ANZCTR search results

Sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are common conditions amongst the Australian adult population. Improving the patients’ understanding of OSA and the treatment with CPAP therapy is vital for properly treating the condition. Previous patients in our clinic have informed us that they would like health information regarding their sleep disorder to be made available in an online video format. We have developed five educational health information videos related to OSA. The main aim of this research is to determine how effective these videos are at improving patients’ understanding of OSA, uptake of CPAP therapy and usage of CPAP therapy. A randomised controlled trial will be conducted. A total of 208 eligible patients will be randomised to either Group 1 “Standard of care” or Group 2 “audio-visual clips”. For patients in Group 1 (standard of care) education will be provided at night by the sleep scientists according to standard laboratory policy and procedures. For patients in Group 2 (audio-visual clips), five videos will be shown well as the standard education. The primary outcome of this study is to determine CPAP adherence (hrs) in both standard of care and audio-visual arms at 2-months and 12-months.

Lateral ankle sprains are the most prevalent musculoskeletal injury sustained by individuals who participate in sports. They also have the highest recurrence rate of all musculoskeletal injuries; between 32% to 74% of individuals will experience a re-injury and/or report persistent injury-associated symptoms. The high prevalence (40%) of re-injury and persistent injury-associated symptoms experienced within the 1-year time period following first-time acute lateral ankle sprain injury suggests that current management practices may be insufficient. A study of US high school athletes identified that 71% to 75% of athletes return to sport (RTS) within 3 days of incurring an acute lateral ankle sprain injury, whilst 95% of athletes RTS within 10 days of injury. Based on these timeframes, it is not surprising that sensorimotor impairments associated with acute lateral ankle sprains are still present when athletes RTS. Early, and symptomatic, RTS after an acute lateral ankle sprain injury could heighten the risk of persistent injury-associated symptoms, future injury risk and the development of secondary problems, such as ankle joint osteoarthritis. There are a number of likely reasons why sportspersons RTS early, and with impairments, after incurring an acute lateral ankle sprain injury. First, lateral ankle sprains are often assumed to be minor injuries and consequently over half of individuals do not seek formal medical treatment. Thus, in these individuals, injury-associated sensorimotor impairments are never addressed with specific targeted rehabilitation. Second, there are currently no criteria-based guidelines to guide RTS decision making for individuals with an acute lateral ankle sprain injury. In light of the lack of evidence for RTS criteria following acute lateral ankle sprain injury, and lack of literature addressing this question, there is need to determine and collate expert opinion to inform RTS practice. The Delphi process is one method that can be used to collate and refine expert opinion. This approach has been undertaken to inform the development of RTS criteria for hamstring injuries. Information gained by this process can be used to inform the development of RTS criteria for acute lateral ankle sprains and provide the basis for prospective cohort studies to test the use of the proposed criteria for successful RTS. The aim of this study is to use a Delphi approach to develop consensus for RTS criteria for individuals who have sustained an acute lateral ankle sprain injury.

There is a need to support individuals to maximise their potential for return to employment following major trauma. The current study will evaluate an early vocational intervention service provided to individuals experiencing major trauma to determine whether it positively impacts employment outcome one year post-injury as well as study, community and social participation, and quality of life, as compared with delivery of 'usual care' access to vocational rehabilitation. It is hypothesizes that participants receiving the early vocational intervention will show better employment outcomes and social participation at one year post-injury than control participants receiving usual care. Qualitative interviews with injured individuals, their employers and the therapists involved will also be conducted to identify the factors associated with successful RTW, as well as barriers, and satisfaction and quality ratings will be completed with participants, their employers, therapists and insurance claims coordinators to identify key learnings from the early vocational intervention program

This study is testing if taking aspirin (also known as acetylsalicylic acid or ASA for short) may help prevent ovarian cancer in women with a high-risk gene mutation, BRCA1 or BRCA2, who plan to have the standard risk-reducing surgery. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are a woman aged 18 years or above, and you have a gene change or mutation called BRCA1 or BRCA2, which puts you at high risk for getting ovarian cancer. Also you are scheduled, sometime in the next 6 months to 2 years, to have a surgery to reduce your risk by removing your fallopian tubes and ovaries. Study details Patients will be randomly allocated to one of two groups, Group A or Group B. Patients in Group A will be given aspirin in the form of a pill, to be taken by mouth every day for between 6 months to 2 years, before you have your scheduled risk-reducing surgery. You will have an equal chance of receiving either the low or the high dose of aspirin; low dose of aspirin is 81 mg per day and high dose of aspirin is 325 mg per day. Patients in Group B will be given a placebo in the form of a pill, to be taken by mouth every day for between 6 months to 2 years, before you have your scheduled risk-reducing surgery. A placebo is a medication with no active ingredients that is identical in appearance to the real medication. The purpose of the study is to find out whether taking aspirin (also known as acetylsalicylic acid or ASA for short) may help prevent ovarian cancer in women with a high-risk gene mutation, BRCA1 or BRCA2, who plan to have surgery to reduce the risk of developing cancer.

