ANZCTR search results

This study will explore potential sex differences in skeletal muscle microvascular blood flow and other cardiovascular responses to acute maximal exercise in 34 healthy young adults (17 premenopausal females and 17 age-matched males). Microvascular blood flow will be assessed via contrast-enhanced ultrasound at rest, immediately after, and 30 minutes after completing a maximal graded exercise test. Additional assessments include heart and large artery function, body composition, physical activity levels, and blood sampling for biomarkers associated with cardiometabolic health. We hypothesise that healthy premenopausal females will have larger skeletal muscle microvascular blood flow responses to acute maximal exercise than age-matched males, reflecting their known greater vasodilatory responses in large arteries. Findings will inform sex-specific cardiovascular risk factors, and aid in the development of early detection strategies and more targeted prevention and management approaches.

This study aims to determine if a panel of salivary biomarkers could assist in the diagnosis of Barrett's oesophagus and its pathological variants, dysplasia and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. You may be eligible for this study if you are an adult male or female referred for investigation of reflux symptoms or other suspected gastrointestinal disease, as well as patients with established Barrett’s oesophagus and/or suspected or established oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Any patient with one of the Barrett's related conditions or random healthy patients who may undergo an endoscopy for another indication, maybe approached to consider participation in this study. Participants will be asked to contribute samples of saliva, blood and gastric fluid before undergoing an endoscopic procedure. This study aims to determine if a panel of salivary biomarkers could assist in the diagnosis of Barrett's oesophagus and its pathological variants, dysplasia and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. You may be eligible for this study if you are an adult male or female referred for investigation of reflux symptoms or other suspected gastrointestinal disease, as well as patients with established Barrett’s oesophagus and/or suspected or established oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Any patient with one of the Barrett's related conditions or random healthy patients who may undergo an endoscopy for another indication, maybe approached to consider participation in this study. Participants will be asked to contribute samples of saliva, blood and gastric fluid before undergoing their usual endoscopic procedure. It is hoped that findings from this study will help to develop a simple non-invasive saliva test to screen for oesophageal cancer.

This prospective cross sectional observational study aims to explore the protein and energy expenditure of patients with ulcerative colitis. Patients will undergo indirect calorimetry and nitrogen balance studies to determine their metabolic demand. The primary endpoint is nitrogen balance measured in nitrogen(g)/kg participant body weight/day. The secondary endpoint is resting metabolic rate in kcal/kg/day. Patient metabolic outputs will be compared to that of healthy controls. It is hypothesized that patients with ulcerative colitis do not have increased metabolic demands compared with healthy controls.

Polyphenols are naturally occurring colourful substances in plant foods, known to reduce blood glucose levels. The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of polyphenols enriched in bread to reduce blood glucose levels in healthy people. The polyphenol-rich extracts from spinach at 1-10% will be added to bread and taste-tested to choose the most accepted concentration for this study. Spinach is one of the vegetables that is versatile and known to contain high polyphenols content, where a cup of raw contains nearly 100 mg of polyphenols and 7x more in frozen products

A 12-week parallel-group randomised controlled trial examining the effects of a supervised resistance training on pain intensity, well-being, and inflammation compared to usual care in adults with chronic non-specific low back pain will be conducted. It is hypothesised that 12 weeks of resistance training will improve pain intensity, well-being and inflammation compared to usual care in adults with chronic non-specific low back pain.

To determine if a combination mitochondrial-based therapy using over-the-counter supplements can result in an improvement in the sensation of nerve-related pain in people with diabetes-related painful peripheral neuropathy.

Unfortunately, many people will experience knee osteoarthritis at some point in their life. This can be diagnosed by a General Practitioner (GP) or other health professional, and there are different ways this may be done. People often have beliefs about treatments for, and the prognosis of, their knee osteoarthritis. Currently, we do not know whether the way someone is diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis makes any difference to their beliefs about treatment or prognosis. This study is interested in learning more about whether the way people are diagnosed with knee osteoarthrtitis changes their beliefs about the condition. We hypothesise that a diagnosis and explanation without x-ray will reduce beliefs that surgery is necessary and increase beliefs that exercise is helpful, compared to a diagnosis and explanation based on x-ray.

In Australia, approximately one third of community-dwelling older people fall each year and the risk of falling increases with age. The consequences of falling can be fatal including fractures, institutionalising and loss of independence. The sport of judo includes a number of techniques and strategies that can be amended to teach older adults how to prevent falls and how to fall safely. This project aims to upskill Allied Health Professionals and Judo coaches to provide an 8-week Judo-based exercise program to older adults to teach them the core skills required to land safely from a controlled fall using a two-day workshop combined with practical experience by attending the 8-week Judo based exercise program. In addition, this project will evaluate how effective the 8-week Judo based exercise program is in improving safe-landing skills in community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older. Secondary outcomes will include balance, mobility, fear of falling, physical performance, strength and muscle mass, physical activity, and quality of life.

The lack of qualified healthcare professionals in the workforce to meet the needs of Aotearoa's growing and diverse population presents a significant challenge to providing timely, equitable, and culturally appropriate support. Digital humans (DHs) show particular promise in closing this gap, potentially providing responsive, accessible, cost-effective, and scalable support to patients (Loveys et al., 2020). However, for DHs to foster high user engagement, trust and connection as successful healthcare agents, they must engage in effective patient-centred communication in ways similar to human professionals. The identification and integration of features of DHs that facilitate the formation of high-quality, empathetic relationships with their patients is, therefore essential. The current research will assess whether there is an overall difference in perceptions of empathy when a digital human delivers a brief medical consultation compared to a human physician. As a cornerstone of effective, patient-centred consultation, greater physician empathy drives better clinical outcomes and can further impact appraisals of physicians' trustworthiness, competence, and warmth. Therefore, the present study will extend its inquiry to investigating differences in these variables as secondary outcomes. To reflect real-life conditions regarding the significant demands placed on physicians, the human physician will deliver an empathetic and non-empathetic consultation. The DH will mirror these conditions, The content of the DHs consultation will be modelled on the human physician's consultation. We hypothesize that the empathetic human physcian will be rated most highly on all outcomes, followed by the empathetic DH, the non-empathetic human physician, and the non-empathetic DH.

This study aims to evaluate the effects of multi-joint isometric resistance training at various joint angles on several aspects of muscular fitness, including strength (both isometric and dynamic), power, muscle endurance, muscle hypertrophy (both whole body and region-specific), and fatigue recovery. These outcomes will be compared to those of traditional resistance training (i.e., dynamic/isotonic), with careful attention to ensuring equal volume and intensity between the groups. The study will adopt a randomised controlled trial design, with eligible participants randomly assigned to either an isometric resistance training group or a traditional resistance training group. Participants will engage in 3 sets of 6 repetitions each for the chest press and leg press exercises. In the traditional resistance training group, sets will involve isotonic contractions (ISOT) with the full range of motion (ROM) at 80% of their one-repetition maximum (1RM). Conversely, the isometric resistance training group will perform isometric contractions (ISOM) at 80% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), with each set executed at a different angle within the normal lifting range of motion (i.e., lower third, middle third, and upper third). It is anticipated that this research will provide insights into the longitudinal effects of isometric resistance training on muscle performance.