Active clinical trials for "Inflammation"

Melasma is an acquired hyperpigmentary disorder that commonly affects women from Asia and Latin-America.There is evidence of subclinical inflammation supported by diffuse spectrometry and by prominent inflammatory cells in affected areas; however this infiltrate and its inflammatory mediators remains unexplored. Chronic inflammation induces melanogenesis and angiogenesis; thus, it could be linked to its recurrent nature.Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe the inflammatory cellular infiltrate, and the expression of main inflammatory and angiogenic mediators in this condition, as well as to explore its relationship with severity of disease. Using histological, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and quantitative real-time PCR, we evaluated melasma lesions from 20 healthy female patients with malar melasma without specific solar exposure or photoprotection measures within the previous 3 weeks and compared them to non lesional skin.

Radiation therapy (RT) is one of the primary treatments for bone cancer pain due to metastatic cancer disease. About 6 of 10 patients obtain pain relief from RT. There are no established predictors that can be used to select patients that respond to RT. This raises the need to identify potential clinical characteristics and biomarkers that may better select patients for RT. A similar argument can be stated for the development of cachexia; there are currently no predictors that can identify patients who will develop cachexia later in the cancer disease trajectory. Cancer symptoms can be related to inflammation. Both pain, cachexia and depression are associated with inflammation in experimental and preclinical studies . Still, the clinical data on the relationship between inflammation and pain or cachexia are sparse. This is especially true for longitudinal follow-up studies. This study will include 1000 adult patients in a multicenter, multinational longitudinal observation study of patients who receive radiation therapy for bone cancer pain. Demographic data, clinical variables, genetic biomarkers and inflammatory substances will be assessed before start of RT. The primary analysis in the study is to identify potential predictors for pain relief from RT. During follow up the study will also explore for predictors for development of cachexia and which inflammatory substances that are associated with changes in pain intensity, depression and development of cachexia.

This is a prospective longitudinal observational pilot study of psoriasis patients on continuous standard-of-care systemic therapeutics to determine the level of change in established (plasma/serum) and investigative (cellular) biomarkers that are associated with increased risk of CVD events. The final endpoint of the proposed study will be a ranking of the examined biomarkers based upon an integrated assessment of biomarker behavior over time. Secondary outcomes will assess changes in coronary artery calcification scoring, PET-MRI, skin biopsies, and clinical improvement.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether IL-17 polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) are central to the disease pathology in CF. This will be determined by demonstrating that IL-17 PMNs are present in the CF airway, correlate with lung function measures, and decrease in patients being treated with IV antibiotics for a pulmonary exacerbation.

The investigators plan to study the variability of lung function parameters and bronchial inflammatory markers in 20 patients with bronchiolitis obliterans at the age of 6 to 25 years compared with an age- and sex-matched control group. The investigators will perform a pulmonary function test (body plethysmography with TLCO), and measure the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO). Further a blood sample is drawn to determine the systemic inflammation. Finally induced sputum is collected and a cell count is performed, and cells and supernatants are analyzed for inflammatory markers. This investigation will be repeated after 4-6 weeks. The aim of this study is to define baseline values and the variability of possible outcome parameters for future interventional studies.

This purpose of this study is to determine if activation of a person's immune system in the small intestine could be a contributing cause of Type 1 Diabetes.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging modality, first described in 1991, that provides cross-sectional images of the eye in a non-invasive manner. OCT is analogous to ultrasonography but measures the "echoes" of light waves rather than sound and, as a result, generates extremely high-resolution images (~5 μm axial resolution). Although OCT has already proven revolutionary in ophthalmology, current OCT systems are large, expensive, and require skilled personnel for image acquisition and interpretation. Furthermore, current OCT systems are limited to examination of specific regions of single eyes - for example, separate devices are typically required for anterior segment (e.g., cornea) versus posterior segment (e.g., retina) imaging. A new form of OCT imaging has recently been developed - so-called "binocular" optical coherence tomography (OCT) (Envision Diagnostics, Inc., California).1,2 Binocular OCT addresses many of the short-comings of conventional OCT devices. Binocular OCT extends the application of OCT devices beyond that of simple, cross- sectional imaging to a diverse array of diagnostic tests. The binocular design also removes the need for additional personnel to perform testing (i.e., the device can be self-operated in an automated manner), and allows for novel testing to be performed that is not possible with monocular imaging. In particular, binocular OCT devices have the potential to perform automated, quantitative pupillary measurements - an entirely novel application for this imaging modality, plus also adds a number of unique capabilities. In particular, binocular OCT removes the need for additional personnel to acquire the images by enabling patients to align the optical axes of the instrument with the optical axes of their own eyes. The system also employs recently developed "swept-source" lasers as its light source, allowing it to see deeper into the eye than conventional OCT systems. Finally, binocular OCT systems allow image capture from both eyes at the same time. This "simultaneous" ocular imaging extends the range of diagnostic testing possible, allowing for features such as pupillometry and ocular motility. The greatly increased range of imaging for these lasers enables the entire depth of eye tissue to be captured in just a few sequences of images - so- called "whole eye" OCT or "OCT ophthalmoscopy". In this study, the investigators aim to explore the unique imaging features of the binocular OCT to describe novel features across a range of diseases. The repeatability of quantifying various parameters in the images acquired using the system will be assessed.

Demonstrate the ability of subjects suffering from sinus pain to self-treat with the SYNUS Pain Relief device and to obtain pain relief compared to a sham/placebo device.

Acute high-risk abdominal surgery (AHA) is performed in hospitals worldwide. Ethiologies are heterogeneous, but it carries a high mortality rate (1)(2). In particular, emergency laparotomies performed on elderly people has a high mortality rate(3)(4). Different quality improvement programs have been suggested, but the quality of care and mortality varies between hospitals (5)(6). The use of postoperative intensive care seem to be inadequate for this high risk population (1)(7)(8). It is of paramount importance to identify the frailest and acutely deranged patients, who are in risk of poor outcome, to allocate resources for optimization postoperatively. Failure to escalate care intensity after having developed postoperative complications affect outcome. Organization, teamwork and culture is important postoperatively to be able to escalate care especially in standard care wards (9)(10). However, it is difficult to predict which patients will develop complications. Different risk assessment tools have been proposed for patients undergoing AHA (11)(12). The APACHE-II score, even though developed for critical care, seems to give the best prediction of outcome. Objective risk assessment tools support clinical decision making as subjective clinical assessment often underestimates the risk for the patients in highest risk of complications and death (13). Good clinical decision-making is likely to improve the clinical outcome by allocating appropriate resources. Prognostic tools are also useful to inform patients about what to expect in the postoperative phase and of long-term outcome. Especially in the elder population with increased risk of loss of function or independency, this can be useful to give informed consent to treatment. Furthermore, good risk assessment is important to optimize palliative care after end-of-life decisions, which is often ignored in research, but highly relevant in clinical work. Prognostic biomarkers in other high mortality populations have received much attention for risk stratification (14). An ideal biomarker should be readily available upon decision-making, easy to measure, and reliable. Furthermore, it should accurately differentiate prognosis for patients to have value in the clinical decision-making and guide the treatment. It should also be linked to the clinical outcomes. The investigators aim to identify AHA biomarkers that are prognostic or predictive for postoperative morbidity, mortality and length of hospitalization.

First, this study will evaluate, in vitro, the cellular composition of the synovial fluid from patient with rheumatoid arthritis, gout or osteoarthritis. Then samples will be test with a new format of bispecific antibody targeting dendritic cells. The production of IL-10 will be the principal criteria of judgment. Production of others cytokines like IL-1B, IL-6, IL-12 and IFN will be checked as well.