This project is a collaboration between Sunshine Coast PHN (PIR), Mental Health and Addiction Services, Sunshine Coast HHS and CSIRO’s Australian eHealth Research Centre to conduct a feasibility study among 40 clients at the Sunshine Coast University HHS. The aim is to ascertain levels of program efficacy and successful health-related outcomes. Through developing an innovative platform comprised of a smartphone app and internet-based clinician web portal, it aims to support persons with diagnosed mental illness in self-management but will also enhance multidisciplinary care provision. The smartphone app accompanies and guide persons with diagnosed mental illness through their treatment journey by monitoring health measures, delivering simple interactive questionnaires and providing educational and motivational multimedia content. The web-portal enables clinical care providers to view their clients’ progress and provide individualised feedback and/or early care intervention dependent on the advice of the clinical review.

The purpose of this study is to determine if a standard chemotherapy induction therapy followed by maintenance using pembrolizumab will be effective in maintaining life expectancy with minimal side effects for participants. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are an adult with has been diagnose with primary central nervous system lymphoma. Study details All participants in this study will complete a standard induction treatment followed by pembrolizumab, via a drip into the blood vessel, every 3 weeks for 2 years. Throughout the study scans will be performed at various time points such as Magnetic Reasonance imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans) to take pictures inside your body. Blood samples will also be taken throughout the treatment period, however these are the same as you would have taken during standard treatment outside of the trial. It is hoped that this treatment will result in a better prognosis for those with primary central nervous system lymphoma, with less severe side effects.

The purpose of this study is to determine if continuous irrigation of the bladder using sterile water for at least 3 hours is feasible and safe in bladder tumour resection. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are an adult who is suspected of having bladder cancer. Study details Standard surgery for bladder tumours involves irrigation of the bladder during and after the surgery using sterile saline (salt water). If you participate in this study, you will have sterile water used for this irrigation during and for at least 3 hours after surgery instead. If irrigation using water is found to be feasible and safe, it can then be assessed further to see if it can prevent the bladder cancer. from coming back. This could have a major impact on treating bladder cancer

Stroke is the most common life threatening and debilitating neurological disorder. It is commonly caused by the flicking off of plaque from calcified arteries in the neck region in patients with atherosclerotic internal carotid artery stenosis. This study retrospectively compares the outcomes after 2 different treatment options for carotid artery stenosis: carotid artery stenting (CAS) and carotid endarterecromy (CEA). All patients who underwent either procedure performed by the primary surgeon, in 4 locations will be included. Specific outcome measures are: (1) post procedure occurrence of further clots in the arteries supplying the brain and (2) post procedure occurrence of external carotid (a branch of the artery being operated on) occlusion. In order to measure these outcomes, we will compare the clinical examination findings as well as imaging (MRI, ultrasound, CT angiography) results pre and post operatively. As CEA is currently the gold standard for treating this condition, we predict that long term outcomes are better in CEA as compared to CAS.

This study aims to compare how effectively a closed-loop automated insulin delivery system maintains an individual’s glucose levels in a healthy range compared with insulin delivered via a pump with doses determined in a manual way together with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) via a glucose sensor. All participants will undertake the study over a 9 to 11-month period, completing two study stages in random order, each of 4-month duration 1) Closed-loop with automated basal insulin delivery, 2) Open-loop with manual insulin delivery via pump and CGM.  Outcomes of interest include glucose levels and other non-glucose parameters such as physical well-being, cognitive functioning, psychosocial well-being, sleep, glucose patterns while driving and caregiver burden.  These results will help us to understand whether automated insulin delivery systems may benefit an older cohort, and help to further refine systems for future iterations.

This observational study will compare evening meal plate wastage between a group receiving an a la carte dinner menu and a group receiving a cyclical dinner menu (pre-ordered) on two maternity wards at St John of God Subiaco Hospital, Perth, Western Australia. The hospital has initiated a three-month trial of a new menu model (a la carte). Researchers will observe the impact of this change, and compare with cyclical menus with regards to the main reasons for plate wastage (i.e. food and drink uneaten) from a patient’s perspective. At the conclusion of data collection and analysis the data will be assessed and used to provide average plate waste and average nutrient intake data, as well as patient comments analysed to assist with the evaluation of the new hybrid room service model (a la Carte menu) trial. Primary research hypothesis: Patients who consume an a la carte dinner will have less plate wastage compared to those on the 14-day cyclical menu.