ANZCTR search results

This study will evaluate a tailored communication intervention, developed with people with brain cancer, for people with brain cancer and their families. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are an adult with a diagnosis of a primary brain tumour (including benign, lower-grade glioma and higher-grade glioma). Study details Participants will be randomly allocated to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group will have a combination of weekly individual and group sessions focused around communication strategies and resources, delivered by a speech pathologist. The control group will receive usual care by hospital speech pathologists, and will have the opportunity to access the tailored communication intervention once the intervention group have completed their assessments. All participants will be asked to complete questionnaires and interviews assessing their communication function and perception of the intervention over the study period. It is hoped that findings from this study will help optimise communication treatments for people with brain cancer, where communication impairments are highly prevalent.

This study aims to test the hypothesis that the body surface contacting 'Saiiv Morphic sensors' (singularly or in combination), can accurately detect haemodynamic signals compared to gold standard measurement techniques. The study will be recruiting patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Heart Failure, who are scheduled to have a Right Heart Catheter as standard of care. Participants who are enroled, will have their Right Heart Catheter as normal, with the addition of the Saiiv Morphic sensors being placed on various parts of their body to collect haemodynamic signals. Participants will also have the Saiiv Morphic sensors attached to them outside of the Right Heart Catheter procedure. Both of these sessions will compare the Saiiv Morphic sensors to the data collected by widely used Gold Standard devices.

In this project, we plan to recruit a cohort of women (the ‘MAMBO’ cohort) to establish the phenotype of women that are most likely to have a) large or small for gestational age offspring and b) new maternal metabolic disease (dysglycaemia, overweight/obesity, hypertension) that develops during pregnancy or within 12-18 months post-partum. These women will be recruited at 20 plus or minus 4 weeks gestation. The overall aim of this project is to develop a model that identifies a maternal phenotype that best predicts a mothers risk of giving birth to a metabolically prone child. The specific aims of this project are: (i) Aim 1: To observe the metabolic changes during pregnancy and post-partum in a cohort of offspring and to identify metabolically prone offspring defined as: • Offspring with birthweight equal to or greater than 90th centile on customized centile charts (large for gestational age; LGA) • Offspring with birthweight equal to or less than 10th centile on customized centile charts (small for gestational age; SGA). (ii) Aim 2: To observe the metabolic changes during pregnancy and post-partum in a cohort of mothers and to identify mothers with new metabolic disease that develops in pregnancy or 12-18 months post-partum defined as: - A composite of dysglycaemia outcomes - A composite of hypertension outcomes - A composite of body weight outcomes To facilitate long-term follow-up of the MAMBO cohort, we are collaborating with Generation Victoria (GenV: https://genv.org.au). GenV is aiming to recruit parallel cohorts of newborns and MAMBO neonates will be eligible to participate in the MAMBO follow-up.

This study is assessing whether mobile phone SMS messaging alone, and SMS bundles with links to videos, will affect how many people choose to complete the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) test among 49 to 60-year-old general practice patients in Victoria and Queensland. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged between 49 to 60 years, you are eligible to receive the free National Bowel Cancer Screening Program test kit, your GP has agreed to participate in the study and you have access to a smartphone. Study details Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group will receive a single SMS message sent by their GP's practice 2 weeks prior to receiving their NBCSP test kit in the mail. The second group will receive a similar SMS message that also includes web links to a number of resources, including a message from their GP endorsing the free home test kit; an instructional video on how to do the kit; a video of relatable people talking about why it is important to do the kit; and an animation showing how to do the test. The third group will not receive a SMS message but will still receive the NBCSP test kit in the mail. Participants in the third group will be able to discuss the test with their GP as part of their usual care. It is hoped this research will determine whether SMS prompts about completing the NBCSP test kit impact on the number of people choosing to take up the screening test at home, which could increase early detection of bowel cancer.

There is limited information support for women when transitioning out of Australia's national breast cancer screening program (BreastScreen). Older women (70+ years) report reasons for no longer being reminded including being too old, the cost, and having a lesser risk of developing breast cancer. Some general practitioners also find it difficult to explain this information. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of information that provides older women with a rationale for no longer being reminded to participate in the BreastScreen program on informed choice.

