Active clinical trials for "Cholestasis"

The purpose of this prospective study is to compare the diagnostic utility of two techniques (brush cytology + FISH and brush cytology + free DNA analysis) in the diagnosis of biliary strictures. Histologic diagnosis (biopsies) in conjunction with clinical and/or imaging follow-up will serve as the gold standard for diagnosis of malignancy. In order to do this the investigators will ask study participants to have a small volume of fluid obtained from the bile duct sent for additional testing at RedPATH. In some patients additional brushings will be obtained for FISH testing (this adds <2 minutes to ERCP and only associated risk is increased procedure duration). The investigators hypothesize that the use of cytology +DNA analysis has a higher sensitivity and accuracy when compared to cytology +FISH in patients with biliary strictures. Primary aim: To compare the sensitivity and accuracy of the two techniques (brush cytology + FISH and brush cytology + free DNA analysis). Histologic diagnosis (histology from biopsy or cytology for fine needle aspiration) in conjunction with clinical and/or imaging follow-up will serve as the gold standard for diagnosis of malignancy. Secondary aims: To evaluate the diagnostic yield of malignancy when all three techniques (cytology, FISH and DNA analysis) are used. To evaluate the added value of biliary forceps biopsies, when used in conjunction with cytology, FISH and DNA analysis.

The overall purpose of this study is to determine if replacing standard soybean oil based fat emulsions with Omegaven®, a fish oil based fat emulsion, can reverse or prevent the progression of parenteral nutrition associated cholestasis. It is a compassionate use protocol for patients who already have significant cholestasis related to parenteral nutrition.

This is a clinical study designed to evaluate the safety and benefit of a fish oil based fat emulsion in the treatment of liver disease associated with prolonged use of intravenous nutrition.

The management of biliary strictures depends on their correct pre-operative evaluation which remains challenging. Despite the emerging multitudes of new diagnostic opportunities- modalities we have today, there is still a large number of biliary stenosis misdiagnosed with a profound negative impact on the patients´ outcome. The study aims to proove the feasibility and to evaluate the impact of Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization (FISH) on the tissue diagnostic of biliary strictures.

Many studies have attempted to find the predictors of adverse neonatal outcome in women with Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy(ICP).Serum total bile acid level exceeding 40 µmol/L has been associated with increased risk of meconium staining, low Apgar scores, preterm delivery, and stillbirth.Other predictors such as level of transaminases, history of cholelithiasis, and hepatitis virus infection have been studied but the results are inconclusive.A more comprehensive investigation involving multiple neonatal outcomes and a wide variety of outcome predictors is needed in order to establish guidelines for optimal timing of delivery in pregnancies complicated by ICP. The aim of our study was to evaluate wide variety of predictors of adverse neonatal outcomes in a large cohort of women with ICP .

This protocol involves the compassionate use of intravenous fish oil infusion, Omegaven. The protocol involves infants and children with parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease to enable the reversal of elevated serum liver enzymes and direct bilirubin (cholestasis).

While fish-oil lipid emulsions have shown a benefit to the treatment of parenteral nutrition (PN)-associated cholestasis, the dose is limited to 1 g/kg/day. Similarly, in early PN-associated cholestasis the dose of soy-based lipid is limited to 1 g/kg/day. Often the calories that are lost from this relative decreased dose of lipids can be provided by adjusting the dextrose content of the PN solution and providing a higher glucose infusion rate. In some cases, this is not tolerated or even with maximizing this strategy, growth is inadequate. Inadequate growth is a direct cause of poor outcomes including poorer neurological outcome, failure to be able to stop mechanical ventilation and poorer growth of their often already damaged intestine. These outcomes can lead to severe disability and death. Therefore, infants receiving only 1 g/kg/day of lipids who are not adequately growing must have a greater intake of lipids to meet their needs for weight, length, and head circumference growth. SMOFlipid (Fresenius Kabi, Bad Homburg, Germany) contains a mixture of 4 different lipid sources: soybean oil providing essential fatty acids, olive oil rich in monounsaturated fatty acids which are less susceptible to lipid peroxidation than polyunsaturated fatty acids, medium-chain triglycerides showing a faster metabolic clearance than long-chain triglycerides, and fish oil for the supply of omega-3 fatty acids. It is safe to give in what is the usual dose for lipid therapy in neonates of 3 g/kg/day, rather than being limited to 1 g/kg/day as we do with cholestatic infants receiving Omegaven or soy lipids. Because this product includes both omega-6 and omega-3 lipids, it provides the benefits of the omega-3s for the liver and provides more than enough omega-6s to meet essential fatty acid requirements. Its use in situations in which growth is inadequate in babies who must be restricted to 1 g/kg/day can be expected to improve their growth and likely markedly increase their chances of both a good neurological outcome and survival. Purpose: We want to find out if this new intravenous fat mixture (SMOFlipid) will help promote good growth while reducing the severity (or seriousness) of liver disease or help put an end to liver disease in infants.

Biliary strictures present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to clinicians due to unsatisfied accuracy of sampling modality. The major problem is very difficult to discern malignant from non-malignant strictures, such as patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). With the poor prognosis and high mortality rate of advanced stage of hepatopancreaticobiliary malignancies, early and accurate diagnosis impacts patients' outcome and possible surgical candidacy. Therefore, a pre-operative determination of malignancy to help plan appropriate treatment is highly desirable. Before 2000s, several diagnostic modalities, including laboratory tests, ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT) scan, cholangiography by percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography endoscopic (PTC) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and brushing cytology disclosed 13% to 24% false positive rate for suspicious malignant hilar strictures. Compared to recent studies, ERCP brushings still suffer from low sensitivity (41.6% ± 3.2% (99% CI)) and negative predictive value (58.0% ± 3.2% (99% CI)). In order to increase diagnostic accuracy, at least two sampling methods, including brushing cytology, biopsy, and fine-needle aspiration is therefore recommended. One article showed multimodal tissue-sampling (Brushing + Biopsy + Fine-needle aspiration) increased the sensitivity for diagnosis of malignant biliary stricture to 62%. However, no any literature demonstrate the best sequence of combined sampling modalities to yield the highest diagnostic accuracy. Besides, the role of stricture dilation before or after different tissue sampling modality is still uncertain. In this study, the investigators want to compare stricture dilation before or after multimodal tissue-sampling, including brush cytology, intraductal suction and forceps biopsy for the diagnosis of malignant biliary stricture and also assess which kind of the sequence of combined tissue-sampling modalities could offer the highest diagnostic accuracy.

A compassionate use protocol to provide Omegaven to pediatric patients with parenteral nutrition (PN) dependence and parenteral nutrition associated liver disease (PNALD).

Cases with extrahepatic cholestasis are common and faced during day to day clinical practice, however reaching the final etiology is sometimes challenging and needs investigations which are usually expensive, may carry hazards to the patients, or inaccessible so we are in need for a method which is easily available, affordable and safe for aiding in the differential diagnosis of extrahepatic cholestasis. our study aiming to evaluate the role of complete blood count in predicting the etiology of extrahepatic cholestasis.