ANZCTR search results

This study is focused on preventing falls in people with stroke. Falls are common, particularly in the early stages following stroke and following the transition from hospital to home, with around half of people falling in the first 6 months after stroke. These falls can have serious consequences such as bone fracture, head injury, or death. There are a number of factors which can increase a person’s risk of falls, including poor balance, environmental hazards, sensory deficits, and medications. Evidence suggests effective falls prevention programs should include a tailored approach addressing individual risk factors, and include balance-specific exercises. This study will pilot an individualised, multifactorial telehealth-supported falls prevention program for people with stroke who are being discharged from hospital to home. The study will test the feasibility and potential benefit of this program in 16 individuals with stroke who are at risks of falls following discharge home from an inpatient setting. Participants will be recruited prior to discharge home and will undertake a 4-week program in addition to their usual care. The program will include a comprehensive falls risk assessment and tailored intervention based on identified risks and agreed goals, and using health behaviour change techniques (exploration of individual barriers and facilitators to recommended fall prevention behaviours). This will involve twice weekly physiotherapy sessions (in person or via videoconferencing or phone call) to review or supervise home exercises, review goals and discuss barriers and strategies for falls prevention. Environmental modifications and referral to other services will be undertaken as required. Participants will undergo in person home-based testing at baseline (within one week after discharge home) and at 4 weeks. Participants will also be interviewed within 3 weeks of completion, asking about their experience of the program. This project will inform the development of a randomised controlled trial and may help inform development of future falls prevention programs that can be delivered with greater efficiency.

Initial treatment for Idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome is prednisolone. In Victoria our routine duration of prednisolone treatment has been 12 weeks, with a multi-step tapering dose used after 4 weeks of treatment. An alternative regime is used elsewhere in Australia, which has a two-step wean over 8 weeks. Prednisolone courses can rarely be complicated by a side effect called adrenal suppression, which is where natural adrenal gland steroid production is reduced. The Initial Prednisolone Weaning and Adrenal Suppression in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome study is a clinical trial that will compare the two different courses of prednisolone, the multi-step wean over 12 weeks and the two-step wean over 8 weeks, in patients with their first presentation of idiopathic childhood nephrotic syndrome. The study will find out how frequently adrenal suppression occurs after different courses of prednisolone, and whether there is any association with nephrotic relapse.

The aim of this study is to assess the visual performance and wearability of prototype ophthalmic lenses compared to commercially available ophthalmic lenses

The primary aim of this pilot trial is to determine whether a larger definitive trial is worthwhile and feasible. Success will be defined by all of the following: (i) A patient/family member consent rate at least 40% (ii) Complete study drug administration at least 80% (iii) A reduction in the extent of NSTI at least 25% (within 95% CI of median total area) (iv) Serious study drug-related adverse events less than 5%. Study Hypotheses (i) Feasibility – A multicentre randomised trial evaluating tranexamic acid (TxA) in necrotising soft-tissue infections (NSTI) is feasible (ii) Clinical efficacy - TxA administration in patients admitted to hospital with a suspected diagnosis of NSTI reduces the spread of tissue infection when compared with placebo. Methods This multicentre, double-blind, parallel group, randomised trial will enrol 60 patients admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of NSTI. We will evaluate intravenous TxA, 1 gm, administered twice daily for 4 days.

Airways disease such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are amongst the top 5 causes of global morbidity and mortality. In Australia, 1 in 10 people above the age of 45 years has COPD and amongst the top 5 most prevalent diseases in Australia. COPD is usually progressive resulting in terminal respiratory failure. Standard therapies include bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids. Bronchodilators cause smooth muscle relaxation and may reduce mucus formation. Inhaled corticosteroids reduce eosinophilic inflammation in a cohort of subjects with COPD. Taken together these treatments provide symptomatic relief but do not address the ongoing tissue damage and impaired repair by the disordered immune system. We have demonstrated for the first time in human subjects that intravenous infusions of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) reduced systemic inflammation by immune-modulating monocytes and increasing anti-inflammatory T regulatory cells. Furthermore, we have shown that the supernatant or conditioned media in which the MSCs are grown in (MSC-CM) have similar immunosuppressive properties. Notably we demonstrated that when the MSC-CM is nebulised, it retained the anti-inflammatory properties. We therefore propose to test the safety and potential efficacy of nebulised conditioned media from MSCs (Neb-MSC-CM) in moderate to severe cohorts of COPD patients and those with frequent exacerbations of COPD. We will assess the safety and efficacy by improvements in quality of life, exercise tolerance and lung function and systemic inflammatory markers. The successful completion of this safety study will then allow us to pursue randomised control trials and commercialisation of this product.

