ANZCTR search results

Predicting how well a child will respond to treatment for gastroenteritis is difficult and means that children often spend many hours in the emergency department. Blood tests can sometimes help predict how unwell a child is, but take some time to be done. We propose to do a fingerprick blood test called a capillary gas which can be tested quickly and done with minor discomfort only and analyze the results to see if we can predict which children need admission. We anticipate that the more unwell children will need admission, and that there will be changes on their blood tests that we can use to predict this. If we can prove that this works, it will reduce the amount of time that they will have to stay in the emergency department.

Cycle training intensity for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is normally based on an incremental cycle test (ICT). Such tests are expensive and not readily available to clinicians. The aim of this study is to determine whether cycle training intensity, prescribed from a six minute walk test (6MWT) resulted in a level of exercise (measured by oxygen consumption) known to produce physiological training effects in individuals with COPD.

Rituximab's efficacy in causing profound B cell depletion when treating non hodgkin lymphoma has led to interest in its application in B cell mediated auto immune disease. Rituximab at conventional dose is expensive and not without side effects, in particular infection. There is evidence to suggest abbreviated courses may be sufficient in this scenario to achieve disease control whilst minimising potential risks of therapy.

The aim of the research was to determine if acupuncture adminisitered to women with a post term pregnancy would reduce the need for induction.

This study aims to determine the most effective nutrition management for patients with chronic kidney disease in terms of assessment and intervention methods. It is expected that provision of individual nutrition counselling with structured telephone-based follow-up will improve the nutritional status, quality of life and dietary intake of chronic kidney disease patients preparing for dialysis compared with standard care treatment.

To examine whether botulinum toxin – A (BTX-A) injections into the intrinsic muscles of the thumb, when combined with a regimen of occupational therapy and home therapy improves the attainment of individual goals when compared to a home and occupational therapy program alone.

The study has been designed to test how effectively and rapidly a number of new nicotine replacement treatments - nicotine oral pouch, mouthspray and lozenge - relieve the discomfort that people experience when they stop smoking (called withdrawal symptoms) compared to a currently available nicotine replacement product (nicotine gum) and a “dummy” (placebo) product (with no nicotine in it). These new products may deliver nicotine to the body faster than existing products, and it is thought that faster delivery of nicotine may help reduce the discomfort that goes along with stopping smoking. The study will also ask about the level of satisfaction people experience after using the different products.

To undertake a formal clinical trial using videotelephony to support regional and remote families returning home with a child newly diagnosed with cancer

Subjects who have been using chronic CPAP therapy will be invited to participate in the study. The study will take place after the subjects have been instructed on the details of the trial and have provided informed consent. Subjects are randomised to one of two nights in the sleep laboratory. Under polysomnography and using an auto-titrating CPAP (AutoCPAP) systems, the subjects will be studied either under a sub-therapeutic pressure level for one night of recording (simulating a sub-standard therapy night – encountered by clinical patients), or on the AutoCPAP device in the therapeutic auto-titrating mode (which is also a commonly applied therapeutic device). The study is observational in that the purpose and endpoints are collected as described below, under conditions in the laboratory simulating ‘normal’ clinical occurrences. Sleep and breathing parameters will be collected using standard laboratory methodologies, with the addition of flow measurement from four different sites: nares via a cannula; the CPAP machine flow outlet; the electronic output from the CPAP machine and the standard nasal mask via an oxygen port. Integrity of the flow signal as well as the presence of ‘break-through’ apnea / hypopnea phenomena are evaluated.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and abnormal cholesterol and blood fat levels. At present there is no single pharmaceutical agent which can effectively treat metabolic syndrome, but rather, multiple medications are given for each risk factor. In China, two mushrooms- Ganoderma lucidum and Cordyceps sinensis, have been used for these conditions and animal, in-vitro and small human studies indicate positive effects against the multiple components of metabolic syndrome. This study will be the first randomised clinical trial of this intervention for the efficacy and treatment of metabolic syndrome.