ANZCTR search results

When a patient has surgery under general anaesthesia, it is one of the jobs of the anaesthetist to secure and maintain a patent airway. Placing a breathing tube into a patients’ windpipe is one of the most commonly performed procedures to secure the patient’s airway. Though this so-called intubation is usually an easy task for the anaesthetist, sometimes it can be difficult. This leads to a potentially life-threatening situation. Hence, it is part of the routine preoperative anaesthetic assessment to examine a patients’ airway in order to attempt to predict how difficult it will be to intubate them. There are a number of examination techniques and tools that have been developed for this, but none are sensitive enough to rely on. Deep learning algorithms are able to learn to map complex and subtle relationships between input variables to a known output. This relationship is learned from the data, and the algorithm can then be used to predict outputs for future inputs. Deep learning algorithms have been successfully applied to a wide range of computer vision tasks This research will apply deep learning to patients basic demographics and photographs of patients face and neck in order to predict how difficult they will be to intubate. We will recruit patients from the perioperative anaesthetic assessment clinic at Royal Perth Hospital who are expected to require intubation for their surgery. We will take 3-dimensional stereophotographs of the patients’ face and neck in various positions. The difficulty of intubation will be recorded at the time of surgery. We train the deep learning model using simple patient data such as age, gender height, weight, and the images as an input, and the intubation difficulty as an output. We will then attempt to predict how difficult intubation will be for patients given their images as an input. We will also compare the results of the deep learning algorithm to anaethetists predictions.

CT coronary angiogram (CTCA) is increasingly used as a non-invasive imaging tool to assess the efficacy of novel therapies on coronary inflammation as well as plaque progression, and it is imperative that we understand the natural history of pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) inflammation on serial assessment. The ARISTOCRAT registry is a retrospective and prospective, open-label, multi-centre dynamic observational registry designed to directly assess the natural history of PCAT inflammation, coronary atherosclerosis, characteristics, and determinants of coronary plaque progression.

This project will address basic questions regarding the use of daily music listening to improve the quality of life for people with dementia (PWD). It will be the first study to examine the role of how often (and for how long) music listening influences the quality of life of people with dementia using short- and longer-term follow-ups. Sixty participants (with dementia) will be randomly assigned to one of five groups. The groups will include personalised daily music listening with headphones (once or twice daily), audiobook listening with headphones, contemporary music (not personalised), and not wearing headphones or listening to music. All participants will receive their standard care. Expected outcomes include improved quality of life for people with dementia, decreased behavioural disturbances and increased cognitive functioning. This study will examine the effects of listening to personalised music to improve quality of life and behaviour in persons with dementia. We hypothesise personalised music listening will improve the quality of life and behaviour of people with dementia. This hypothesis will be examined by asking the following questions: 1. Does daily exposure of listening to personalised and preferred music via headphones improve quality of life indices in people with dementia? 2. Does daily exposure of listening to personalised and preferred music via headphones reduce the severity and frequency of symptoms (e.g., agitation, anxiety and depression) in people with dementia within residential aged-care facilities? 3. How long after the intervention ceases are any positive outcomes still measurable? Is this period affected by the frequency and duration of the personalised music intervention?

This study is investigating the efficacy of prophylactic fluid restriction for prevention of low sodium levels after pituitary surgery. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 18 years or older and are undergoing pituitary surgery for a pituitary tumour (functional and non-functional pituitary adenomas, Rathke’s cleft cyst, craniopharyngioma, other). Study details Participants will be randomly allocated to either a fluid restriction protocol (1L of fluid per day for days 4-9 post-pituitary surgery) or a protocol of no fluid restriction. Blood samples as well as data on hospital readmission rates and adverse events will be collected and analysed. It is hoped that information from this study will help inform future management of pituitary surgery patients and prevention of electrolyte disturbances.

