Active clinical trials for "Asthma"

Asthma currently affects 358 million individuals worldwide, posing a substantial burden on health care systems. In particular patients with severe asthma have higher morbidity, mortality and asthma-related costs than non-severe patients. The management of severe asthma is still an unmet need and improving the disease-related knowledge is important to optimize care pathways. Registries provide an opportunity to phenotypically describe a cohort of patients in real-world settings. We hypothesize whether patient profiling based on data in the Portuguese Severe Asthma Registry (RAG - Registo de Asma Grave) may contribute to identify predictors of disease control and therapeutic response. This study aims to (Coprimary Objectives): 1) Identify multidimensional phenotypes associated with health outcomes and therapeutic responses, based on demographic characteristics, clinical features and biomarkers; 2) Explore novel composite endpoint measures of disease control and evaluate its association with the different severe asthma profiles. This is a cross-sectional, observational, multicenter, real-world study. The study population are the patients of all ages with severe asthma included in the RAG, until Dec 2021. It is estimated that 150 patients will be enrolled, in approximately 12 sites throughout Portugal, which is expected to be a representative sample of Portuguese patients with severe asthma. Eligible patients will be invited to integrate RAG by clinicians at scheduled clinic appointments. The criteria for patients' inclusion in the RAG is based on the definition of Severe Asthma by GINA guidelines, based on step of treatment, adherence and comorbidities management. An additional inclusion criterion is the patient's signed consent to have his/her data included in the registry. The main data source of this project is the data collected by RAG, an electronic Case Report Form. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used to characterize and compare the characteristics across different sub-groups. Advanced data-driven statistical methods, such clustering analysis and latent class analysis, will be used for phenotype classification. Multivariate logistic regression modelling and Classification and Regression Tree analysis will be considered. To address the potential limitations, the RAG has database specifications concerning data definitions and parameters and data validation rules enabling collection of data in the same manner for every patient, with specific and consistent data definitions. To minimize errors related to data completeness and consistency, several validation rules have been implemented and periodic data audits are planned. To avoid unnecessary burden within the clinical workflow, data will be collected at the time of routine medical appointments by the clinician and data entry personnel will assist on this task.

Severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) is associated with poor disease control and compromised health-related quality of life (HRQoL), leading to a substantial psychosocial and economic disease burden. Benralizumab (Fasenra®), an interleukin (IL)-5-alpha receptor monoclonal antibody, is approved as an add-on maintenance treatment for SEA. This study aims at collecting real-world data that extend beyond the clinical effectiveness of benralizumab to the participant-reported impact of treatment on their HRQoL, sleep quality, depression, anxiety, work productivity and activity impairment, but also on treatment effectiveness. Recent technological advances in portable spirometers and wearable activity trackers (WAT) to increase physical activity for participants with asthma, even for older participants, allow this study to collect data on lung function parameters and physical activity from such devices for the first time at a country level in Greece. Using a multi-aspect approach, this study will generate real-world evidence on a broad range of both well-established clinical and novel patient-centered outcomes which are critical to the assessment of the therapeutic benefit both from the physician's and the participant's perspective. All main study outcomes will be examined at various timepoints throughout the course of the 48-week observation period, starting as early as 4 weeks after treatment initiation, thus enabling the identification of 'early' treatment responders with a closer focus on patients' physical and psychological well-being and HRQoL in addition to asthma control and lung function metrics.

This study aims to simulate the deposition of aerosol drugs within the airways of asthma and COPD patients based on realistic breathing patterns measured at different pulmonology centers. Further goal of the study is to find correlations between the amount of drug depositing in the lungs and the measured breathing parameters, as well as disease status and demographic data. The results of the study will be part of a major objective targeting the optimization and personalization of aerosol drug therapy.

