Active clinical trials for "Inflammation"

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of homogenized, unhomogenized and skimmed milk on postprandial metabolism in healthy overweight men

The purpose of the meal study is to investigate acute effects on satiety and inflammation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGE) in healthy overweight subjects. The AGE content of the meal is affected by food preparation methods: frying/grilling versus boiling/steaming.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether taking grape seed extract prior to eating a high fat meal will reduce the inflammatory response in people with the metabolic syndrome.

Multicenter clinical trial, phase III, controlled by active medicine, open, randomized, enroll 962 children, 2 to 12 years old, that suffer acute inflammation upper airway characterized by non-productive cough, daytime/nighttime, with duration for at least 3 and no more than 5 consecutive days (without systemic/topic use of medication during this period) followed by nasal congestion, with or without associate other nasal symptoms (sneezing, runny nose, nasal itching and/or mouth breathing). The subjects will be allocated in 2 parallel groups, and will receive the medicines of study, according of the randomization.

This research will investigate the hypothesis that resveratrol when given orally to healthy adult smokers induces a decrease in the inflammatory and oxidative mediators which characterize the low-grade systemic inflammatory state and the oxidants-antioxidants imbalance of tobacco users.

Since people started taking HIV medications, illnesses related to AIDS have decreased, but other serious illnesses like heart disease (heart attacks) and certain kinds of cancer have increased. Studies show that HIV causes changes in the lining of the arteries and also causes inflammation (irritation) inside the body that may play a role in diseases like heart attacks and strokes. The levels of inflammation and artery lining health can also affect how well your brain works. These changes cannot be felt, but can be measured. Artery lining health can be looked at with a test that uses a blood pressure cuff on your arm to see how the artery responds when air is let in and out of the cuff. An ultrasound (machine that uses sound waves) is used to look at the artery during the test. This test is called Flow Mediated Dilation or FMD for short. Inflammation can be checked with blood tests (blood tests that measure this irritation inside the body that you cannot feel). HIV medications can improve the artery lining health and can partially lower levels of inflammation in the blood; however, these levels of inflammation may not be able to return back to normal. Pravastatin sodium is a medication that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating high cholesterol. Pravastatin sodium has also been able to improve the health of the lining of the arteries and lower the level of inflammation in people with other diseases, but has not been studied or approved for this purpose in people who have HIV. This research study will look at the effects of two types of medications used separately or together on the health of the lining of arteries and levels of inflammation in the blood: Atripla (a HIV medication) and pravastatin sodium. This study will also look at the effects of Atripla and pravastatin sodium on cholesterol levels, tests that measure how well you can think and calculate (tests of neurocognitive function), and at the effects of Atripla on the levels of pravastatin sodium in the blood.

