Active clinical trials for "Meningitis"

Bacterial meningitis remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in children, especially in countries with limited resources. Efforts to improve the grim outcome have included altering the first line antibiotic therapy, controlling seizures and managing fluids more carefully. Adjuvant therapy of steroids has been used with limited success in children in the West and with no proven value in Malawi and other resource constrained settings. Glycerol has been used to reduce brain oedema in neurosurgery and it has recently been shown to reduce morbidity in childhood meningitis in South America. Paracetamol in a high dosage has been shown to reduce inflammation and cytokine levels in septicaemia with improved outcomes in adults. In Malawi the investigators have tried adjuvant steroids with no improvement in outcome of childhood meningitis. They have recently concluded a study of ceftriaxone which has shown no improvement in mortality though there is less hearing loss than with chloramphenicol and benzyl penicillin. Following the encouraging results of the Childhood South American Study it is important to assess the use of adjuvant glycerol in children in the investigators' setting. Paracetamol is routinely used in meningitis because of the accompanying fever and headache. This is an opportunity to study its place as adjuvant therapy more carefully than has previously been done. The investigators propose a prospective, randomized, double blind 2 by 2 factorial designed study to assess the advantage of ceftriaxone (antibiotic) given with paracetamol and glycerol in combination, singly or with neither adjuvant therapy in childhood bacterial meningitis.

The primary purposes of this study are to find out if using high doses of the drug Gefitinib (Iressa) as a way to treat patients with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread to the covering of the brain and/or spinal cord (meninges) results in any bad side effects; and to determine the highest dose that can be given to patients in this setting.

This study will examine the effectiveness and safety of a combination treatment for cryptococcal meningitis, a fungal infection common in persons with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in the developing world. The standard initial treatment includes two medications: amphotericin B for 2 weeks followed by 8 weeks of fluconazole. This study will look at whether study participants recover more quickly and have fewer side effects if they are given both drugs at the same time for 2 weeks followed by 8 weeks of fluconazole as compared to the standard treatment. Participants will be followed for approximately 6 months from the time they are enrolled into the study.

To assess the safety and effectiveness of SCH 39304 as primary treatment of acute cryptococcal meningitis in HIV-infected patients. Safety and effectiveness of maintenance therapy following successful treatment of acute disease are also evaluated. Cryptococcal meningitis is a significant cause of illness and death in HIV-infected patients. Intravenous amphotericin B is effective for acute disease but relapse occurs in the majority of patients. Maintenance therapy is recommended but must be balanced against the multiple toxicities of the drugs used and the problems associated with the weekly administration of intravenous therapy. Treatments that are equally or more effective and less toxic than traditional methods are needed, especially oral therapy. SCH 39304 is an orally active antifungal drug that in animal studies is active against a wide range of systemic fungal infections including infections due to Cryptococcus. Features of SCH 39304 suggest that it might be of value in the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis.

The purpose of this study is to find out how well an experimental drug called DepoCyt works for neoplastic meningitis (cancer that has spread to the tissues around the brain and spinal cord). DepoCyt is a new slow-release form of the cancer drug called ara-C (cytarabine). Cytarabine has been used for many years to treat cancer.

Ceftobiprole is a very active new cephalosporin on staphylococci resistant to methicillin (SEMR: Staphylococcus epidermidis Resistant to Meticillin, SAMR: Staphylococcus aureus Resistant to Meticillin) and / or vancomycin; it is also very active on pneumococci resistant to penicillin and / or 3rd generation cephalosporins. This new drug has AMM in nosocomial respiratory infections, Animal work shows the efficacy of ceftobiprole in gram negative bacillus meningeal infections. The rationale of this study is based on the antibacterial spectrum of ceftobiprole, which would therefore be useful in the treatment of staphylococcal bacterial meningitis resistant patients (SEMR or SAMR) encountered in intensive care and / or neurosurgery and in the treatment of pneumococcal meningitis. To validate these possibilities, it is necessary to know the concentrations of ceftobiprole in the meningeal space.

The purpose of this study is: Phase I: To determine the Trastuzumab maximum tolerated dose (MTD) when weekly administrated by intrathecal or intraventricular route to reach a intra CSF target concentration (30 µg/mL) near the conventional therapeutic concentration and depending on the dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) Phase II: Determination of antitumor activity trastuzumab when administrated by IT or intra-ventricular in terms of neurological progression-free survival at 2 months

The Cryptococcal Optimal ART Timing (COAT) trial seeks to determine after cryptococcal meningitis (CM) whether early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) prior to hospital discharge results in superior survival compared to standard initiation of ART started as an outpatient.

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is the most severe form of tuberculosis infection with high mortality. Current treatment regimens are not based on clinical trials. Rifampicin is a key drug for TBM, but its penetration into the brain is limited, suggesting that a higher dose may be more effective. There are several highly relevant, outstanding questions related to the appropriate dose of rifampicin for TBM, before a multicenter phase 3 trial can be performed. These are: Previous phase 2a randomized clinical trial (done in the same setting as this proposed study) suggests that high doses of intravenous rifampicin (600mg, circa 13 mg/mg) for TBM is safe and associated with a survival benefit in adults. Given that i.v. rifampicin is not readily available, this needs to be confirmed using an equivalent higher oral dose of rifampicin. Recent pharmacokinetic analysis of a continuation trial comparing 600 mg i.v. rifampicin with 750 mg and 900 mg oral rifampicin suggests that an even higher dose may be needed; but this has not been examined Based on those previous data, there is a need to explore a longer duration of high-dose rifampicin for a subsequent phase 3 randomized clinical trial; treatment response in the investigators previous trial suggest that the optimal duration may be > 14 days. There is a need to explore relevant treatment endpoints besides mortality including neurological, neuroradiological and inflammatory response.

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational meningococcal B vaccine in healthy infants.