Assessment of Normal Value of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) Elastography in HIV Patients...
HIV InfectionThis is a prospective cohort single center study for assessment of normal value of acoustic radiation force impulse elastography and fibroscan in HIV patients without abnormal liver function and chronic liver disease.
Study Comparing Corpus Callosum Atrophy as a Marker of Later Development of Cognitive Impairment...
Multiple SclerosisCognitive ImpairmentThis study is a cross sectional study of patients diagnosed with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and RRMS, who will undergo a series of tests to assess cognitive impairment, fatigue severity and depressive symptoms. Cognitive impairment will be assessed with Multiple Sclerosis Inventory Cognition (MUSIC) and symbol digit modalities test (SDMT), fatigue severity will be measured with the Fatigue Scale for Motor and Cognitive Functions (FSMC) and depressive symptoms with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). All tests mentioned above are validated for MS patients. In the second step we will use our large longitudinal database of serial MRI examinations from which a linear measurement of CCI will be retrospectively calculated.
Antiphospholipid Antibodies and Early Severe Preeclampsia.
Severe PreeclampsiaAntiphospholipid SyndromeThe Antiphospholipid Syndrome is an immune disease where the presence of antibodies directed against cell membrane phospholipids (antiphospholipid antibodies) can cause an hypercoagulable state that causes thrombosis and obstetric complications (miscarriages, stillbirths). Since 1999 the Sapporo Criteria for Antiphospholipid Syndrome diagnosis includes the development of severe preeclampsia before 34 weeks of gestation, but this was done without solid evidence of a relation between the two. Our study will try to add information to this particular point.
Dual Point PET Scan in Early Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients With Bulky Lesions
Hodgkin's LymphomaTo assess specificity and overall accuracy of interim dual-point acquisition PET in predicting treatment outcome. The study is aimed at assessing the specificity of interim dual-point PET performed after 2 ABVD cycles to predict treatment outcome in early-stage Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients presenting bulky lesions at baseline.
Glycemic Response to Road Cycling in Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 DiabetesThe purpose of this study is to assess the glycemic response to cycling road races (using continuous glucose monitoring ) in elite athletes with type 1 diabetes and non-diabetic controls. The investigators will also assess the relationship between power/work during cycling (using a power meter) and the subject's glucose profile.
Health-Related Quality of Life and Disease-Related Costs: Comparison Between Ankylosing Spondylitis,...
Rheumatoid ArthritisSystemic Lupus Erythematosus1 moreAnkylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are the most common rheumatic diseases dealt with rheumatologists in Taiwan. In previous studies, the 3 diseases all have broad impacts on health-related quality of life of patients and drive enormous economic burden on patients and society. The objective of this study is to compare health-related quality of life and disease-related costs between patients with the 3 different diseases. We will invite at least 100 patients with AS, RA or SLE respectively who are regularly followed in the outpatient clinic of the Division of Rheumatology at Taichung Veterans General Hospital (VGHTC) to participate in the study. Patients who have cognitive impairment, who are older than 65 years old or younger than 18 years old, who have overlapping syndrome of any 2 of the 3 rheumatic diseases (eg. RA overlapping with SLE) or who have visited rheumatologists in the outpatient clinics at VGHTC for less than 4 times in 2008 will be excluded. Patients who agree to take part will attend a comprehensive clinical examination in the outpatient department. Patients will complete a questionaire including demographic and disease characteristics, and health-related quality of life at the time of survey. The questionaires about disease-related costs will be completed once per quarter throughout 2009. The four questionaires about costs will be given at the time of initial survey and will be returned by returned by mail or in the following outpatient clinics visits every 3 months in 2009. The result of this study will help patients to realize their own health-related quality of life and disease-related costs and help government in Taiwan to realize the socioeconomic burden of the 3 common rheumatic diseases and to allocate health care resources more properly in the future.
A Study Evaluating Hypotension and Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction in Multiple Myeloma (MM)...
Multiple MyelomaThe purpose of this study is to determine whether the orthostatic hypotension reported among subjects during bortezomib-containing regimen is caused by a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
Climatotherapy At The Dead Sea For Atopic Dermatitis
Atopic DermatitisThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the improvement in severity of Atopic Dermatitis and quality of life after 4 weeks of treatment in the Dead Sea.
Evaluation of Patient and Lesion Specific Prognostic Factors for Standard Radioimmunotherapy
Follicular LymphomaMERIT-NHL as an addendum to the International Registry of Radioimmunotherapy (RIT registry) pooling clinical data of patients who suffered from a non-Hodgkin´s lymphoma also includes the documentation of the respective FDG-PET and CT-image files in an online archive. Based on these documented clinical and imaging data, the MERIT study group centrally performs an intra- as well as interindividual evaluation of follicular CD20+ lymphoma lesions before and after radioimmunotherapy. According to this, the aim of the MERIT-NHL study is to prospectively identify yet unknown patient- and lesion specific prognostic factors predicting patient´s outcome in line with the therapeutic modality radioimmunotherapy.
Thromboembolic Complications Related to Asparaginase in Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia...
ThromboembolismAcute Lymphoblastic LeukemiaThe study will examine the prevalence of venous thromboembolism in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia treated in accordance with NOPHO ALL-2008. The investigators will prospectively study clinical symptomatic thromboses, asymptomatic central line-associated thromboses, and infections.