). It is believed that this flow generates a degree of positive pressure in the lungs which is beneficial to patients with some degree of lung collapse. Assessment of the physiological effect by two different methods (pressure measurement in the upper airway and by a lung imaging technique called electrical impedence tomography) will help doctors understand the effects of this therapy better and will form the basis for future research in this area.

This randomised controlled trial compared SMS, paper and online diaries on response rate, timeliness, completeness of data, and acceptability. The correlation between behaviour reported in diaries and a retrospective questionnaire was also determined.