ANZCTR search results

Asthma is the leading cause of Emergency Department presentations and hospital admissions, which are potentially avoidable with appropriate post-hospitalization asthma management. We propose to implement and test a comprehensive model of care, Care from Home Program, that ensures active care coordination between acute and primary care services, establishes linkage with child's school/childcare services and provides home-based follow up services for optimal health outcomes in children with asthma. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of this program on paediatric asthma management for children aged 5-16 years old with any ED visits or hospital admission. The study will be a randomized-controlled trial conducted at the Liverpool Hospital between 2021 and 2023. Both control and intervention groups will receive an asthma resource package upon the child’s hospital discharge, which will include an individualized asthma action plan, standardized asthma information and written instruction to parents/carers with medical follow-up recommendations. In addition, parents/carers of intervention group will receive a 3-monthly reminder text message via their mobile phones, a home visit to assess home environmental triggers and provide asthma education, and assistance to schedule general practitioner (GP) follow-up consultations. Also, the child’s schools will be informed of their asthma-related hospital presentations and provided with access to online asthma training resources for school staff. Outcome measures including health care utilization, asthma control, corticosteroid uses, quality of life, activity limitations, school absence and work absence by parents/carers will be assessed through self-administered questionnaires at baseline, 6 months and 12 months post-enrollment. Differences between control and intervention groups, as well as pre- and post-intervention periods will be evaluated.

This project will serve the dual purposes of: (i) evaluating the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a practical exercise intervention on stress among an underrepresented but ‘at-risk’ population in a ‘real world’ setting, and (ii) advancing knowledge regarding the mechanisms of the ‘exercise effect’ on youth mental health. The project will utilize a 3-arm parallel-group pilot randomised controlled trial, with a ‘usual practice’ (i.e., no exercise) control group, a light-intensity exercise group (EG1 – walking/stretching activities, <60% of heart rate maximum [HRmax]) and a moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise group (EG2 – circuit/interval training fitness activities, 65-90% HRmax). Participants randomised to the experimental conditions will engage in 2 x 30 minute exercise sessions per week at school. Assessments for the primary outcome (i.e., salivary cortisol reactivity to acute psychosocial stress) and secondary outcomes (perceived stress, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, psychological distress) will be assessed at baseline, and again following a 6-week intervention. We hypothesize that compared with the control group, stress-reactivity at posttest will be significantly lower among adolescents in the vigorous physical activity group. No significant differences will be found between the control and light intensity physical activity groups. This research will have direct implications for educational policy in Australia, which could be made more ‘activity promoting’ during the senior years, and may also be used to inform the development of intervention programs targeting senior students' academic achievement and well-being.

68Ga-Cell Death Indicator PET (68Ga-CDI PET) is a new technique that has been developed to directly image dead and dying tumour cells in patients using a PET scan. This study aims to assess if 68Ga-CDI PET can detect an increase in dead and dying tumour cells following commencement of treatment in cancer patients. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 18 or older, you have been newly diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, or gastro oesophageal junction (GOJ) adenocarcinoma, or rectal cancer, or breast cancer, or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or grade 3 follicular lymphoma (FL), and you are scheduled for preoperative chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy to treat your cancer. Study details Participants who choose to enrol in this study will be injected with a small dose of 68Ga-CDI and following this they will undergo two PET imaging scans (during which they will be required to lie still on a scanning bed breathing normally). The first dose and PET scan will be scheduled for within 14 days before starting chemo- or chemoradiotherapy, and the second dose and PET scan will be scheduled for 15-20 days after commencement of treatment. The results of the scans will also be compared to other test results provided by their doctor including results of subsequent surgery and imaging. It is hoped this research may be used to improve health outcomes for future cancer patients by investigating the usefulness and safety of a new imaging technique which images dead and dying cancer cells as a way of potentially more rapidly and accurately assessing cancer treatment response than currently available methods.

Smoking throughout pregnancy causes irreversible harm to both the mother and fetus. Although smoking rates have declined considerably, rates of smoking during pregnancy remain steady among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. The Northern Area Local Health Network (NALHN) serves a substantially disadvantaged population with approximately 1 in 4 women smoking during pregnancy. Standard practice at NALHN is to refer women to the Quitline, yet it is widely acknowledged by women and health professionals that women rarely engage with the service (Fletcher et al. 2021, unpublished). Studies exploring the use of carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring in antenatal care to encourage smoking cessation have shown promising results. This project will explore the feasibility and acceptability of using CO monitoring in antenatal care at the NALHN antenatal services.