This study aims to collect clinical outcomes data, particularly quality of life and limb function outcomes, from patients who have undergone either a surgical procedure to remove/treat bone and soft tissue tumours (cancer patients) or patients who have undergone a complex hip reconstruction surgery (non-cancer patients) to determine how these outcomes relate to surgical factors. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 16 or older, and you are attending for consultation with one of the participating surgeons for management (surgery with or without chemotherapy or radiotherapy) of bone and soft tissue (sarcoma) tumours, or for surgery to revise a failed or infected hip replacement (non-cancer patients). Study details All participants who choose to enrol in this study will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires around the time of their first consultation with the surgeon, and again at 3, 6, 12, 24 and 60 months (5 years) following definitive treatment (whether treatment is surgical or otherwise). Participants will be able to complete these questionnaires in their own time via an online link, or can complete them at their regular follow up clinic visits. It is anticipated that completing all of the questionnaires at each timepoint will take around 20 minutes. It is hoped this research will provide surgeons with information which will be used to improve the precision of patient counselling preoperatively, and to tailor treatment decisions and post-operative management in order to maximise patient quality of life. The data will also be analysed together and results shared with the scientific community, to help patients in the future.

This study will investigate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (a measure of how the human body processes a substance) of different doses of OP-1250, a new drug that acts to block oestrogen hormone receptors, in combination with palbociclib (an established anti-cancer drug) in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 18 or older, you have been diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) advanced or metastatic breast cancer, and you don't have any known heart conditions including heart disease or irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). Study details There are two stages to this study: Part 1) Dose exploration stage where up to 6 different oral doses of OP-1250 will be used to determine the maximum tolerated dose for OP-1250 in participants with breast cancer. Each dose is administered daily between Days 1-28 of each 28 day treatment cycle. Participants will also be asked to take an oral dose of palbociclib for Days 1-21 of the same 28 day treatment cycle. If participants don't experience any severe side effects, they will continue to receive study treatment in 28 day cycles. A new group of participants will receive treatment at a higher dose if deemed appropriate following a review of safety from the first cycle of treatment in the prior group of participants. Part 2) Dose Expansion stage where the recommended dose determined from the first stage will be administered to a new group of participants. Participants in this group will also receive OP-1250 daily between Days 1-28 of each 28 day cycle, and will also take an oral dose of palbociclib for Days 1-21 of the same 28 day treatment cycle. Treatment with both OP-1250 and palbociclib will continue for up to one year (or longer if agreed by the investigator and sponsor) after the first dose is administered, unless severe side effects are experienced. Safety and tolerability will be assessed frequently in every cycle for both stages. Pharmacokinetics for OP-1250 and palbociclib will be assessed for all participants (both Part1 and Part 2) using blood samples. Participants will also be asked to complete an electrocardiogram (heart scan) every at least every second cycle for 9 months after starting in the study. It is hoped this study will determine the safest dose of OP-1250 that can be administered to patients with breast cancer, and that this research will also show that giving OP-1250 in combination with palbociclib is safe and effective against the cancer spread.

The Deadly Koolinga Chef Program (DKCP) is an invited Aboriginal community-based children and adolescent cooking and nutrition program that aims to build nutritional health literacy for improved and sustained health and well-being. The primary hypothesis is that a nutrition and cooking intervention that is developed, designed, delivered and controlled by Aboriginal community will enhance the development of food literacy, and the secondary hypothesis is that the community-controlled program will lead to improved individual and community nutritional outcomes. The primary study objectives are to (1) provide nutrition and cooking instruction for kitchen safety, meal planning and budgeting, preparing, cooking and storage of food; (2) improve awareness of the importance of nutrition and healthy eating in the prevention and management of chronic diseases; (3) determine participants’ nutritional intake and dietary changes; (4) evaluate overall social and emotional well-being. The program will cater for 6 - 12 year old children on a weekly basis through the school terms, with workshops for adolescents (13 - 18 years), pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers for a two-year period.

This study is investigating if cancer rehabilitation delivered via telehealth is effective and cost-effective as compared to usual care without rehabilitation. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this trial if you are aged 18 years or over, receiving or recently completed cancer treatment whilst living independently in the community. Study details Participants will be randomly allocated to one of two groups: 1) Telerehabilitation comprising online group exercise; or 2) usual care without rehabilitation. After completion of an 8-week exercise program, data regarding quality of life, physical capacity and health service utilisation will be collected. It is hoped this study will determine the feasibility and effectiveness of cancer rehabilitation delivered through telehealth.

This project will compare the repair of early tooth enamel decay after chewing with two sugar-free gums containing the major milk protein casein combined with calcium (called CPP-ACP). One gum will contain CPP-ACP made using an enzyme called trypsin that originates from pigs. The other gum will contain exactly the same ingredients as the first gum including the same amount of CPP-ACP but the CPP-ACP in the second gum will be made using trypsin that originates from a fungus. To test these abilities of these two gums to repair early decay, pieces of pre-sterilized human enamel with artificially-created early decay will be attached to custom-made removable denture-like appliances that will be worn by 10 human participants for 40 minutes four times a day for each of two 10-consecutive weekday treatment periods, and chew gum for the first 20 minutes the appliance is worn each time. A different gum will be chewed during each treatment period. The two treatment periods will be separated by a one-week washout period when the participants will rest from the study while new pieces of enamel are attached to their appliances before they cross-over to the other gum. The order the two gums are chewed will be random and unknown to the participants or researchers.. The hypothesis is that the abilities of the two gums to repair the early decay will be equivalent.