ANZCTR search results

Chronic foot wounds tend to take a long time to heal. In an attempt to heal these wounds, standard wound treatment involves the use of gel and foam dressings. This is the treatment you have been receiving so far. These dressings are designed to keep the wound moist but remove excess fluid, to promote the healing process. Vacuum-assisted closure therapy (VAC) is a relatively new treatment for foot wounds. VAC therapy involves the application of negative pressure (like a vacuum) to the wound through a little tube after the wound has been filled with foam and covered with a clear dressing. The vacuum sucks out any fluid in the wound and pulls the wound edges together. There has been some evidence that suggests this therapy assists wound healing. The VAC makes the wound site the best environment for healing to occur by removing the fluid, increasing blood flow and making the wound less suitable for bacteria to grow. The aim of this study is to see whether VAC therapy helps heal these stubborn wounds better than the standard therapy.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) occurs when the heart is unable to supply enough blood to meet the needs of the body. Common symptoms of CHF include breathlessness, fatigue and swelling of the lower legs. Clinical trials have shown several drug treatments (in particular, beta blockers) to be beneficial in reducing hospital admissions, and improving length and quality of life. In all the major clinical trials beta blocker therapy has been started and gradually increased to a target dose (or the maximum tolerated dose) over the course of several weeks. International and national expert guidelines recommend that patients with CHF be prescribed a beta blocker, however the benefits of beta blocker therapy cannot be assumed to follow when the doses used in the clinical trials have not been reached. For this reason it is important to ensure that patients receive the highest tolerated dosage. Also, there are data from some trials that suggest that the benefits of beta-blockade are detectable within the first few weeks. Thus any delay in the commencement and increase to maximum dose should be minimized. The aim of this study is to determine whether patients attending a specialist Nurse Supervised Titration Clinic reach higher doses of beta blocker sooner than patients receiving Usual Care. Usual Care involves visits to the Heart Function Clinic doctor every 3 months with visits to the GP in between.

The aim is to develop/evaluate a group behavioural program for parents that targets overweight/obese children aged 3 to 10 years. It is thought that participation will result in: reduced child BMI scores, reduced energy intake, reduced media viewing, increased activity levels; and reduced primary parent BMI scores. These changes are thought to be able to be maintained three months after treatment. Parental participation will hopefully result in improved parenting behaviour. These will be indicated by improved scores on parental self report measures of consistency, sense of satisfaction/efficacy and inter-parental conflict.

The purpose of the protocol is to provide people who not responding to current hepatitis B treatments another option.

Chemotherapy can improve both the length and qualtiy of life in women with advanced breast cancer, however the best approach is unclear for women unsuited to intensive chemotherapy. This randomised trial aims to find out whether simple daily oral chemotherapy (Capecitabine) or standard chemotherapy including injections (CMF) is best for such women. The study looks at the effects of disease and treatment on both length and quality of life.

The study has been designed around the research questions a) do patients with chronic respiratory disease (asthma and/or COPD) managed with lung function testing (spirometry) through general practice have better health outcomes than patients managed without spirometry? and b) to what degree does the use of spirometry influence the way general practitioners manage patients with chronic respiratory disease? This study aims to trial lung function testing ( spirometry) as an intervention for management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD) in a General practice setting. The main objectives are a) to evaluate the impact of spirometry on health outcomes of patients with asthma and COPD,compared with usual care alone ( no spirometry) and b) to identify the barriers and enablers to spirometry in general practice and primary care.

Investigator initiated separate sub-study to the VYTUL study to measure novel serum biomarkers associated with increased heart disease risk to ascertain whether these biomarkers are predictive of response in this population and whether further work on targeting these biomarkers is warranted. A second part to the substudy will focus on exploring non-physiological external factors that may contribute to ineffective risk factor modification and ultimately increased CHD risk in this population.

Study Hypothesis: We hypothesise that participants receiving the subvastus approach will enjoy better medium term funtional outcomes than those receiving the medial parapatell approach. Physiotherapists are blinded to the intervention and will collect all outcome measures at each assessment point. Participants are blinded to the intervention.

The trial assessed the effect of different oxgen saturation targeting ranges on the long-term growth and development of oxygen-dependent, extremely preterm infants.

To determine if the introduction of Vytorin will be more effective than increasing the dose of Atorvastain in achieving LDL ('bad cholesterol') and other cholesterol level goals in high risk patients who have been treated for at least the last three months with atorvastatin 40 mg and still have uncontrolled cholesterol levels.