The objective of the study is to establish the predictive value of early blood gene expression signature of Benralizumab response associated with a significant reduction of the number of exacerbations in treated severe asthmatic patients. This trial is a French, multicenter and no-randomized trial. Patients enrolled will be clinically followed for 16 months (the treatment period: 12 months and 1 month follow-up; 6 clinical visit on site and in phone call at 13 months)

The purpose of this study is to assess the evolution of disease control, health-related quality of life, and the risk of severe asthma exacerbations in children and adolescents with persistent asthma in Spain at short, mid and long-term follow-up. Patient-reported information in this project is collected by computer assisted telephone interviews (CATI) and a mobile application (ARCA App).

Despite a strong evidence-base for the efficacy of multilevel programs in reducing asthma symptoms among low-income preschool minority children, gaps remain in our understanding of how to best translate and scale up these efficacious interventions into sustainable programs that reduce known asthma health disparities. Head Start (HS) serves over one million low income children in the US each year by focusing on early learning, physical health, and family engagement. HS is committed to implementing evidence based programs to promote overall child well-being, and is focused on addressing asthma symptoms due to the deleterious impact on school absences and child development. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of a multi-level staff and family education program (ABC Asthma) that significantly reduced asthma symptoms and courses of oral corticosteroids. However, these interventions are not successfully integrated within community organizations for long-term sustainability. It is unknown how to best scale up and implement these evidence based asthma interventions into low resource community organizations that serve children at risk. Implementation strategies are frequently developed atheoretically and may not be tailored to the setting. The overall purpose of this project is to inform best practices of implementation of an asthma education program by 1) systematically evaluating the use of intervention mapping to develop a tailored implementation strategy in partnership with Head Start stakeholders, 2) examining both staff and organizational level determinants associated with implementation of ABC Asthma, and 3) evaluating the success of tailored implementation strategies on implementation outcomes and school absences and other health outcomes. The YMCA of Central Maryland have enthusiastically agreed to implement the Maryland ABC HS Asthma within 40 sites in four communities: Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and Prince George's County.

The bulk of the morbidity and mortality related to asthma is during periods of acutely increased symptomatology called 'exacerbations'. Roughly half of asthma sufferers experience such an exacerbation each year. Most of these events are triggered by viral infections, usually the common cold virus (rhinovirus). A key part of the body's defence against viral infections is to produce antiviral proteins called 'interferons', which have a myriad of effects to stop viruses. Previous work on cells taken from volunteers with asthma and healthy controls and infected with rhinovirus in the lab suggests interferon production is impaired in asthma. However when human volunteers with asthma are infected with rhinovirus, high levels of interferon are found a few days later - along with high numbers of virus. Whether the high virus numbers are the result of an initially weak interferon response, with subsequently unchecked viral replication leading to exaggerated interferon levels, is unknown as no one has measured interferons early in infection. By infecting volunteers with asthma and healthy controls with rhinovirus at a known time, only done in a handful of centres worldwide, we will be able to measure interferons within hours of infection and well before symptoms develop.