Sepsis is a serious life threatening condition. Septic patients have significant organ impairment. Prompt administration of right dose of antibiotics is an important cornerstone of resuscitation of sepsis. Currently, doses of beta-lactam antibiotics at administered at a fixed dose or adjusted to renal function. Septic patients have marked alterations in their physiology that affect the pharmacokinetics of beta-lactams. Fixed doses of beta-lactams in sepsis lead to unpredictable variability in plasma concentrations. Septic patients are likely to have complex comorbidities such as immune compromise, infections with resistant organisms and deep-seated infections such as meningitis or endocarditis. Previous studies have demonstrated variable (sub and supra-therapeutic) concentrations of beta-lactam antibiotics when standard dosing is used. Sub-therapeutic concentrations carry the risk of treatment failure and supra-therapeutic concentrations can lead to toxicity, both scenarios can lead to poor clinical outcomes. Beta-lactam antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in the treatment of sepsis in the ICU. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) guided dosing involves individualising doses based on plasma concentrations. Over the last decade, TDM of beta-lactams has been increasingly recommended in the literature due to the pharmacokinetic variability seen in critical illness. However, only a few centres have implemented this test. A knowledge gap exists in literature on implementation of beta-lactam TDM. In this RCT we aim to pilot the implementation of beta-lactam TDM in the ICU in the management of patients with suspected or proven sepsis. We will study the process steps in implementation, the feasibility of randomisation, recruitment and acceptability of variable dosing of beta-lactams. In addition we will compare the dosing advice from software, TDMx with that of researcher recommendation. This study will provide important information on dose adaptation. The knowledge gained from this study can used to inform implementation of beta-lactam TDM as a clinical service.

Endoscopic ultrasound-portal pressure gradient (EUS-PPG) is a novel therapeutic goods administration (TGA) -approved alternative to hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) that has been shown in pilot studies to be safe and technically successful for the evaluation and determination of portal hypertension. EUS-PPG can be performed simultaneously with routine variceal surveillance and can be repeated to provide longitudinal HVPG measurements. Data regarding use in clinical practice is limited. This prospective registry seeks to evaluate the clinical utility of EUS-PPG assessment across multiple tertiary centres. Aims: to evaluate the feasibility and utility of EUS-PPG in clinical practice, safety, clinical applications and the potential for EUS-PPG data to inform clinical management. Correlate EUS-PPG measurements with longitudinal risk of liver-related events, and with a range of non-invasive biomarkers and clinical findings.

Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways that affects over 7% of the world’s population (Papi et al., 2018). Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is a type of asthma which is defined as a transient narrowing of the airways in response to exercise and affects 90% of asthma sufferers and up to 15% of non-asthmatic individuals (Bonini & Usmani, 2018). Asthma and EIB can be managed either by rapid bronchodilatation to relieve respiratory symptoms or long-term suppression of inflammation. However, frequent use of reliever medicines can lead to the user becoming tolerant to the treatment and long-term control medicines have several undesirable side effects. Dietary and supplement interventions have been reported to reduce the effects of asthma and EIB (Williams et al., 2016). These may represent a cost-saving, effective and safe method for reducing the incidence of asthmatic attacks. Anthocyanins are coloured pigments that are responsible for the colours red, purple and blue in fruits and vegetables. Current animal studies have found that after consumption of anthocyanins, inflammation was reduced, and lung function was improved (Park et al., 2007). Whether anthocyanins could improve respiratory symptoms and lung function in otherwise healthy humans with EIB is unknown. This will be the first study to determine the role anthocyanins have on lung function and inflammation in individuals with EIB. It is hypothesised the anthocyanin supplementation with increase lung function following eucapnic voluntary hyperpnoea.

The purpose of this trial is to investigate the dose-related effects of intraduodenal administration of the bitter agonist, quinine on energy intake from a palatable milkshake, plasma gut hormone concentrations, and appetite perceptions in healthy individuals, We have found in one of our recent studies that quinine, given as a bolus in doses of 300 or 600 mg (in 10 ml water), potently slowed gastric emptying and lowered postprandial blood glucose. Moreover, we observed more potent blood glucose lowering effects when quinine was administered intraduodenally than intragastrically, suggesting that interaction of quinine with small intestinal receptors is required for potent effects. Therefore, based on these findings, this study aims to characterise the dose-related effects of intraduodenal quinine at these doses, on energy intake.

Despite the benefits of physical activity, over half of Australian adults fail to meet the minimum recommended levels. Pedometers are an effective means of increasing physical activity, allowing instant feedback about the amount of activity accumulated. Recently, a number of new generation pedometers have been released that offer a variety of additional assessment and online feature, however the added value of these features has not been investigated. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of two activity trackers and a traditional pedometer in increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in healthy, inactive adults. It is hypothesised that the activity trackers will have increased comparative effectiveness for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour, than the pedometer. The outcomes of this study provide exploratory evidence of the effectiveness and feasibility of these new devices. Improving movement behaviors in the population can significantly reduce the risk of chronic disease and in turn, relieve the associated economic burden.