Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

Phase 4, open-label, two-year, prospective, multi-center, follow-up study conducted at up 15 sites in USA. Approximately 1,000 patients with moderate-to-severe CKD will be enrolled and followed for up to 24 months.

The goal of this clinical research study is to measure the amount of inflammatory proteins inside the body before and after lymphatico-venular bypass surgery. This will help doctors learn if anti-fibrotic or anti-inflammatory drugs/treatments given with the surgery can improve how well the surgery works.

This is a post market surveillance registry to monitor the safety and performance of the ALFApump system.

Chronic liver disease/fibrosis can be the result of various causes, and the result is that the liver tissue becomes stiff. ShearWave™ elastography, available on the Aixplorer® ultrasound system, is a method that can be used to measure the stiffness of organs in the body, for example the liver. This study will evaluate how this technology performs as a non-invasive test to stage liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease.

The purpose of this protocol is to measure the relaxation of the heart in subjects with single ventricles who have undergone the surgical Fontan procedure. We will do this by measuring relaxation with MRI, echocardiography, and cardiac catheterization and compare to blood levels that measure heart scarring. We will also measure relaxation before and after boluses of intravenous (IV) fluids to see if the relaxation changes when there is more fluid in the heart. Measurements of heart relaxation will be obtained from the MRI, echocardiogram, and cardiac catheterization for each patient and compared to blood markers of heart scarring. We aim to compare all of these measurements to see if we can accurately identify heart scarring and, if present, how much it correlates with impaired heart relaxation.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the global approach to the pain in cystic fibrosis patients with chronic or intermittent pain. The patients will receive in addition to an usual pharmacological and psychological management, sophrology sessions at home. The results of this study will provide a new strategy of management of the patient's pain.

Soluble secreted proteins that are expressed uniquely in specific organs and whose formation of secretion is regulated by disease states are excellent markers for the disease. This is because the disease can be diagnosed by simply measuring the levels of the secreted protein in serum. A soluble form of the asialoglycoprotein receptor could be a promising candidate for such marker in the case of liver fibrosis secondary to steatohepatitis for which the existing markers are not satisfactory. The human asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) is expressed only in hepatocytes. The H2a alternatively spliced variant of the ASGPR H2 subunit differs from H2b variant only by the presence of an extra pentapeptide. EGHRG, in the exoplasmic domain next to the membrane-spanning segment. H2a is rapidly cleaved to a36 kDa fragment, comprising the entire ectodomain, which is secreted. H2a does not participate in a membrane bound receptor complex with H1 as in the case for H2b and thus it is not a subunit of the receptor but a precursor for a soluble secreted form of the protein (sH2a). Although H2a is a type II transmembrane protein, signal peptidase is probably responsible for the cleavage to the soluble form. The objective in this research proposal is to study the association between the level of sH2a. in the serum and the severity of fibrosis in steatohepatitis in patients undergoing bariatric surgery due to morbid obesity. The existence of sH2a in normal human serum is at very constant levels. On the other hand the membrane ASGPR (expressed exclusively in hepatocytes) is profoundly down - regulated in liver cancer and cirrhosis. The investigators will analyze the levels of sH2a in serum from patients with steatohepatitis in different stages of fibrosis and compare with healthy subjects. A possible early down-regulation of sH2a in fibrosis may prove to be a valuable diagnostic tool.

Chronic bronchial inflammation is an important clinical feature in cystic fibrosis. Approximately 10% of patients with cystic fibrosis suffer from Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis. In addition airway inflammation in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) plays a major role in progression of CF lung disease. In patients with mild disease (Vital capacity >75%) airway inflammation is often under diagnosed. Severity of allergy against Aspergillus fumigatus will be examined using radioallergosorbent test and skin Prick-test. Subsequently, in patients with established sensitization (RAST ≥ 0.35 IU/mL) a specific bronchial provocation with Aspergillus will be performed. In addition, exhaled nitric oxide,carbon monoxide, exhaled air temperature and inflammatory cells in sputum is measured. 24 hours after bronchial allergen provocation, exhaled NO, CO, air temperature, and bronchial responsiveness is determined and a second sputum obtained. This study is designed to characterize patients with CF and sensitization against Aspergillus fumigatus in an early stage to prevent pulmonary complications of ABPA. In addition sputum cytokine profiles in CF patients with mild and moderate disease may be different in patients without and with involvement of small airway disease (SAD).

The purpose of the study is to validate the diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility of SAPI to predict significant hepatic fibrosis in HCV patients with PNALT who are scheduled to receive combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin and percutaneous liver biopsies.

The objective of this study is to assess the effects of using HRQL measures in the clinical care of pre- and post-lung transplant patients. The hypotheses are that the inclusion of HRQL measures, the Health Utilities Index System Mark 2(HUI2) and Mark 3 (HUI3), in routine clinical care of pre- and post-lung transplant patients, will: 1) improve patient-clinician communication;2) affect patient management; 3) improve patients' HRQL.