ANZCTR search results

This study aims to evaluate the uptake of Advance Care Planning (ACP) for people with chronic diseases in acute and community settings. Who is it for? You may be eligible to join this study if you are aged 18 years or above, are admitted to a ward/community centre in a participating hospital or community setting, and have a chronic health condition (diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, cancer, frailty and/or dementia). Study details Participants admitted to an intervention site will receive Advance Care Planning assistance from a specially trained registered nurse. This involves a series of facilitated conversations regarding you or your family member’s healthcare wishes for the future. Participants admitted to a control site will receive standard care only. This study will measure uptake of Advance Care Planning. Participants will also be followed up after 6 months in order to evaluate the level of satisfaction with their healthcare experience. It is hoped that this study will promote Advance Care Planning conversations as part of routine (normal) clinical practice.

Our study will examine if the use of intermittent boluses improves pain and decreases opioid use when compared to continuous infusions when delivered through an exrtrapleural catheter in patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), a form of lung surgery. We will also investigate whether lung function is improved in the post-operative period. Design: Randomised single centre blinded clinical trial. Both groups will receive the same overall dose of ropivacaine.

Very low dose multiple combination antihypertensive pharmacotherapy can improve risk/benefit compared to (conventional) moderate dose simple combination therapy because the multiple actions lower blood pressure (BP) more efficiently and the lower doses cause fewer adverse effects. We aim in stable hypertensive patients to carefully quantify and compare blood pressure, tolerability and all adverse effects on 2 different dose very low dose multiple combination antihypertensive regimens, compared to moderate dose simple combination regimen. All patients will receive the 3 treatments, in randomised sequence. All patient file data will be entered into a database by a Research Assistant. All data recorded will be de-identified. All patient data recorded will remain confidential, kept secure in a computer database on a computer locked in the research office. The Principal Investigator will not discuss data collected with the patients during the study. Statistical variance in Polypill treatments like these is not established. This is a pilot trial. The statistical analysis will be undertaken on Excel under the oversight of Professor Hans Stampfer. Should either efficacy or safety appear encouraging, we will seek grant support to extend the study to 3 sites, to recruit sufficient numbers to best establish risk/benefit of the Polypill regimen. A consultation after the study will resolve recommendations for ongoing treatment.

Circadian misalignment disrupts REM sleep, a stage of sleep which is important for fear memory processing. The aim of this study is to explore whether the sleep aid melatonin, when administered prior to circadian misalignment, will rescue REM sleep and recover fear inhibition processes. This study will provide important insight into the relationship between REM sleep and processes critical for treatment and recovery from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

This is a cluster crossover trial to determine whether fluid therapy with a buffered salt solution (Plasmalyte-148) reduces the time to resolution of acidosis compared to 0.9% sodium chloride (saline) in critically ill patients presenting to the emergency department with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). • We hypothesise that the use of PL as fluid therapy in these patients will lead to earlier resolution of acidosis and avoidance of hyperchloraemia, thereby reducing morbidity and length of stay

When we eat may be just as important for health and well-being as what we eat. The overall aim of this observational study is to examine patterns of eating (i.e. frequency, timing and content of meals and snacks), physical activity, sleep and mood and how these behaviours interact in Australian adults aged 18 to 65 years. The lifestyle behaviours will be assessed using a Smartphone food diary and established questionnaires, and a detailed follow up (including objective measures of health outcomes) will be undertaken in a subgroup of participants. This project will provide us with important information that can be used to develop healthy eating messages.

Intubation speed by ‘experts’ in a simulated model of cardiac arrest with continuous chest compressions. This study will examine the ability of intubating specialists to follow current guidelines and intubate during continuous CPR, which is rarely seen in clinical practice. This is a manikin based study, with practicing anaesthetists as participants for an ideal model. Participants will use either a direct or videolaryngoscope to intubate, and will then use the alternate device in this crossover study.

The purpose of this study is to examine a new clinician administered care model addressing fear of cancer recurrence in breast cancer survivors. Who is it for? You may be eligible for this study if you are aged 18 or above and have undergone curative treatment for stage I to III breast cancer. Study details All participants in this study will partake in a 10 minute educational intervention which provides patients with advice regarding their fear of cancer recurrence. The program is delivered by their usual breast oncologist at a routine follow-up clinic. All participants will be asked to complete three questionnaires, one prior to the follow-up appointment, and again at 1 week and 3 months after the follow-up appointment. Additionally participants will be invited to participate in an interview about their experiences in participating in this program. It is hoped that this research provide some preliminary evidence that the intervention is effective in preventing the development of high fear-of-cancer-recurrence in breast cancer survivors.

Current treatment of heart attacks focuses on the large arteries of the heart where the blockages can be seen with injection of X­ray dye (contrast). However, the small arteries of the heart are increasingly recognised to play a key role in affecting the outcome of patients after heart attacks. The function of the small arteries of the heart may be worsened by heart attacks and by balloons and stenting procedures to unblock the main arteries. It can also be worsened by life style factors like smoking and high cholesterol. The index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) is a new measure and has been shown to be a highly precise and reliable method of assessing the function of the small arteries of the heart. However, it is unclear if this new measure applies to patients after non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS), which is the most common form of heart attacks presenting to hospitals. This study aims to use IMR to examine ways to improve function of the small arteries of the heart in patients after NSTE-­ACS. We plan to primarily examine the effects of 2 different blood thinners (anti-platelet agents), clopidogrel and ticagrelor, on the IMR after NSTE-ACS. Both drugs are approved treatments for NSTE­-ACS. All participants will receive standard medical care as determined by their treating doctors.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems experienced by children and adolescents. Children with hearing loss often experience greater anxiety symptoms than children without hearing loss. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has a strong evidence base for being efficacious and useful in treating anxiety in children. However, most children with anxiety do not engage in child-focused CBT or mental health treatment of any kind due to reasons such as financial cost and parental perceptions of their child being stigmatized by others. This has led to an examination of parent-focused interventions, such as Fear-Less Triple P, in reducing children’s anxiety as a way of addressing these barriers. There has, however, been no research into specifically examining parent-focused interventions in reducing anxiety in anxious children with hearing loss. Given this gap in the literature, the current research project aims to examine the efficacy of a parenting intervention (the Fear-Less Triple P workshop) with parents of anxious children and have hearing loss. A naturalistic waitlist group will be built into the study design to allow comparison of this group with the active Fear-Less workshop.