Some people who have been treated for non-central nervous system cancers experience problems with cognitive function during and/or after treatment. In this project, an education and skills intervention that was previously delivered successfully for this population by psychologists or occupational therapists in small group format (Responding to Cognitive Concerns, ReCog) and individual online format (eReCog) will be adapted for individual face-to-face delivery by appropriate professionals (ReCog-I) and piloted with a small number of people who have been treated for cancer. This research aims to gather initial evidence about whether the ReCog-I program has an influence on perceived cognitive function and mental health in participants who have been treated for cancer.

This is a 12-week RCT trial involving a 6-week wellbeing program delivered via the app. The trial will recruit healthy adults from the app user base with the aim of measuring the participants’ levels of mental wellbeing over time and determining whether the app is effective at increasing their wellbeing, compared to an active control version of the app.

This pilot study aims to examine the anti-inflammatory and clinical effects of oral N acetylcysteine( 2400 mg/day) in bronchiectasis over a 6 week period compared with placebo.We hypothesise it will improve these outcomes.

Central venous catheters (CVCs) placed in the internal jugular vein have been associated with increased risk of central line-associated infection and CVC failure compared to subclavian CVCs. Effective dressing and securement of internal jugular CVCs can reduce the risk of such complications, but dressing and securement is often inadequate due to 'drag' of infusion lines on the CVC and intermittent 'catching' of the CVC lines on other objects. Dressing failure also increases the risk of medical adhesive-related skin injury and central line-associated bloodstream infection due to repeated dressing changes. Mastisol Liquid Adhesive (MLA) is a non-water-soluble gum mastic liquid adhesive designed to improve dressing adherence and integrity. MLA has been shown to not increase bacterial growth and improve dressing adhesion in small studies, but has not been rigorously tested in a randomised controlled trial. The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of MLA in reducing dressing changes, adverse events (e.g. device failure, infection and MARSI), clinician workload and costs associated with IJ CVCs. It is hypothesised that dressings secured with MLA will required changes less frequently, and therefore be associated with less adverse events, lower clinician workload and costs.

The introduction of long acting depot (modified release) buprenorphine subcutaneous injections in recent years is a significant addition to the medication options for the treatment of opioid dependence. These medications are long acting and enable 'once a month' doses rather than daily medication such as sublingual buprenorphine - which are often associated with inconvenience and cost for patients and health services. However little is known about the nature of the withdrawal syndrome that occurs if patients discontinue depot buprenorphine medication. The aim of this study is to describe the profile of withdrawal signs and symptoms in participants discontinuing opioid treatment with a 4-weekly depot buprenorphine formulation, and to compare against the withdrawal profile of a parallel group of participants discontinuing opioid treatment using sublingual buprenorphine. Participants will be monitored over a 16-week admission in a residential rehabilitation unit that assists clients withdrawing from opioid agonist treatment; and participants will withdraw using the buprenorphine formulation they are prescribed prior to the admission (a non-randomised comparison group). The main outcome is opiate withdrawal severity (subjective and objective features) over the course of the admission, with secondary outcomes of cravings, adverse events, general heath, sleep measures and patient experience. .

This online randomised controlled trial aims to test the effectiveness of a 4-minute purpose-made intervention video on increasing Australian men's intentions to seek help from others when they are experiencing mental health difficulties, compared with a control video. We hypothesise that there will be a significant change in scores on the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire - Self from baseline (T1) to post-intervention (T2 - after viewing the video) in the group that views the intervention video (intervention group), but not in the group that views the control video (control group). The video takes a well-known song and adapts the lyrics with the intention to encourage men to seek support from others when they are experiencing mental health difficulties. The lyrics focus on how men are typically encouraged to remain stoic, to keep their difficulties to themselves, and to never cry, but encourages them to express their feelings and seek support when they are not coping well. The video focuses on a group of diverse men who meet in a large community hall; it has the appearance of a support group. The video begins with a single man beginning to sing the lyrics to the adapted song; he is gradually joined by others until all men have stood and are taking part in this spontaneous 'choir'. The video ends with the call to action printed on the screen 'When the going gets tough. Get Talking' and a link to the study website, which will house information for gaining various types of mental health support. If the video has no negative effects on participants, it will subsequently be released into the public domain and promoted using a largely social media campaign.