Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacodynamics of SYNB1020
CirrhosisThis Phase 1b/2a, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacodynamics of SYNB1020 in hepatic insufficiency and cirrhosis patients with hyperammonemia, with dosing of the investigational medicinal product (IMP) administered in an inpatient unit and subsequent outpatient follow-up for SYNB1020 clearance in two study parts.
BRIDGE Device for Post-operative Pain Control
Liver FailureLiver Diseases8 moreAuricular neurostimulation is a potential novel and non-invasive method of pain control following liver transplantation in a growing patient population with the probability of significant impact on economics and morbidity. The investigators propose a pilot study to investigate the effects of auricular neurostimulation in patients receiving a liver transplantation. The investigator will investigate the effects of auricular neurostimulation with this novel device and compare it to the current standard of care for pain management following liver transplantation.
Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Zambia
HBVFibrosis7 moreChronic hepatitis B virus infection is a common condition in Zambia. Among Zambian blood donors, up to 8% are chronically infected with HBV. Despite the burden, awareness of HBV is low in Zambia and the Ministry of Health is in early stages of development of guidelines for HBV screening, treatment, and prevention. The purpose of this clinical cohort study is to characterize the clinical features of chronic HBV infection at UTH and describe treatment and care outcomes. The investigators will enroll 500 adults and follow the cohort for up to 5 years to assess short and long-term viral, serologic, and liver outcomes such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Prediction by Ultrasound of the Risk of Hepatic Cirrhosis in Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic FibrosisPancreatic InsufficiencyThe specific aims for this study are: To determine if sonographic findings predict the risk of progression of liver disease to cirrhosis by comparing cystic fibrosis subjects with heterogeneous echogenicity pattern on ultrasound to those with normal echogenicity pattern on ultrasound To develop a database and biorepository of serum, plasma, urine and DNA to aid the investigations in ascertaining the mechanisms, consequences, genetic risk factors and biomarkers for the development of cirrhosis To determine if there are differences in health related quality of life, pulmonary or nutritional status in children with cystic fibrosis who have a heterogeneous echo pattern on ultrasound compared to those who have a normal echo pattern on ultrasound To determine if Doppler velocity measurements of hepatic and splenic vessels predict an increased risk for the development of cirrhosis. To determine if cirrhosis on ultrasound progresses to portal hypertension during the study period To determine if homogeneous liver progresses to either cirrhosis or heterogeneous liver. To determine the frequency of complications of portal hypertension during follow up in those identified with cirrhosis by year 6 of the study
Effect of Lactose in Patients With Chronic Liver Disease and Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy
Hepatic EncephalopathyLiver CirrhosisTwo groups of patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy will be studied. The treatment group (n=17) will receive whole milk (24 g lactose) and the control group (n=17) will receive "lactose-free" milk (3.5 g of lactose) two times a day for 21 days. Clinical history, nutritional assessment, biochemical studies, psychometric tests, critical flicker frequency and a quality of life questionnaire will be performed. The patient will be assessed weekly 21 days. An external monitor will control the randomization process in order to allocate the patients into both study group and will not share the assignation codes with anyone until the end of the study.
Satavaptan in the Prevention of Ascites Recurrence in Patients With Ascites Due to Cirrhosis of...
AscitesLiver CirrhosisPrimary To evaluate the efficacy of satavaptan on top of diuretic drugs in reducing the recurrence of ascites. Secondary To evaluate the tolerability and safety of satavaptan on top of diuretic drugs over a 52-week treatment period in participants with cirrhosis of the liver and recurrent ascites. The one-year double blind placebo controlled period is extended up to 2 years in a long term safety study (PASCCAL-2).
Safety Study of Autologous Stem Cell in Liver Cirrhosis
Liver CirrhosisIt is a fase I/II clinical study to evaluate feasibility, safety and kinetics of cellular therapy with bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (ABMMC) in patients with liver cirrhosis. All the patients have moderate liver disfunction and a waiting time expectancy of liver transplantation longer than 12 months due their low MELD score. The ABMMC are labeled with 99mTc and infused through the hepatic artery. Scintigraphy is performed 2 and 24 hours after infusion. Patients are submitted to frequent clinical, laboratorial and image evaluation during the follow up period of 12 months.
Satavaptan for the Prevention of Ascites Recurrence in Patients With Ascites Due to Cirrhosis of...
AscitesLiver CirrhosisPrimary: To evaluate the efficacy of satavaptan in the absence of concomitant diuretic drugs in reducing the recurrence of ascites. Secondary: To evaluate the tolerability and safety of satavaptan in the absence of concomitant diuretic drugs over a 52-week treatment period in patients with cirrhosis of the liver and recurrent ascites. The one-year double blind placebo controlled period is extended up to 2 years in a long term safety study (PASCCAL-2).
Telehealth Intervention in Cirrhotics
CirrhosisLiver1 moreThis study is a randomized controlled trial comparing a simple telehealth intervention implemented after hospital discharge to standard of care, specifically looking at the number of hospital readmissions throughout the course of the study. All cirrhotic patients admitted to the Hepatology service at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania will be approached and consenting patients will be randomized to one of the two arms as outlined below. Patients will be followed for 90 days with daily texts and weekly phone calls. The rates of 30 and 90 day readmission as well as the days to readmission will be compared between the two study groups.
Microvesicles and Monocytes to Predict Mortality of Patients With Cirrhosis
CirrhosisChronic liver diseases related to viral hepatitis, metabolic syndrome or excessive alcohol consumption can evolve towards cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is responsible for 170 000 deaths per year in Europe. Initially asymptomatic and called "compensated" it can become "decompensated" with the developement of acute complications such as infections, ascites or variceal bleeding. The transition from compensated to decompensated cirrhosis is associated with a reduction in survival from 95 to 55% at 1 year. The only curative treatment for cirrhosis is liver transplantation (LT). Liver transplants are allocated according to the severity of the patients. Despite a modest prognostic value (area under the ROC curve = 0.7 to predict the risk of death), graft allocation is based on the MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) score including INR, bilirubin and serum creatinine. In 2014, 11.5% of registered patients died on the liver transplant waiting list, illustrating the need for biomarkers that predict death and improve MELD-based prediction. Microvesicles are membrane vesicles released in extracellular space during cell activation or apoptosis. Our team showed that circulating levels of hepatocyte microvesicles increase with the severity of cirrhosis and predict survival at 6 months independently of MELD score in a cohort of 242 patients with cirrhosis. Type 1 interferons (IFN-1) are mediators of inflammation, which is excessively activated in cirrhosis. Our team has shown that a gene signature (IFN score) measured in the immune cells of 101 patients with cirrhosis is able to predict 6 month-survival independently of the MELD score. Thus, the investigators hypothesize that a composite score combining the level of circulating hepatocyte microvesicles, the IFN score and the MELD score could improve the prediction of survival in patients with severe cirrhosis. The aim of this study is to compare the prognostic performance for the cumulative incidence of death at 6 months of a composite score including MELD, hepatocyte microvesicle level and IFN score with that of the MELD score alone, in patients with Child B or C cirrhosis, considering liver transplantation as a competitive risk. To address this question, peripheral blood from 335 patients with Child B or C cirrhosis will be obtained and hepatocyte microvesicle levels and IFN score will be measured using ELISA/filtration and Real Time-quantitative PCR.