Active clinical trials for "Liver Diseases"

The aim of this study is to compare the predictive validity and reliability of PEth testing at detecting alcohol use in post liver transplant patients. A prospective cohort study will be used to test the primary hypothesis. Subjects enrolled in the study will be followed for 12 months with biomarker levels drawn at baseline, six and 12 months. The baseline interview will inquire about the previous 30 day alcohol and tobacco use; lifetime and 12 month Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV criteria for alcohol abuse and/or dependence; prior alcohol treatment; history of abstinence prior to transplant; co-morbid medical issues; and depression. The six and 12 months interview will focus on previous 30 day alcohol use. The baseline, six and 12 months interviews will be conducted face-to-face at each site. While many patients who receive a transplant do not live near the academic medical center that performed the surgery patient, they normally have a transplant clinic visit 1-2 times per year. Medical records and transplant databases will be assessed to assess the other variables of interest.

The diverse clinical syndromes associated with hepatitis C underscore the multifactorial and polygenic nature of HCV infection. Both viral and host factors likely contribute to variations in infection outcome, disease susceptibility and progression, and treatment response. This protocol will focus on the immunogenetics of HCV infection. Various candidate genes, most of them related to host immune response in microbial infection, have defined genetic polymorphisms that have been associated with variable manifestations of infections including malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, AIDS and hepatitis B. In this proposal, we plan to collect peripheral blood mononuclear cells as a source of DNA from approximately 1500 patients with HCV infection, analyze genetic polymorphisms of various candidate genes in association with viral clearance, disease progression or treatment response, and characterize the functional consequences of these polymorphisms in patients with well-defined clinical sequelae of HCV infection. We will also collect blood from patients with other forms of liver diseases (approximately 300) or normal volunteers (approximately 200) as controls. By identifying relevant host factors genetically and investigating their molecular interactions with HCV, we may gain additional insights into HCV pathogenesis and uncover new potential targets for vaccine development and treatment intervention.

To elucidate the role of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) in the development of chronic liver disease in patients with hemophilia.

This study will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine blood flow patterns in the arteries and veins of the liver and abdomen. It will 1) determine the best way to measure blood flow in these vessels, and 2) make detailed measurements of the blood flow patterns of these vessels. Information about normal liver blood flow may help explain the role of blood flow in liver disease. Normal healthy volunteers 18 years of age and older may be eligible for this study. They will undergo MRI-a diagnostic tool that uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to show structural and chemical changes in tissue and the speed of moving blood. The patient lies on a stretcher inside a metal cylinder (the scanner) for 1 to 1.5 hours and will be required to lie very still for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and the amount of oxygen in the fingertip are measured during the scan.

A post-treatment follow-up observational study for liver disease subjects with or without liver cirrhosis after receiving emricasan or placebo. Subjects must have been enrolled in a prior IDN-6556 study to be eligible.

A certain molecule floating in the blood may represent a risk of lung injury after a transfusion. We are determining whether detection of this molecule on a simple blood clotting test will predict the development of lung injury due to transfusion in bleeding patients with chronic liver disease.

To establish the performance characteristics of the Samsung LABGEO PT10 by comparing the test results of the PT10 Hepatic assay with results obtained from an FDA-cleared chemistry analyzer.

This study investigates the relation between the gastrointestinal tract bacteria and the progression of fatty liver disease .

The purpose of this study is to understand mechanisms associated with the development of coma during hepatic failure. As of today, those mechanisms are not understood and it is difficult to intervene and prevent coma development which is often associated with mortality. Understanding the mechanism involved, may allow us to prevent coma and develop new therapies to treat this disease.

The liver is the only visceral organ with a tremendous capacity to regenerate. We don't yet understand how normal liver regeneration occurs (on a molecular level) or how to distinguish between normal and "abnormal"/neoplastic regeneration. This study will characterize the role of the different liver cell types in the regeneration process and will examine gene expression changes in the various liver cell types.