Active clinical trials for "Inflammation"

This study is a randomized controlled non-blinded double arm study examining the effect of routine postoperative oral antibiotic therapy in preventing postoperative surgical site infections after breast reconstruction. The investigators hypothesize that use of prophylactic antibiotics after breast reconstruction does not reduce surgical site infections.

Pulmonary inflammation is an independent risk factor for disease progression in cystic fibrosis patients (CF). Yet, no effective treatment is known to reduce this detrimental inflammation. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota has been linked to inflammation in several inflammatory diseases. As children with CF have different faecal microbiota from their healthy siblings, modulating gut microbiota by lactobacillus rhamnosus diet supplementation might be a strategy to target the inflammatory state in CF. Study subjects (CF or healthy control) will receive either placebo or lactobacillus rhamnosus once daily as dietary supplementation for 12 weeks. After a one-week washout phase, they will be switched for another 12 weeks to the other trial arm. Effect on in intestinal and pulmonary inflammation as well as clinical outcome will be studied.

ROLE OF SUCTION IN EUS-FNA: Current suction technique involves suctioning the aspirate into the needle that has an air column. The needle is not flushed with any liquid prior to passing into the desired solid lesion. Suction is applied when the needle is within the lesion leading to aspiration of tissue into the needle. This is the standard technique and some have done with and without the stylet. There are some data that favor non use of a stylet. WET SCTION TECHNIQUE: Wet suction technique involves flushing the needle with 1-2 cc of saline to replace the column of air with saline. The needle is now passed into the desired lesion. Suction is applied at maximal strength and needle moved back and forth within the lesion to obtain as aspirate. Drops of saline can be seen moving into the suction syringe as the aspirate moves into the needle. Needle is now withdrawn and aspirate delivered on to a slide by using a stylet and or flushing air into the needle with a syringe. HYPOTHESIS The effect of suction for the purpose of aspirating cells and / or tissue during fine needle biopsy may be significantly improved by filling the column of the needle with a less compressible fluid. The volume of vacuum being pulled may be negatively impacted by the expansion of air within the needle. Replacing the air with sterile saline may thus improve the suction transferred to the needle tip by ensuring that the full volume of the vacuum syringe is transferred to the distal tip of the needle. This effect would be most pronounced in larger gauge needles which would have a larger internal volume. An additional benefit of filling the needle with saline prior to aspiration is the speed of the pressure transfer. The theory is that the air in the needle may absorb some of the force of the sudden application of vacuum. A column of saline in the needle may increase the velocity of the pressure transfer providing more tissue and less blood.

This study will assess the effect of high protein (HP) and high carbohydrate (HC) diets on weight loss and other metabolic parameters. Rationale: The prevalence of obesity is on the rise in the US. The health hazards of obesity have been well established. The detrimental effects of obesity on cardiovascular, metabolic and psychological parameters as well as the excess cost to the national health budget are astounding. One way of treatment and prevention of obesity has been the use of diet and exercise. In the absence of well-established superiority of one diet over another, different scientifically unproven diets are in common use. A palatable diet providing satiety as well as all essential nutrients may go a long way in treating over-weight individuals. Another factor has been the long-term adherence to such weight loss regimens, which in general have been poor. Protein diets have been known to provide greater satiety and reduced energy intake than carbohydrate diets, but definite long-term studies are sparse. For this study the investigators will recruit and study 24 normal, pre-menopausal obese women (12 on HP diet and 12 on HC diet), and compare their weight loss and changes in metabolic parameters between the two diets.

The purpose of this study is to identify evidence-based guidelines for treating major depressive disorder to full remission in Taiwanese major depressive disorder (MDD) patients. To achieve this goal, the investigators aim to: (1) evaluate the risks and benefits of adjunctive pharmacotherapies for cognitive and metabolic consequences in MDD, and (2) clarify the shared biological mechanisms between mood, immune and metabolism homeostasis

The primary purpose of the proposed study is to characterize the oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokine status in UCD during baseline and decompensated states.

Investigation on the effect of smoking on thrombus formation in humans. The expression of pro- and anti-thrombotic, anti-oxidative, and inflammatory markers will be assessed in 25-50 year old healthy smokers and non-smokers. The investigators are interested in possible differences between the two groups.

COPD is a progressive pulmonary disease that is characterized by an inflammatory process in the airways and the lungs which leads to progressive airway obstruction. The inflammation is associated with tissue loss and remodelling. The investigators hypothesized that doxycycline reduces neutrophilic airway inflammation in patients with COPD. Therefore the investigators will conduct a randomized trial of doxycycline in 30 patients.

This is a multi-center prospective follow-up study. to choose the stable COPD patients in community to compare different modes of exercise (cycling and walking) to compare the effect of different exercises on the quality of life,exercise endurance,dyspnea and depression

The purpose of this study is to examine the link between low testosterone and insulin resistance/diabetes in men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. The study will also evaluate other cardiovascular risk factors in these men.