Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

The aim of this study is to determine if therapy with the aldosterone antagonist, Eplerenone, is associated with improved remodeling of the left ventricle in patients with cardiomyopathy. We will determine if any benefit to cardiac remodeling is associated with improved clinical outcomes, including improved exercise capacity and reduced incidence of major adverse cardiac events such as death, hospitalization for heart-failure, serious heart rhythm disturbances and transplantation. The null hypothesis is that therapy with Eplerenone over 12 months is associated with an improvement in cardiopulmonary exercise capacity and furthermore that treatment is associated with improved clinical outcomes. In order to test this hypothesis we will study stable patients on optimal drug therapy with documented cardiomyopathy using a trial design where therapy will be randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled. This will reduce the likelihood of any 'researcher bias'. Patients will be recruited from the Heart-failure Service at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: I. Assess the safety and feasibility of gene transfer with the third generation adenovirus H5.001CBCFTR in patients with cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the optimum dose of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) required to achieve maximal bioavailability for patients with cystic fibrosis-associated liver disease. II. Compare optimized doses of TUDCA with ursodiol (ursodeoxycholic acid; UDCA) for effects on biliary bile acid composition and metabolism, serum biochemistries, fat absorption, and fat-soluble vitamin status in these patients.

The major thrust is to determine whether treatment of patients with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) with Ursodiol (Ursodeoxycholic Acid-UDCA) plus methotrexate (MTX) is more effective than treatment with UDCA alone.

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare the efficacy of enteric coated pancrelipase with bicarbonate (PANCRECARB) capsules versus the patient's usual enteric coated pancreatic enzyme without bicarbonate in decreasing fecal fat and nitrogen losses in patients with cystic fibrosis.

The purpose of this ascending dose group study is to assess the safety, tolerability, and effects of multiple dose levels of INS37217 and placebo followed by five days twice daily treatment with maximum tolerated dose administered by inhalation via the Pari LC Star nebulizer in adult and pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis

This study will examine the effectiveness of the drug pirfenidone in treating focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Patients with this disease have kidney fibrosis (scarring) and proteinuria (excessive excretion of protein in the urine). About half of patients with FSGS eventually require kidney dialysis or transplant. Steroids, which are currently used to treat the disease, are effective in only a minority of patients. Other drugs, such as cyclosporin and cyclophosphamide, improve proteinuria in a very small percentage of patients and have serious side effects. Patients with FSGS who wish to participate in this study will undergo pre-study evaluation with blood and urine tests. Patients must be on a stable dose of an ACE inhibitor (a drug that lowers blood pressure and reduces proteinuria) for at list 6 months before starting pirfenidone therapy. (Patients who are not already taking an ACE inhibitor will be started on the drug; those who cannot tolerate ACE inhibitors will be given a different drug.) Patients with elevated cholesterol will take a cholesterol-lowering drug. A diet containing approximately 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day will be recommended. Patients will take pirfenidone by mouth 3 times a day for 12 months. Blood and urine will be tested once a month, either at NIH or by the patient's local kidney specialist. They will collect two 24-hour urine samples at the beginning of the treatment period, at 2-month intervals throughout the study, and at a 6-month follow-up. Patients will also be asked to give three to five tubes of blood and urine samples for analysis during the study. In animal studies, pirfenidone improved kidney function and proteinuria and reduced kidney scarring in rats with a disease similar to FSGS. In human studies, pirfenidone improved breathing and survival in patients with lung fibrosis.

This study will investigate if parental physical activity levels, assessed by providing a physical activity questionnaire to parents of children aged 6-16 with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), is associated with their child with CF's physical activity levels. Children's activity levels will be taken from electronic records where a questionnaire is routinely given at annual reviews to analyse this. Parental activity levels will also be compared against adherence to nebulisers as a proxy for adherence to treatment, this data is again in the electronic records of patients and is collected at annual reviews.

The goal of this observational study is to test whether it is possible to detect particular lung sounds that are unique to patients with the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis and whether any such sounds could be analysed using machine learning to make diagnosing disease easier. Participants will have a sound detection device placed in different locations on the chest and audio sounds will be recorded for analysis. Researchers will compare audio recordings from clinically diagnosed patients with recordings from healthy controls of a similar age to see whether the sounds are sufficiently different within that age group.

The investigator aimed to prospectively study the effect of the hepatic fibrosis on quantifying hepatic steatosis using ultrasound attenuation imaging (ATI value) in patients with chronic hepatitis B.