Active clinical trials for "Immune System Diseases"

Multicenter, prospective, observational study for evaluating if circulant rheumatoid factor, cyclic citrullinated anti-peptide anti-bodies and albumin can be used as potential predictors in the response to the treatment with anti-TNF in patients with rheumatoid arthritis after 24 weeks of treatment.

HLA-DRB1 * Gene and some genes involved in inflammation and immunity (IL-7R, GPC5, CTSS) have been linked to risk of MS and the response to treatment with immunomodulators. This research aims to estimate the risk that confers some variations in the sequence of these genes.

This study aims to identify and validate the gene expression differentials of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and differential inflammation profiles and other aspects in classic asthma, cough-variant asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis.

The multicenter registry of patients with severe cutaneous adverse reactions among tertiary medical institutes in Thailand to study clinical characteristics, etiologies, therapeutic outcomes, quality of life, and the values of in vitro drug allergy diagnosis for the confirmation of the causative drugs

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a major global health issue with up to 40 million people infected worldwide. Due to highly active antiretroviral therapy, mortality related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been reducing in the last decades. However, liver disease remains as an important cause of severe complications and death. Hepatic fibrosis progression is the main responsible for liver-related outcomes in HIV-positive patients. Co-infection by hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly prevalence in HIV patients. Chronic viral co-infection induces faster liver fibrosis progression compared to mono-infected HIV. However, published data have been reporting presence of significant liver fibrosis in HIV without HBV or HCV infection. This might be related to direct action of HIV in hepatocytes or association with others factors, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is associated with metabolic factors, such as obesity and type-2 diabetes mellitus. However, antiretroviral drugs may induce abnormal body fat distribution (lipodistrophy) and insulin resistance playing an important role on this process. Liver biopsy has been historically considered as the gold standard to evaluate liver injury. However, this painful method presents several limitations. Therefore, several non-invasive methods for estimation of liver fibrosis, such as biomarkers (APRI, FIB-4, FibroTest and FibroMeter) and transient elastography by Fibroscan, have been developed as an alternative to liver biopsy. The diagnostic performance and prognostic value of biomarkers and transient elastography have been validated in patients with chronic liver diseases. However, few data are available in HIV patients, especially in those without chronic viral co-infection. Therefore, patients, medical doctors and scientific community will be beneficiated by the future application of non-invasive methods for estimation of liver injury in clinical practice in HIV patients.

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It is defined by the history of respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough that vary over time and in intensity, together with variable expiatory airflow limitation. This definition was reached by consensus, based on consideration of the characteristics that are typical of asthma and that distinguish it from other respiratory conditions . Asthma is a problem worldwide, with an estimated 300 million affected individuals .It appears that the global prevalence of asthma ranges from 1% to 18% of the population in different countries .

The target population for this project will be men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) at high risk of HIV acquisition

According to the most recent guidelines, total-body imaging techniques are an indispensable element in the staging and post-treatment re-evaluation in patients with lymphoma. Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) is the gold-standard for the assessment of the disease in these patients. The use of alternative methods, without radiation, such as whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), could be a valid alternative; this would result an advantage, considering the young age of the majority of patients at diagnosis and the need to undergo to serial assessments. The recent introduction of combined PET total body MRI (PET/MRI) offers the possibility to integrate morphological information with the high resolution of MRI with the metabolic activity of PET, through the uptake of FDG, for a more accurate definition of the extent of disease in patients with lymphoma.

This study forms an initial phase of work aimed at developing a learning health system (LHS), whereby data relating to asthma is extracted from patient electronic health records (EHRs) across Scotland, analysed to explore variations in clinical practice and then shared with general practices to highlight any improvements that can be made so that they can better support people with asthma. If successful, the investigators hope to progress to the main quality improvement phase involving an increased number of practices and then incrementally build this up to cover the whole of Scotland.

Several recent studies have shown an increase in the signal intensity of the unenhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance images in the brain of patients with normal renal functions and a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. This hyper-intensity was specifically related to an accumulation of gadolinium based contrast agent. These studies were mainly conducted in patients with primary or secondary brain tumor. Multiple sclerosis is a particular model since it involves patients with a break of the blood-brain barrier, a long life expectancy, and who received many injections of contrast enhancing agents. In this context, it appears fundamental to know whether contrast agents accumulate in the brain for this disease. The French Observatory of Multiple Sclerosis is particularly suited to test this hypothesis, with homogeneous MRI data over several centers in France, and optimized sequences of 3D-T1 without injection. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accumulation of two commonly used gadolinium based contrast materials (Dotarem and Multihance) in patients with multiple sclerosis, who received at least 5 injection of exclusively one of these contrast material.