ANZCTR search results

There is significant disparity in the current literature regarding outcomes of AF ablation between sexes. There is a strong male dominance in the data to date. Current literature comprises of small studies, with short follow-up and inconsistent outcomes. Based on the short term studies to date, women tend to present older and fair worse despite having less co-morbidities.

Disabling foot pain affects 24% of adults aged =45 years. Some episodes of foot pain may be related to inflammatory or degenerative changes and, as such, general practitioners refer patients to orthopaedic departments for surgical management. This model of care may be neither appropriate nor sufficient as many foot complaints referred to orthopaedic departments trigger a lengthy process that commonly does not result in an operation. Health units have utilised podiatrists to consult with patients on waiting-lists to ensure non-surgical interventions are provided before the patient sees a surgeon. These triage clinics appear to be successful, as the podiatrist progresses only those likely to require operative intervention, and therefore have face validity that they are effective. But given the uncontrolled nature, and potential for bias in previous studies, a formal clinical and economic evaluation, via a clinical trial is required to formally test their efficacy. Waiting-lists and chronic pain threaten health networks now and will continue to do so in the future. Without formal evaluation of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of triage clinics, executives, managers and administrators cannot make truly informed decisions on their effectiveness and where funding should be allocated along the patient journey. Depending on the outcome of this study, there may be radical (re)thinking of how patients are assessed and managed on foot/ankle waiting-lists. This may result in a more efficient, timely and cost-effective model of care for managing foot/ankle orthopaedic waiting-lists across Queensland Health networks, and more broadly across Australia.

This is a collaborative, study that aims to determine the relationship between reported alcohol intake and concentration of phosphatidylethanol (PEth) in washed erythrocytes and documented patient covariates. It comprises two sub-studies. One involves healthy participants who will record their alcohol intake for up to three weeks and provide up to four blood specimens. Among these will be a subgroup of participants who customarily taken no alcohol. The other sub-study involves healthy participants who will abstain from alcohol for four weeks and provide four blood specimens. There is no drug intervention and no other requirement for lifestyle change. The purpose of the research is to translate an assay for PEth into a useful clinical tool in the identification and management of alcohol-related disease.

The primary purpose of this study is to compare the differences between two daily disposable contact lenses over a period of 30 days. The study will compare the visual performance, lens comfort and handling between the two lenses. Given the similarity in their design, it is hypoethised that there will be minimal differences between the 2 lenses, in regards to vision, comfort and lens handling.

A transdiagnostic, cognitive behavioural and biopsychosocially-based digital health program for decreasing symptoms of anxiety and depression (called LIFE FLeX) will be evaluated in various treatment intensities. People who consent will be given access to the LIFE FLeX program immediately however if their symptoms of anxiety and depression do not improve within the first two to three weeks will be offered to have their treatment stepped-up and randomly allocated to one of two groups 1) LIFE FLeX program + allocation of a therapist for up to 10 minutes of weekly support conducted via video-chat technology and; 2) LIFE FLeX program + allocation of a therapist for up to 50 minutes of weekly support conducted via video-chat technology. LIFE FLeX is designed to assist people with their anxiety and depressive symptoms and contains six 'core' modules, plus an introduction module delivered over 8 weeks. There will also be a short 'Booster' Module released three weeks after the final module is completed. Each module will take approximately 25 minutes to complete. In addition, in order to reinforce the module-based information, there are 20-30 minutes of offline activities each week. Participants will also receive automated emails (e.g., to remind them to log on, when to complete post/follow-up questionnaires) and will be asked to self-monitor their mood and daily lifestyle events (e.g., sleep) and asked several questions at the beginning of each module, to monitor their progress. Participants will complete a pre-intervention assessment (Week 0), during intervention (Weeks 3, 6) assessments, post-intervention assessment (Week 9) and a 3-month follow-up assessment (Week 21). In addition, participants who withdraw from the study, or those who progress to a therapist condition will be invited to complete a semi-structured interview to explore their reasons around disengagement and experiences of the therapeutic alliance and effects of video-chat as a delivery method on the therapeutic alliance. Interviews will be conducted via telephone, instant messaging or video-chat. It is expected that people who have their treatment program (LIFE FLeX) augmented with a therapist will show greater reductions in anxiety and/or depressive symptoms at post-intervention assessment and follow-up assessment time points, as well as increases in positive affect and emotional regulation, in comparison to people in the maintenance of the 'no support' LIFE FLeX program.

We hypothesize that a significant percentage of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection will require admission to the intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation and ECMO for refractory hypoxemia., In addition, it is hypothesized that a substantial proportion of patients will also present with concurrent coagulation disorders and thrombosis. Objectives: To describe clinical features; severity of pulmonary dysfunction; incidence of ICU admission and use of mechanical ventilation, coagulatory and thrombotic derangement, and ECMO technical characteristics; duration of ECMO; complications; and survival of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Community rehabilitation after stroke may be limited due to factors as difficulties getting to appointments and limited access. Telerehabilitation, delivery of rehabilitation through communication technologies has emerged as a promising platform, and may overcome many of these difficulties. The primary aim of the pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is to determine the effect of home-delivered telerehabilitation on physical activity compared with centre-based community rehabilitation in people with stroke with matched scheduled therapy time across both interventions. We hypothesize that people with stroke who receive home-delivered telerehabilitation will demonstrate 1) Increased daily physical activity and 2) better clinical, patient related and economic outcomes when compared with those receiving centre-based community rehabilitation.

This study is investigating the efficacy of chloroquine phosphate as a phophylactic against SARS-CoV-2 in health care workers at high risk of exposure.

We will investigate if exercise is effective in increasing muscle strength in people with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). We will conduct a phase II, multi-site, double-blind, randomised controlled trial with 6-month follow-up. Sixty participants with PWS aged 13 to 60 years will be randomised to receive one of two exercise programs. Participants will exercise twice a week for 24 weeks at their local gym supervised by an exercise health professional (usually a physiotherapist). We will measure muscle strength, muscle mass, functional strength, physical activity, community participation, and health-related quality of life at baseline (week 0), after the intervention (week 25) and 6 months later (week 52): We will recruit participants through PWS advocacy groups, specialist PWS clinics, and PWS registries and clinical databases.

Overactive sympathetic nervous system (SNS) signaling to major metabolic organs plays a pivotal role in the development & progression of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) into several concurrent cardiometabolic disorders. Given the close relationship between the MetS & overactive SNS signaling, a minimally invasive treatment approach targeting inhibition of SNS to central metabolic organs (kidney & liver) is being proposed. The objective is to evaluate the safety of hepatic or renal artery denervation or a combination of both in a single intravascular procedure intended to improve one or more cardiometabolic parameters for hypertension (HTN) & glycaemic control. 45 patients with HTN with coexistent type-2 diabetes who qualify & consent, will be assigned to one of the 3 arms.