ANZCTR search results

This study is testing a new blood marker for heart cell death called cell free DNA (cfDNA). Drugs like inotropes may cause injury to the heart muscle which current blood markers are unable to detect. We will take samples of blood from heart failure patients admitted to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) before, during and after the commencement of inotrope treatment, as prescribed by the cardiologist. We will investigate if there is any detectable damage to the heart in association with these medications by measuring the amount of cfDNA in the blood stream.

The 45 and Up Mobile Health Study will assess the effect of a lifestyle-focused text messaging program in 1,000 participants recruited from the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study Cohort. The intervention will engage and educate participants with heart disease, or at high risk for heart disease, about improving their heart health and making better lifestyle choices. We aim to establish the acceptability and efficacy of a mobile text messaging intervention in improving healthy lifestyle behaviours in participants with heart disease, or at high risk for heart disease. We hypothesise that a texting program promoting healthy lifestyle will improve short-term health behaviours with smoking cessation, higher levels of physical activity, and heart-healthy diet, in those with heart disease, or who are at high risk for heart disease, as compared to no intervention.

With any major surgery, there are risks of complications such as lung infection or pneumonia. These risks may be greater if surgery is urgent, patients must wait in hospital, and have limited physical activity. We know that it is good to prepare physically for surgery and one way we are looking at is how best to do this with the lungs and breathing muscles. Researchers have studied breathing muscle strengthening exercises before elective surgery and know that improving strength helps prevent complications, however we need to know more about what happens in the short period of time while patients are waiting in hospital for urgent surgery. Exercising with and without specific devices may assist, however we are not sure whether this works, what is best, how much and how strong the training should be, and whether patients having surgery will want to do the training or enjoy it. In summary we want to know how to best prepare lungs before surgery in a short period of time, to know if higher-intensity exercise for the breathing muscles is better and to decide whether we could use this routinely on patients who would require urgent surgery. This study is comparing 2 groups of participants having urgent open-heart surgery, to see if there is a difference in inspiratory (breathing in) muscle strength with training. This is called inspiratory muscle training (IMT). One group will do exercises with the breathing strengthening device and one will not. All participants in either intervention or control groups will receive usual pre-operative physiotherapy and other interventions that are currently provided. It is hypothesised that short term, high-intensity IMT is feasible, safe and acceptable with patients in hospital awaiting urgent cardiac surgery. It is also hypothesised that short term, higher-intensity IMT will give a clinically significant increase in maximum inspiratory breathing pressure (MIP) from baseline.

The research aims to investigate factors that are predictive of anxiety and depression amongst those suffering from endometriosis. Additionally, the role of self-efficacy will be examined as a potential moderator for symptoms of anxiety and depression . These aims will be the focus of our online questionnaire. The research will also aim to determine how women’s self-management of endometriosis has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This aim will be the focus of the semi-structured interview

Participants of ACTRN12621000076875 were allocated a specific nicotine replacement product (vaporised nicotine product or oral nicotine replacement therapy [nicotine gum or lozenge]) at baseline. This observational extended follow-up study investigates participants that successfully quit smoking (met trial primary outcome) in ACTRN12621000076875, Participants will be followed up at 19 months to determine long-term smoking abstinence, as well as examine patterns of long-term use of nicotine products. Participants may be asked to provide a salivary sample for cotinine analysis and complete a carbon monoxide breath test.

We are conducting this online trial to determine if different diagnostic labels and their explanations impact consumer beliefs about hip pain and its management in adults who have had and have not had hip pain. It is unclear how diagnostic labels of chronic hip pain and their explanations impact beliefs about treatments of hip pain. Qualitative literature links pathoanatomically framed diagnoses and information about hip with the belief that exercise is potentially harmful and that surgery is necessary to fix or cure hip pain. However, these findings are yet to be confirmed by an experimental study. This study will thus aim to determine the effects of three diagnostic labels on consumer beliefs about hip pain and its management: 1) hip osteoarthritis, with a modern explanation; 2) chronic hip pain, with a psychosocial explanation of pain; 3) hip degeneration, with a pathoanatomic explanation. The trial will be administered in one single online survey. Participants will initially answer screening questions to determine eligibility. All eligible participants will then read the same hypothetical hip problem, and then complete baseline outcome measures before being randomly allocated to one of the three diagnostic label groups. After reading the diagnostic label and explanation they were assigned, all participants will complete the outcome measures again.

