Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common inherited disease in the western world. On a yearly basis, 56% of CF patients, or nearly 17,000 individuals in the US, suffer from acute pulmonary exacerbations (APE). The purpose of this study is to test a candidate assay for its ability to diagnose APE, the most important disease event in CF. While previous studies have been able to identify biomarkers of CF prognosis and risk stratification, three markers have demonstrated characteristics ideal for APE diagnosis: CD64, TLR2, and GILT. CD64 is a cellular receptor, expressed on numerous cells of the immune system, whose role is to bind antibodies which are attached to infected cells or pathogens. TLR2 plays a major role in early host-microbial interactions. GILT has been shown to be more precise in targeting immune responses against antigens and influences T lymphocyte response. This study looks to identify the differences in the expression of neutrophil CD64 and CD4+ T cell TLR2 and GILT between acute illness and baseline health as a sensitive marker of acute pulmonary exacerbation so that it may facilitate rapid hematologic diagnosis of the condition. The study also looks to compare sensitivity and specificity of the assays above to standard measures, such as health related quality of life scores (CFQ-R), loss of lung function, white blood cell counts and CRP, for diagnosing acute exacerbations.

Cirrhosis is a condition characterized by diffuse fibrosis, severe disruption of the intrahepatic arterial and venous flow, portal hypertension and, ultimately, liver cell failure. Traditionally, cirrhosis has been dichotomised in compensated and decompensated, and the transition to decompensated cirrhosis happens when any of the following hallmarks occurs: presence of ascites, variceal haemorrhage and/ or hepatic encephalopathy (HE) . In Egypt, HCV is the main cause of liver cirrhosis followed by HBV

Patients with liver cirrhosis is at risk of developing HCC. To diagnose or detect HCC at CT/MRI, optimal late arterial phase (LAP) acquisition is critical to capture the tumor. For LAP acquisition, bolus-tracking is often used at CT. In patients with portal hypertension, however, bolus-tracking occasionally capture early arterial phase which may be related with slow portomesenteric flow. In this study, we obtain dual arterial phase in patients with suspected portal hypertension and determine whether this protocol (dual arterial phase) would provide higher incidence of LAP acquisition than single arterial phase acquisition.

The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of fibrosis in the liver of hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis, using endoscopic ultrasound.

Hypothesis 1: Microaspiration, as diagnosed by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) pepsin, is common in patients with IPF. Hypothesis 2a: Baseline clinical variables and co-morbid conditions are risk factors for microaspiration in patients with IPF. Hypothesis 2b: Baseline biological variables reflecting alveolar epithelial injury and inflammation are markers of microaspiration in IPF. Hypothesis 3a: Microaspiration will lead to a more rapid rate of decline in pulmonary function. Hypothesis 3b: Microaspiration will lead to higher rates of urgent medical care use (i.e. unscheduled clinic visit, emergency room visit, or hospitalization).

We wish to study patients with liver cirrhosis during and 2 weeks after an acute episode of liver coma (hepatic encephalopathy). By means of Positron Emission Tomography we investigate; brain blood flow, brain ammonia uptake and brain oxygen consumption. We hypothesize that blood flow an oxygen consumption is diminished and ammonia uptake increased during an acute episode of hepatic encephalopathy.

The purpose of this study is to assess the potential of elastography for noninvasive assessment of fibrosis in renal allograft.

Staphylococcus aureus is not only one of the first pathogens infecting the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, but also a highly prevalent microorganism (>60% of all CF patients; European and American CF registries; (4,25), which often persists for several years in the respiratory tract of CF patients. The purpose of this study is to dissect infection by S. aureus from colonization. Therefore, the following non-interventional prospective, longitudinal multicenter study will be conducted to develop the following hypothesis: CF patients with high bacterial loads are more likely to be infected by S. aureus than patients with low bacterial loads. Primary endpoint: bacterial load of sputum cultures Secondary endpoints: nasal carriage molecular analysis of S. aureus (Monoclonal/polyclonal) serum: S. aureus-specific antibodies, S100A12, IL-8, TNF-alpha sputum: S100A12, IL-8, myeloperoxidase S. aureus therapy regimens lung function tests: FEV1, deltaFVC , deltaMEF25 BMI development Inclusion criteria: S. aureus cultures for more than 6 months within the last year, children (>6 years) and patients, who are able to perform lung function tests Exclusion criteria: P. aeruginosa and/or B. cepacia cultures from the specimens for more than 6 months within the last year before recruitment or during the study period In addition to microbiological investigations and clinical laboratory tests, the actual clinical situation will be evaluated and reported during the study period. The results of this observational study will be used to carefully plan a clinical interventional study. Furthermore, with the results it might be possible to characterize a subpopulation of patients, which is at greater risk for S. aureus infections.

To establish a registry of patients for future studies of Inflammation in Interstitial Lung Disease/Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

The purpose of this study is to: 1) to develop a method to quantify Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) load in lung tissue of humans and to determine whether EBV viral load is significantly higher in lung tissue from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) than in control lung tissue; 2) to determine whether EBV localized to epithelial cells in IPF lungs and to relate epithelial positivity to tissue viral load; 3) to measure viral load in induced sputum from IPF subjects over time in order to determine whether periodic active herpes virus replication occurred in the respiratory tract; and 4) to compare longitudinal measures of viral load in induced sputum with simultaneously collected saliva in order to assess the clinical utility of the two approaches.