Active clinical trials for "Fibrosis"

The purpose of this study is to support the clinical validation of a new assay to measure the levels of ivacaftor, tezacaftor, and elexacaftor (the components of Trikafta) in the bloodstream in order to achieve greater understanding of the effectiveness of this medication in all people with cystic fibrosis. Blood will be drawn at 3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 hours after taking the medication in the morning.

Decompesated Cirrhosis is charecterised by decreased synthesis of both procoagulants and anticoagulants along with thrombocytopenia and a delicate balance exists bleeding and thrombosis in this condition. There is increase in Prothrombin Time (PT) in this condition, consequently guidelines recommend correction of International Normalised Ratio (INR) and platelete count by transfusion of Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) and platelet transfusion before invasive procedures to prevent bleeding complications. However PT and platelet count are not ideal tests to guide transfusion strategies as they do not take into account the relative deficiency of anticoagulant factors. Furthermore, cirrhotic patients have an excess of von Willebrand factors and Factor VIII which are prothrombotic. So FFP and platelet transfusions based on PT and platelet count can actually lead to a prothrombotic state. Viscoelastic assays like ROTEM measure the haemostatic process in real time by detecting the resistance to movement of an oscillating pin by the clotting blood. It has three componenets-EXTEM, which measures the extrinsic coagulation pathway, INTEM, which measures the intrinsic pathway and FIBTEM which measures fibrinogen. Two parameters of EXTEM indicate FFP and platelet requirement and should be able to guide transfusion therapy. The first is Clottting Time (CT), that is the latency time between the formation of the test and the clot formation as the tracing reaches 2 mm of amplitude and the second is Maximum Clot Formation (MCF), that is the greatest vertical amplitude of the tracing. While CT helps in guiding FFP transfusion, MCF guides platelet transfusion. Fibrinogen requirement is guided by MCF values of FIBTEM. The aim of this study will be to compare the transfusion requirement, efficacy and safety of ROTEM in guiding the use of FFP, Platelet and cryoprecipitate transfusion before invasive procedures in children with decompensated cirrhosis before invasive procedures. Project title:Rotational Thromboelastometry versus conventional haemostatic tests in children with Decompensated Cirrhosis undergoing invasive procedures: A Randomised Controlled Trial Student PI name: Dr Snigdha Verma

Thrombosis occurring in the small intrahepatic, as well as in the large vessels is involved in the progression of cirrhosis. Anticoagulation could reduce morbidity and mortality in cirrhotic patients

The study is a randomized trial of two different screening methods for early detection of liver cancer in patients with cirrhosis of the liver. The goal of PREMIUM is to compare an abbreviated version of the diagnostic gold standard for HCC (aMRI) +AFP to the standard-of-care screening (US+AFP) in patients at high risk of developing HCC. The investigators hypothesize that HCC will be detected at earlier stages, allowing for more curative treatments and resulting in a reduction in HCC-related mortality.

Hypothesis: Improvement in cognitive dysfunction with IV albumin in patients with cirrhosis with prior HE and MHE lasts for several weeks after albumin infusion has ended, and is due to persistent improvement in inflammatory markers, endothelial dysfunction, albumin function and gut microbial changes. This will be a single-arm, single-blind sequential trial of IV 25% albumin and IV saline over 8 weeks with biological sampling and cognitive and health related quality of life (HRQOL) testing with each subject acting as their own control

This randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of carvedilol versus propranolol, combined with routine endoscopic treatment, in the secondary prophylaxis of variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhosis.

