Active clinical trials for "Respiratory Tract (Lung and Bronchial) Diseases"

Dyspnea (breathlessness) on exertion is the most prevalent and distressing symptom of heart failure (HF). Nevertheless, the mechanisms of dyspnea in HF remain poorly understood. Thus, the general aim of this pilot study is to advance our understanding of the mechanisms of activity-related dyspnea in patients with HF. Studies will be performed in patients with mild, moderate and severe HF (n=24) as well as in healthy, age- and sex-matched control subjects (n=8). We will test the hypothesis that the increased prevalence and severity of activity-related dyspnea in HF reflects the interaction between an exaggerated drive to breathe and the inability of the respiratory system to meet this increased demand. Detailed physiological and perceptual responses to bicycle exercise will be examined and compared, first, between HF patients and healthy control subjects and, second, across patients with varying degrees of HF severity. The results from this preliminary study will be used to help design future studies in this patient population.

To investigate the possible mechanisms of pulmonary and systemic permeability change including cytokine, extravascular lung water index (EVLWI), and oxygenation parameters in patients with sepsis related acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

The pathophysiology of the adrenal insufficiency of patients with critical diseases remains unclear. In a prior exploratory study investigating patients with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the investigators demonstrated a highly significant correlation between the expression level of Defensin-alpha 4 (DEFA4) mRNA in blood and the adrenal function assessed via low-dose ACTH tests. The aim of this prospective study is to demonstrate that DEFA4 measured both at the mRNA level (RT-PCR) and at the protein level (Western blot/Elisa) is a reliable biomarker for the prediction of adrenal insufficiency in inflammatory lung diseases (patients with COPD and pneumonia).

We use a new technology (Nexfin from BMEYE-Inventive Hemodynamics) to monitor Cardiac Output, Blood Pressure, Fluid Responsiveness, Pulse Oximetry, Hemoglobin Concentration, Oxygen Delivery in Climbers during their process of acclimatization on a expedition to Mount Aconcagua.

This is a pilot study that aims to develop a lung cancer screening program for workers in British Columbia, Canada exposed to asbestos who are at risk of developing lung cancer/pleural mesothelioma. This is high risk population is at of respiratory system diseases as a result of their occupational exposures. Additionally, knowledge garnered from this study will allow us to develop other studies that will further our understanding of asbestos related lung cancer and mesothelioma.

40% of patients with Sleep Disorder Breathing (SDB) appearing during the acute phase of stroke show a respiratory pattern characterized by central apnoeas and/or periodic breathing. Clinical studies conducted in patients with hearth failure and central apnoeas have demonstrated the pathogenetic central role of hypersensitivity of central and peripheral chemoreceptors in association with baroreflex hypersensitivity, expression of hyperactivity of sympathetic nervous system. The joint study of chemoreflexes and baroreflexes in patients with central apneas during the acute and subacute phase of ischemic stroke represents, to our knowledge, a novelty in literature, that should supply useful elements to clarify the pathogenesis and the clinical and prognostic significance of these disorders. Investigators expect a difference in the analysis of the baroreflexes and chemoreflexes in patients with ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) and central apnoeas than patients with ischemic stroke not accompanied by respiratory problems and compared with healthy controls.

The aim of this study is to estimate the burden of disease due to pneumococci, other bacteria and viruses in the African meningitis belt prior to pneumococcal conjugate vaccine introduction and to estimate the population impact of the vaccine after its implementation in 2014. In a defined population of a sanitary district in northern Togo, during the period 2010 to 2017, investigators enroll patients of all ages with suspected pneumonia requiring hospitalization or suspected bacterial meningitis. Patients are evaluated by bacteriology and molecular biology techniques on blood, cerebro-spinal fluid, nasal aspirates and by chest X-ray.

The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the occurrence of chronic bronchitis or emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways narrow over time. This limits airflow to and from the lungs, causing shortness of breath (dyspnoea). In clinical practice, COPD is defined by its characteristic airflow limitation on lung function tests. In contrast to asthma, this limitation is poorly reversible and usually gets increasingly worse over time. The COPD registry is a non-interventional multicentre observational prospective database focusing on the collection and analysis of data on real mortality and morbidity in COPD population of the Czech Republic population of COPD patients. Monitoring is done at the occasion of regular check-ups, followed by retrospective search of data in the documentation, and a record into the registry. The aim of Czech National Research Database of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is to establish the clinical course of severe forms of COPD, establish the cause for deterioration of clinical status of our patients and describe the progression of COPD to death. The registry fulfils general objectives of health registries such as monitoring of causes, development, treatment and consequences of a severe disorder, including economic and social impacts. Statistical and scientific analyses of the registry data are focused, in particular, on the assessment of health determiners of the selected patient cohort with the aim to improve health status of the patients.

A prospective observational multi-centre study for the validation of the ApneaScan algorithm (integrated in ICD devices (with or without cardiac resynchronization therapy function) of the "Incepta" series for the screening of sleep disordered breathing in patients with stable symptomatic chronic heart failure, using portable polygraphy monitoring device ("Embletta Gold") as reference for the Apnea-Hypopnea-Index (AHI). Secondary objectives are the detection of severe sleep disordered breathing in patients with clinically indicated in-laboratory polysomnography, as well as correlations of the AHI detected by ApneaScan with other clinical endpoints like mortality, hospitalization, atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmia.

Chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) is a worldwide leading and still increasing cause of chronic morbidity and mortality. The important issue of COPD is its delayed diagnosis. Previous studies have found that accelerated loss of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1.0) in an individual is considered an indicator of developing COPD. This functional predictive system, due to lower sensitivity, is very difficult to discover high-risk population and earlier stage of the disease. The inflammation occurs earlier than the lung function impairment. Therefore, early detection of the inflammation may theoretically predict the occurrence of COPD and thus may guide early intervention. Proteomics techniques and protein chip techniques provides us high throughput screening method to figure out characteristic inflammatory or metabolic markers of a diseases. It can be used for searching the biomarkers relating to lung function loss. EBC is collected from exhaled gas and is a good non-invasive method for exploring the pathologic process of the airways. Thus we designed this study to identify potential biomarkers associated with rapid lung function decline. This study is divided into two parts: 1) screening potential biomarkers between stable COPD and healthy individuals; 2) verifying significant biomarkers of first part in a community-based nested case-control population for 2 years.