Over one third of the young adult population in developed countries are university students. The very nature of being a student at a university requires large amounts of sitting, with university students self-reporting greater than 7 hr/day sedentary. These sedentary behaviour levels have increased over the last 10-years and are higher than the general young adult population. With the closure of university campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing students from face-to-face to online learning and then continuing with hybrid delivery when able, sedentary behaviour has increased in this population. Greater than 7 hr/day of self-reported sedentary time has been associated with an increased risk of dying from any cause. Additionally, the university years have been identified as an important time for future life patterns, including health-related behaviours. Within the University of Canberra Faculty of Health we have the opportunity to promote less sitting in this young adult population and improve health outcomes for not only our students but also the patients of our future health workforce. Few studies have focused on reducing sedentary behaviour in university students and none have used choice architecture interventions. Choice architecture interventions, or ‘nudging’, make subtle changes to the micro-environment (university, home, online), disrupting habitual behaviour and motivating the choice for a healthier option. Applied to the physical, social and learning environments, prompts will be embedded in lectures and tutorials encouraging active breaks every 30 minutes of sitting. Posters and brief educational videos will be co-produced with students to provide information on the relationship between sedentary behaviour, health and academic outcomes, including the use of descriptive social norms. The aim of this project is to reduce students’ total self-reported sedentary behaviour by incorporating 'nudges' to sit less within their academic content (lectures, tutorials) and by providing brief education and prompts to spend less time in sedentary behaviour via the co-designed video and posters.

Cardiac arrest is the most common cause of death in otherwise healthy adults. Each year in NSW Ambulance responds to over 8,000 Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrests (OHCA). Of the approximately 3,000 arrests where resuscitation is attempted, only 12% survive to hospital discharge overall. Mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (MCPR) devices deliver uninterrupted effective manual chest compressions throughout patient extrication and transfer in a moving ambulance (currently NSW Paramedics cannot provide ongoing chest compressions in these scenarios). This allows for emergent transportation of patients in cardiac arrest to hospital and either directly for coronary angiography or full cardio-respiratory support with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO-CPR (ECPR) restores perfusion/circulation in a patient by a machine and allows doctors time to investigate/treat the cause of the cardiac arrest (i.e. myocardial infarction and coronary angioplasty/stenting). A cardiac arrest treatment with a bundle of care of expedited transfer from OHCA scene to hospital, MCPR and coronary angiography and/or ECPR may be of benefit above traditional more extended on scene resuscitation.

This research will explore the efficacy of Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cuing (DTTC or Dynamic Therapy) a well-established treatment that has only been tested in small scale studies. The study will compare Dynamic Therapy with usual care which is the speech therapy that children routinely receive in the community. We will also estimate the cost of therapy and make recommendations for which treatment option is most cost-effective. The study is a two-arm randomised controlled trial. This is the first such study for children with apraxia who are under 8 years old.

The CHARISMA trial is a prospective double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised study to evaluate the effect of adding colchicine to standard medical therapy in patients who have non-obstructive but high-risk plaques in their coronary arteries as demonstrated on cardiac CT angiogram (CCTA). A total of 100 participants will be recruited over the study period. Participants will be randomised to either 1) standard medical therapy or 2) standard therapy plus colchicine 0.5mg daily for 12 months. At the end of 12 months, all participants will then undergo a repeat CCTA. We hypothesise that the addition of colchicine to standard medical therapy will have demonstrate a reduction in markers of coronary inflammation as assessed by peri-coronary adipose tissue attenuation.

This study aims to modify and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a highly novel therapy approach that has been trialled with other neurological populations (e.g. stroke, traumatic brain injury). The intervention is predicted to improve the informativeness and efficiency of everyday communication and quality of life in people living with early stage dementia. The study will recruit 15 adults with a diagnosis of dementia and progressive language impairment. Each participant will act as his or her own control. The study will provide pilot data to inform a future large-scale trial, help to optimise the treatment protocol, and discern the most appropriate candidates for the intervention.

This study is a double-blind, single dose, two period crossover study to compare the PK, PD, immunogenicity and safety of three Tocilizumab products (DRL_TC, RP and RMP) in Normal Healthy Volunteers. IP will be given subcutaneosly.