Active clinical trials for "Airway Remodeling"

Objective: to evaluate the effects of physiotherapy on the anteroposterior airway size in a group of bruxist children Question: Is a physiotherapeutic technique aiming at changing the head posture, effective to increase the anteroposterior dimensions of the upper airway in bruxist children? Hypothesis: The bruxist children treated with physiotherapy will present higher airway dimensions Design: randomized clinical trial with allocation and blinding of the examiners. Participants: 3 to 6 year old children with complete primary dentition, dental and skeletal class I occlusion. The participants were classified as bruxist according to the minimal criteria of the ICSD for bruxism. The children were randomized in an experimental (n=13) and a control (n=13) group. Intervention: A physiotherapeutic intervention using the Awareness through movement technique was applied to the children of the experimental group once a week, until 10 sessions were completed. Outcome measures: anteroposterior measurements of the nasopharynx, oropharynx and hypopharynx taken in a lateral cephalogram with standardized techniques.

In this study, the following subjects will be exposed to human rhinovirus (HRV): those with classification of mild-moderate asthma healthy control subjects. The investigators will study the kinetics of HRV-induced inflammatory and remodeling responses in a well characterized group of asthmatic subjects and compare these outcomes to those in a healthy, non-asthmatic control group.

Sedation is required in infants and children to successfully complete MRI while maintaining respiratory and hemodynamic stability. Limited access to the patient may pose a safety risk during MRI examination. Therefore, appropriate drugs need to be selected, administered, and titrated to achieve these objectives. Propofol is commonly used for sedation in children in the MRI setting because of its predictability, rapid onset, and offset of action. Dexmedetomidine has sedative and analgesic properties without affecting cardiovascular and respiratory stability. The rationale of this research is to assess the effect of these drugs on the upper airway and validate their use in children with upper airway disorders.

The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between aging and morphological changes in the lung. 120 consecutive healthy volunteers over 60 years will be enrolled for this trial.

ProSeal laryngeal mask airway (PLMA) has become an effective alternative to tracheal tube for gaining airway access and for the institution and maintenance of positive pressure ventilation (PPV) in patients undergoing short-to-moderate duration (20-60 minutes) surgery under GA. The PLMA is the more preferred supra-glottic airway access device for advantages therein over the other SGA's, including having an option of dedicated introducer-tool (ease of placement), availability of esophageal opening (allows regurgitated fluid to bypass the airway), and reinforced main body tube (prevents luminal compression). Additionally, as compared to other supra-glottic airway devices, the PLMA device has been found to be more consistent in providing PPV to patients' lungs during GA. However, not uncommonly, PLMA itself is not consistent in maintaining trouble-free PPV owing to the vulnerability to position change, especially secondary to the rhythmic movement posited by back pressure during PPV. This movement vulnerability induced by PPV may be because of the size/shape of PLMA cuff that does fit upon placement but gets vulnerable to undue movement during PPV. We hypothesize that keeping the introducer-tool in position after insertion of PLMA result in greater stabilization of PLMA in position by minimizing the movement that occurs due to back-pressure effect on the cuff during positive pressure ventilation. This randomized study intends to evaluate whether keeping the introducer-tool in position (after PLMA insertion) accords greater positional stabilization to the PLMA and thereby offers greater efficacy for achieving adequate pressure control ventilation in paralyzed anesthetized adults undergoing elective surgery.

Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the lung characterized by intermittent airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, presence of activated inflammatory cells, inflammatory mediators, and airway structural changes. Airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells actively participate in the remodelling and inflammatory processes through proliferation, release of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Eosinophils as essential inflammatory cells may be of importance in ASM remodelling. It is known that eosinophil induces ASM cells proliferation via the secretion of cysteinyl leukotrienes in asthmatics. However there is a possible direct eosinophil-ASM cells functional interaction by adhesion processes. It has been shown that integrins modulate ASM proliferation and contractile protein expression demonstrating allergen-induced ASM remodelling in an animal model of allergic asthma. Wingless/integrase-1 (WNT) signaling regulates not only a wide range of developmental processes, but its aberrant activation can lead to disease. Recently, it was confirmed that genes polymorphisms in the WNT signaling pathway are associated with impaired lung function in childhood asthma. It was also found for the first time a relevant role of noncanonical WNT signaling in TGFβ-induced ECM expression by ASM cells and identified WNT-5A is the most abundant WNT ligand with increased expression in asthmatics. It demonstrates that WNT-5A could contribute to remodelling of the airways. Unfortunately, the effect of eosinophil on WNT secretion by ASM cells at present is unknown. Despite the widely acknowledged significance of eosinophils in asthma pathogenesis, the mechanism of eosinophil induced ASM remodelling is unsolved.

Chronic airway changes, such as smooth muscle hypertrophy/hyperplasia, reticular basement membrane (RBM) thickening, goblet cells hyperplasia characterize severe asthma. Chronic inflammation, and especially eosinophilia and T2 cytokines are involved in these structural changes. The aim of this prospective observational study is to assess airway changes, assessed by bronchial biopsies before treatment, then after 6 months and 12 months, induced by mepolizumab in 40 severe asthma patients who will receive the treatment as part of their standard care. Changes in RBM thickening, in airway smooth muscle (ASM) area, in the number of PGP9 sections will be assessed on bronchial biopsies after 6 months and 12 months of mepolizumab treatment. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) levels of inflammatory and remodeling mediators and of extra-cellular matrix (ECM) components will be measured after 6 months and 12 months of mepolizumab treatment. Relationship between clinical response to mepolizumab and remodeling changes after 6 months and 12 months will be assessed.

There are two aims for this study. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of body weight and hormones on airway fibrosis (scarring) and lung function in obese & lean asthma subjects compared to obese & lean non-asthma subjects (Aim 1). And in obese subjects with asthma undergoing bariatric surgery compared to obese non-asthma subjects undergoing bariatric surgery (Aim 2).

CT studies considering bronchial dimensions in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were conducted without control of bronchodilation. Some data however suggest that total lung capacity (CT scan is performed after full inspiration) is increased in individuals affected by chronic or spontaneous bronchoconstriction and may decrease after bronchodilatation. Furthermore, no study has assessed the effect of bronchodilation on CT scans parameters reflecting airway remodelling and emphysema extent in COPD patients. This is a prospective study whose purpose is to assess the effect of bronchodilation on lung CT scan and pulmonary function testing (PFT) in COPD patients.

Asthma is a major noncommunicable chronic inflammatory disorder which is characterized by airway inflammation and related to pathological modifications of the bronchial wall structure so called airway remodeling. Airway remodeling seen in asthma is mainly described by epithelial changes, subepithelial fibrosis, increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass, decreased distance between ASM and epithelium, mucous gland and goblet cell hyperplasia, vascular changes and edema. Near these well known pathophysiological changes of the airways, the extracellular matrix (ECM) can be distinguished as a new important factor included in development of airway remodeling in asthma.