Intro: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 6th leading cause of cancer worldwide. In France, more than 10,000 new cases are identified each year. The latter occur in 85% of cases in cirrhosis, the most frequent causes of which are excessive alcohol consumption, metabolic syndrome or HBV/HCV infection. Patients with cirrhosis justify being included in monitoring programs involving the performance of a semi-annual liver ultrasound (US) in order to detect HCC eligible for curative treatment (liver resection or percutaneous ablation). This practice is considered to be cost-effective in the event of an annual incidence of HCC> 1.5%. US in this context has a low sensitivity for the detection of HCC at the very early stage and the following observations have been made in the last 20 years: The rate of patients detected at early stage BCLC 0 is around 30% by ultrasound The rate of patients included in surveillance programs detected with advanced HCC eligible for palliative treatment is around 20% Reducing the periodicity of liver ultrasounds from 6 to 3 months does not improve these results. In parallel, liver MRI has been evaluated as a tool for the early detection of HCC. Its performance for the detection of HCC at the very early stage exceeds 80%. However, due to the higher cost compared to US, it was estimated that its use in screening context would only be cost effective in the event of an annual incidence> 3%. In addition, the practice of these expensive and long-lasting MRIs (30 to 45 minutes) can be optimized by carrying out abbreviated MRI protocols" or Fast-MRI: short protocols (<10 minutes), based on the sequences with the better detection sensitivities (Se> 83%). The hypothesis is that Fast-MRI used as a screening examination in patients at high risk of HCC (> 3% per year) could increase the rates of patients detected at an early stage accessible to curative treatment and demonstrate its cost-effectiveness in this population. Hypothesis/Objective: The main objective is to assess the cost / QALY and / patient detected with an early HCC BCLC 0 (single tumor <2cm) by semi-annual monitoring by liver US and Fast-MRI, compared to conventional semi-annual monitoring by liver US alone in patients with cirrhosis and an anticipated HCC incidence>3%. Conclusion: If positive, this trial could modify international practice guidelines and set MRI as the optimal tool for early HCC detection in high-risk patients.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a multisystem autosomal recessive inherited disease affecting approximately 75,000 individuals in USA. The sweat chloride (Cl) test remains the gold standard for diagnosis of CF but still has a number of limitations. The objectives of this study are: 1)To evaluate a skin-interfaced colorimetric bifluidic sweat device with two synchronous channels as a potential low-cost but potentially accurate test to diagnoses cystic fibrosis (CF) and 2) To evaluate measurements of sweat chloride (Cl) using this same system in comparison to the standard clinical laboratory procedures routinely performed in the Clinical Laboratory at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (PSH-HMC), Hershey, PA for assessment of the diagnosis of CF. This is a single institution study performed solely at PSH-HMC. Study participants will include 1) adults 18 years of age or older capable of providing signed and dated informed consent, 2) subjects with an established known diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) or healthy volunteers, and 3) able to understand and speak English language. Exclusion criteria include: 1) any medical condition or disorder known to potentially interfere with accurate measurements of sweat chloride and 2) inability to understand and speak the English language. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) subjects will be identified from the population of eligible patients receiving medical care at Penn State Health- Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (PSH-HMC). Healthy donor volunteers will be recruited from various members of the PSH-HMC CF clinical care team, members of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care (both faculty and trainees) at PSH-HMC, and PSU-University Park research team. The total projected number of combined enrolled subjects is 30. This is a single day single time study that will require approximately 60 minutes of subject participation. Potential risks include a) side effects from pilocarpine iontophoresis sweat test collection (pain, skin discomfort, blisters, rarely burns and b) loss of confidentiality. There will be no cost to subjects for study participation. There will be no reimbursement financially for study participation. There is no benefit to subjects for study participation. There is the potential benefit to medical science via identification of improved method to accurately measure sweat chloride for diagnosis of CF.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in an ongoing global pandemic. It is unclear whether the relatively low number of reported cases of COVID-19 in people with CF (pwCF) is due to enhanced infection prevention practices or whether pwCF have protective genetic/immune factors. This study aims to prospectively assess the proportion of pwCF, including both adults and children with CF who have evidence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies over a two-year period. This study will also examine whether pwCF who have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 have a different clinical presentation and what impact this has on their CF disease. The proposed study will recruit pwCF from paediatric and adult CF centres throughout the United Kingdom. Serological testing to detect antibodies will be performed on blood samples taken at month 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 with additional time-points if bloodwork is available via normal clinical care. Clinical data on, lung function, CF-related medical history, pulmonary exacerbations, antibiotic use, and microbiology and vaccination receipt, will be collected during routine clinical assessments. Associations will be examined between socio-demographic and clinical variables and serologic testing. We will also examine the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on clinical outcomes and analyse end-points to explore any age-related or gender-based differences, as well as subgroup analysis of outcomes in lung-transplant recipients and pwCF receiving CFTR modulator therapies. As pwCF receive COVID-19 vaccination we will perform a comparison of the development and progression of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pwCF following natural infection and vaccination SARS-CoV-2 over time.

This study is investigating the role of allergic (Th2) inflammation in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and history of fungal infection and/or Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis. Little is known about fungal infection in CF and conflicting results exist on whether this results in worse lung function over time. There is concern that persistent fungal infection can result in worse clinical outcome measures in patients with CF. Also, it is unclear how ABPA develops, but may be related to the amount of fungus a patient with CF is infected with. This study looks at inflammatory patterns and allergic responses to fungal elements to help identify biomarkers and signs of allergic disease in fungally infected patients with CF.