Acute exacerbation of asthma represents an acute or sub-acute worsening in symptoms and lung function in patients with asthma. It is characterized by a progressive increase in symptoms of shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, or chest tightness. It is a common diagnosis in patients admitted in an Emergency Department for dyspnoea. Near 10 to 15% of respiratory symptoms in an ED are related to acute exacerbation of asthma. Treatment of acute exacerbation of asthma associates nebulized beta-2 agonist adrenergic with or without ipratropium bromide, oral corticosteroids and controlled oxygen therapy to maintain SpO2 between 93 and 95%. Treatment in the ED did not vary during last years, including for patients with a lack of efficacy after first line treatment, and exacerbation are always associated with a hospitalisation in 40% of adult patients and with mortality in 1% of hospitalized patients. Vibrating mesh nebulizers are devices using vibration to push drug through the mesh, resulting in the drug nebulization. Vibrating mesh nebulizers have been associated with better pulmonary drug delivery than jet-nebulizers, provide faster improvement in peak expiratory flow and have been associated in retrospective studies with patient prognosis, particularly in terms of throughput time and need for hospitalisation. However, no studies have prospectively compared nebulisation with a vibrating membrane device with standard nebulisation in patients with asthma exacerbation on clinically relevant criteria. Nebulisation with a vibrating membrane device may potentiate the clinical efficacy of short-acting bronchodilators, result in faster and more effective clinical improvement, and be associated with improved short- and medium-term patient outcomes. High-flow nasal cannula heated, and humidified oxygen (HNFO) is a ventilatory support which is commonly used for the management of acute respiratory failure for acute respiratory failure in intensive care units and in emergency departments. HFNO delivers high fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2), generates a low level of positive pressure and provides washout of dead space in the upper airways, thereby improving mechanical pulmonary properties and unloading inspiratory muscles during ARF. Consequently, HFNO is associated with a decrease in the work of breathing. During asthma exacerbation, HFNO was associated with an improvement in the dyspnea level and in the respiratory rate compared with conventional oxygen therapy. However, HFNO has never been assessed in association with nebulized beta-2 adrenergic agonist. To resume, beta-2 adrenergic agonist nebulization with a vibrating mesh nebulizer seems effective, especially compared to standard jet nebulization. In addition, HFNO is a technique that appears to be suitable for the pathophysiological conditions of chronic reversible respiratory failure, and can be used during exacerbations of asthmatic disease. The high flow rate of gas makes it possible to control the FiO2 in order to avoid hyperoxia, to generate a PEEP effect, to reduce the patient's work of breathing and the respiratory resistance, and to avoid the re-inhalation of CO2 by a dead space wash-out. In the EOLE study, the investigators propose to compare three therapeutic management strategies. One standard strategy (nebulisation with a jet-nebulizer), and two experimental strategies (nebulisation with a vibrating mesh device, and nebulisation with a vibrating mesh device in association with HFNO). The investigators hypothesise that bronchodilator nebulization with a vibrating mesh nebulizer is more effective than jet-nebulizers for the management of patients admitted for asthma exacerbation and non-responders or with lack to efficacy to initial treatment. Furthermore, the investigators also hypothesise that the addition of the physiological effects of HFNO may enhance the efficacy of the treatment. The therapeutic effects of nebulisation with a vibrating membrane device alone or with the addition of the physiological effects of HFNO could constitute a new approach to the management of asthma patients, particularly in patients who are insufficiently responsive or non-respondent to initial treatment.

The database will contain a wide range of demographic, clinical, radiological, laboratory, functional, microbiological, treatment, and clinical outcomes data on adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma enrolled during stable state with annual follow-up (either one or two-year follow up). Primary Objective: To collect clinical (including quality of life measurements), laboratory (including non-invasive measurement of biomarkers), microbiological, radiological, functional, treatment variables and clinical outcomes, in adult patients with either asthma or COPD during stable state. Secondary Objectives: To identify genetic and other omics patterns to develop phenotype handprints for adults with either asthma or COPD. To characterize the airways microbiome in stable patients with either asthma or COPD and identify correlation with clinical phenotypes and/or endotypes.

This trial aims to evaluate novel diagnostic technologies for asthma in 3 different pathways providing the necessary evidence-base to allow adoption into clinical practice: Pathway 1 evaluates whether the technology can distinguish between people with asthma and healthy volunteers, and other respiratory conditions in a well characterised secondary-care population and whether the parameters they measure correlate with the current standard diagnostic tests; Pathway 2 assesses whether the technology can accurately diagnose asthma (either independently or alongside current diagnostic tests) in a primary care population of patients where there is a clinical suspicion of asthma; Pathway 3 explores the ability of the technology to identify clinically important phenotypic characteristics which are difficult to measure in primary care and/or significantly impact on patient management and treatment The novel technology and devices will be entered into the pathway most suited to their stage of development, with this study design also allowing information collected for participants with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma in pathways 1 or 2 to be included in pathway 3. Participants will undergo the investigations currently used to diagnose asthma as well as using the novel devices being investigated in the relevant pathway.