The aim is to perform a randomised, double-blind, inactive-comparator-controlled trial of vitamin C and zinc for the treatment of foot ulcers in people attending multi-disciplinary high-risk foot ulcer clinics. Our overall hypothesis is that treating people who have chronic foot ulcers with vitamin C and/or zinc will improve ulcer healing and thereby improve quality of life, prevent osteomyelitis, decrease amputations and will be safe, highly cost-effective and widely implementable. Patients will be treated for 8 weeks and followed up until complete ulcer healing, amputation, or a minimum of 12 weeks if not fully healed before. Patients will have a blood test for serum vitamin C and zinc at baseline, accompanied by any usual tests required by the foot ulcer clinics. After this baseline visit, patients will otherwise have usual care at the foot ulcer clinic, except for taking their assigned tablets. After 4 weeks their blood results for zinc and vitamin C will be made available. If deficient, they will receive both tablets for their deficiency. This will ensure we offer all people who are identified as deficient treatment but maintain blinding to their original 4 weeks of treatment. At 8 weeks or the closest visit, people will have their blood vitamin C and zinc re-tested. They will then be followed until complete ulcer healing, amputation or a minimum of 12 weeks if not healed before.

One in 10 patients in an Australian hospital acquire an infection while in hospital, often referred to as a healthcare associated infection (HAI). The burden of HAIs is significant, with associated morbidity, mortality and, for those acquired in hospitals, increased length of stay. However, there is little high quality research into the role of environmental cleaning to reduce HAIs. A seminal Australian study published in 2020, conducted in 11 hospitals (REACH study, ACTRN12615000325505), demonstrated improvements in routine hospital cleaning being associated with a reduction in infection. The REACH study did not, however, focus on the cleaning of shared medical equipment. Another Australian study has provided molecular evidence, that shared medical equipment plays a critical role in the transmission of infection. The proposed study builds on these study findings, and focuses on improving the cleaning of shared medical equipment as a key strategy in the reduction of HAIs. The hypothesis for this study is that improving the frequency and quality of cleaning for shared medical equipment, will reduce the risk of infections being acquired in hospital.

This study aimed to understand whether using behaviour change techniques relating to perceived risk and habit could improve safe food-handling behaviours, perceived risk, and habit.

Traditionally, surgeons undertaking THA have performed a distal neck osteotomy, which invariably necessitated the excision of healthy bone. The introduction of bone-conserving short-stem implants has shown there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that retaining the femoral neck can provide mechanical and biological advantages. One of the aims of successful THA is to restore this environment to its native state. Following surgery, femoral components are subject to high torsional and shear forces that can precipitate implant movement. Torsional stability is known to be an important factor in implant fixation and can influence survivorship. The prostheses are also subjected to vertical forces that can produce interface micro-motion or result in migration of the stem into varus. It is argued that neck preservation offers superior tri-planar implant stability and allows more accurate restoration of the hip biomechanics. Medacta International have recently developed a new short femoral stem device designed for use in total hip arthroplasty. The femoral stem is one component of a total hip replacement. The MPRES femoral stem is not yet approved by the TGA however, Medacta International has obtained European CE Mark Approval. CE Marking allows Medacta to supply the MPRES device in the European Union (EU). The MPRES is a Neck Sparing Stem, as it is designed to be bone conserving. It has been designed as a primary uncemented femoral stem for use in total hip arthroplasty. The design intent on the MPRES stem is to provide a THA that preserves healthy bone stock and allow for minimal invasive surgical approaches. The MPRES is a cementless, biplanar, wedge-shaped monoblock stem of Titanium Alloy and hydroxyapatite coating. It is currently unknown if the new MPRES cementless femoral stem device has noninferiority revision rates in comparison to all other on-market femoral stems. The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and performance of the MPRES. This will be achieved by both assessing the survivorship data and collecting patient reported outcome measures from patients who are having the MPRES device.