Joint replacement is becoming an increasingly common procedure. In 2005, 534,000 total knee arthroplasties (TKA) were performed in the United States which is at a rate of 18.1 per 10,000 individuals, and the demand for primary TKA is projected to grow by 673% by 2030. Effective post-operative analgesia is an important component with regards to patient satisfaction and hospital stay. Regional anesthesia has been shown to decrease duration of surgery, need for transfusion, post-operative nausea and vomiting, and the incidence of thromboembolic disease in patients undergoing total knee or total hip replacement when compared with general anesthesia. Post-operatively, regional anesthesia has been shown to reduce pain scores and/or morphine consumption as well as opioid-related adverse effects. Epidural catheter or spinal anesthesia has become the standard of care at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for intraoperative management of TKA patients. General anesthesia is still occasionally used for patients that would strongly prefer a general anesthetic, those that are taking anticoagulation medications or with a coagulopathy, those with previous back surgery, and those with certain neurologic conditions such as multiple sclerosis or spina bifida. Comparison studies between lumbar epidural analgesia and femoral nerve catheters (FNC) for postoperative analgesia following TKA show no significant difference in pain scores, morphine consumption, or post-operative nausea and vomiting. However, epidural analgesia has been associated with higher incidence of hypotension and urinary retention. FNC's placed for postoperative pain allow patients to ambulate more effectively as there should not be much of a lower extremity motor block. Patients with a FNC for postoperative analgesia also do not require a urinary catheter which eliminates a common source of infection in postoperative patients. FNCs have also demonstrated improved rehabilitation times and decreased hospital stays which has led to an increased insertion rate of FNCs for postoperative analgesia following TKA at the University of Wisconsin. Pyarthrosis is a fairly common complication occurring at a rate of 2% following primary and 5.6% following revision TKA. Infection can be a devastating complication following implantation of joint hardware often leading to extended hospitalization/rehabilitation stays and return trips to the operating room. The average billed charges for all types of revision TKA procedures was $49,360 with average length of stay of 5.1 days. Indwelling lines are a known infection risk and indwelling lines in the femoral region are known to be associated with a high incidence of catheter colonization. At 48 hours, Cuvillon et. al. found that 57% of FNCs placed without the use of a chlorhexidine impregnated patch had positive bacterial colonization. They also described three cases of transient bacteremia secondary to FNCs in the 208 catheters that they analyzed. Chlorhexidine impregnated patches also known as "biopatches" have been shown to reduce the incidence of bacterial colonization and infection of various indwelling lines including epidurals and central venous catheters. Currently no standard of care exists that requires the use of biopatches for FNCs. The investigators propose studying the use of the biopatch to reduce the incidence of bacterial colonization of femoral nerve catheters. The investigators will study the efficacy of the biopatch at decreasing the rate of bacterial colonization of FNCs in TKA patients. The FNCs will be inserted in the standard fashion and removed at the end of therapy. Typically the FNC infusion will continue until the morning of post-operation day (POD) #1 or 2. The process for FNC insertion first involves sterile prep and drape of the femoral region. Full sterile technique will be utilized including gown, gloves, and mask. Ultrasound guidance is then commonly utilized to identify the femoral nerve. Following patient sedation and skin infiltration with local anesthetic, a tuohy needle is inserted adjacent to the femoral nerve. A catheter is then threaded through the needle in close proximity to the femoral nerve. Patients will be randomized to either no chlorhexidine impregnated patch or to a chlorhexidine impregnated patch that will be located at the catheter exit site. On the morning of POD 1 or 2, the FNC infusion will be discontinued. Typically, Twenty-four to forty-eight hours after catheter insertion, it will be removed in a sterile fashion and the skin surrounding the catheter exit site will be swabbed and the distal catheter tip will be sent for culture to determine bacterial colonization. In addition, the investigators will interview patients and review clinical data to determine signs of infection and/or catheter tip colonization rates.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a lethal genetic condition that affects 30,000 children and adults in the United States. Although CF management has improved substantially over the past two decades, there is still no cure and most patients with CF die before reaching their 50th birthday, largely due to lung failure. There is growing evidence that excess lung and blood inflammation that occurs in response to infections in the lungs cause CF patients to be sicker. Simvastatin is a drug that is used to lower cholesterol, but many researchers have found that this drug may also treat blood and lung inflammation. In this study, we will determine whether or not simvastatin can treat blood and lung inflammation in patients with CF and most importantly determine whether or not it can make these patients feel better and have better lung function.

The purpose of this study is to show that patients with gout suffer from chronic inflammation of their joints, observable by MRI, even in the absence of symptomatic gouty attacks. Secondary end-points of this study will include analyzing the effects of uric acid-lowering therapy (specifically with the FDA approved medication Febuxostat) in a subgroup of patients, checking for the presence of inflammatory markers to see if there is any correlation with the proposed chronic inflammation, and evaluating for other characteristic findings of gout on MRI.

A randomized crossover trial to determine the effects of sodium loading and aldosterone infusion on endothelial function in normal subjects.