Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are opportunistic pathogens normally found in soil and water that are being cultured from Cystic Fibrosis (CF) airways at an increasing frequency. They have been demonstrated to cause clinically significant lung disease in some cases and the transmission of NTM, from person to person has been proposed. There are currently no standardized guidelines for isolation of those colonized or infected with NTM. The investigators will measure particle droplet size from patients with CF who have positive sputum cultures for NTM with the hypothesis that they will be in a range that can spread infection.

Despite the implementation of modern public health interventions, 1 in 5 adults in the United States are either current or former smokers and remain at risk for the development of chronic lung diseases. It is unknown how or why any one individual smoker can develop a wide range of lung diseases including chronic obstructive lung disease and/or pulmonary fibrosis. The purpose of this protocol is to collect clinical data, blood, urine, and bronchoalveolar samples from smokers and non-smokers in an attempt to establish phenotypic clinical profiles that correspond to divergent pathways in the expression of such proteins as the transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta <=1). The information generated from this study will provide insight into the pathogenesis of smoking-related lung injury and potentially allow for the development of early therapeutic interventions.

This study compares the lung clearance index (LCI) in cystic fibrosis and healthy children obtained with two different multiple breath nitrogen washout (MBWN2) devices. Each participants will perform the test (LCI) in duplicate on each device.

In the planned study, 60 patients with mild cystic fibrosis (CF) with and without the involvement of small airways (small airway disease - SAD) are to be compared with a historical control group matched in age and gender. During the first study visit subjects are asked to perform a pulmonary function test (spirometry, body plethysmography with helium, determination of "Trapped Air") and exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) and exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) measurements will be done in exhaled air. In addition, a blood sample is drawn to describe inflammatory status. Sputum is induced as well. During the second study visit, a non-specific bronchial provocation test(methacholine PD20 FEV1) is performed. The aim of the study is to get a characterization of the bronchial and systemic inflammation (IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, TNF-α, NFKB, and recognition structures like TLR2 and TLR4) in CF patients with and without the involvement of the small airways, which may point to new treatment strategies.

This study is an observational and retrospective study of patients with pulmonary fibrosis associated or not with telomerase mutation. The purpose of this study is to describe in detail the cases with telomerase mutation in terms of features on CT scan, respiratory function and evolution, in comparison to control subjects with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and no telomerase mutation identified or family history.

According to the U.S. CF Foundation Patient Registry, more than 25% of children and 40% of adults were treated with intravenous (IV) antibiotics for flares of lung disease in 2016. Medication for these flares is often delivered through a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC). Case series have identified important complications of PICCs in CF patients such as blood clots and infection. The frequency of PICC-associated blood clots in CF patients ranges from 2 to 8%. Catheter-related complications may interfere with completion of therapy and lead to repeated procedures and other complex medical treatments. In some cases PICC complications may discourage patients from accepting future courses of IV antibiotics. Therefore, it is very important to identify patient- and device-related factors that are linked with more frequent complications and to figure out ways to reduce these risks. Proposed risk factors fall into several broad categories. First are catheter-related factors; second are patient factors; and third are catheter-management factors. To date, no multicenter trial has carefully studied PICC complications in a large group of adult and pediatric CF patients from the time each catheter is placed to when it is removed. The main purpose of this study is to see whether the investigators can identify important factors in each of the three categories (patient, catheter, and catheter management) that are linked to various complications.

The aim of this study is to assess prospectively the critical period prior to the development of Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure (ACLF) (1), to uncover mechanistic and pathophysiological processes associated with the development and clinical course of ACLF (2) and to identify the precipitating events of ACLF (3).

The non-O blood group is a risk factor of deep vein thrombosis and recurrence of thromboembolic events, especially when associated with Factor 5 Leiden or prothrombin G20210A mutations. A recent study suggests that non-O blood group may promote portal vein thrombosis in non cirrhotic patients. In addition, in general population and chronic hepatitis C, non-O blood group combined with one or the other of the above genetic abnormalities is associated with an increased risk of liver fibrosis and accelerated fibrogenesis. The suspected mechanism could be an increased procoagulant factor VIII and an increased Willebrand plasma level, due to a low ADAMTS 13 activity, the result of which is an hypercoagulable state and a microthrombotic process. In cirrhotic patients procoagulant factors and ADAMTS 13 which are respectively increased and decreased, have be shown to be prognostic markers of hepatocellular function and portal hypertension. It has been hypothesized that the hypercoagulable state and the microthrombotic process could contribute to the worsening of the disease and enoxaparin has been shown to positively modify the prognosis of cirrhosis. The role of non-O blood group in decompensation of cirrhosis and occurrence of complications including non-tumor portal vein thrombosis has never been studied. The investigators plan a longitudinal observational study to determine the incidence of complications in alcoholic and viral cirrhosis in case of non-O blood group compared to O blood group. The aim of this study is to determine whether ABO blood group may promote complications in alcoholic or viral cirrhosis. This is an ancillary study of two national cohorts assessing natural history and hepatocellular carcinoma risk factors in alcoholic (CIRRAL) and viral (CIRVIR) cirrhosis.

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of two-dimensional shear-wave elastography (SWE) for staging hepatic fibrosis in the background liver parenchyma in patients with liver tumors before hepatic resection, using resected tissue pathology as a reference standard.

The low sodium intake is important for ascites control in liver cirrhosis patients. Therefore, World Health Organization (WHO) recommends reduction of sodium (Na) to 2g/day for adults. The 24-hour urine Na excretion has been regarded as a standard method to estimate the amount of daily dietary sodium intake. However, it is too inconvenient to apply to patients or the general population in practice. For this reason, it has been suggested that a spot urine Na/potassium (K) ratio could be replaced with the 24-hour urine Na excretion. However, the evidence is not sufficient for that. The investigators will evaluate the usefulness of spot urine Na/K ratio to estimate the dietary sodium intake. The investigators will also verify several formulas of estimating the 24-hour Na excretion with spot urine Na, K, Creatinine (Cr).