Active clinical trials for "Metabolic Diseases"

To determine the effects of ambient airpollution exposures on cardiovascular responses among healthy adults without cardiovascular disease.

Cholesteryl Ester Storage Disease (CESD) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) caused by mutations in the lysosomal acid lipase gene (LIPA) that markedly reduce lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) activity, leading to the accumulation of lipids, predominately cholesteryl esters and triglycerides, in various tissues and cell types. In the liver, accumulation of lipids leads to diffuse microvesicular steatosis, which progresses to fibrosis and ultimately, to micronodular cirrhosis. Patients typically present with hepatomegaly, liver dysfunction, hepatic failure and type II hyperlipidemia. Although hepatosteatosis is a typical finding, the liver biopsy diagnosis may be misclassified as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or cryptogenic liver disease. Biopsy and radiological findings are not considered diagnostic, but help to suspicion of CESD. The definitive diagnosis is based on deficient LAL activity and/or LIPA gene mutations. CESD is pan-ethnic, however, the disease incidence is unknown. The estimated incidence of the disease indicates that CESD should be largely underdiagnosed especially in European patients. Elevation of serum transaminases, and hepatomegaly are early indications of liver impairment. Therefore, CESD should be considered as a differential diagnosis in liver disease of unknown origin. To data, there is no study which evaluated the frequency of CESD in children with unexplained transaminase elevation and/or organomegaly and/or chronic liver disease. The aim of this prospective, multicenter and cross-sectional study is to investigate frequency of CESD in children with unexplained transaminase elevation and/or and/or chronic liver disease and to identify demographic and clinical features of CESD.

The advent of highly active antiretroviral treatment has resulted in the survival into adolescence of an increasing proportion of infants and children with perinatal HIV infection in Senegal. However, the transformation of HIV into a chronic disease needing lifelong antiretroviral treatment (ART) raises new challenges, among others related to a disturbance of glucose metabolism, lipid abnormalities, in addition to the potential effects on children's growth and puberty. Little is known on nutritional and metabolic changes in HIV-infected children on ART in Africa, while implementation of the latest WHO recommendations should eventually lead to an increase in the number of children on ART in this region. Moreover, bio-clinical evolution of untreated children is poorly documented in the African context. It therefore urgently needed to institute a cohort study to evaluate, in the long term, the impact of HIV infection and/or ART on nutritional and metabolic disorders and to characterize the risk factors of their occurrence in children and adolescents infected as they move through adolescent into adulthood.

In this pre-post observational study, the investigators will enroll and follow a cohort of about 50 adults undergoing sleeve gastrectomy surgery for weight loss. Pre-operatively and at 6 and 12 months post-operatively, the investigators will use state-of-the-art metabolic and imaging techniques to evaluate calcium metabolism and skeletal health. Specific outcomes include intestinal calcium absorption capacity, bone mineral density (BMD) assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and quantitative computed tomography (QCT), and bone structure assessed by QCT and high-resolution peripheral QCT (HR-pQCT).

The purpose of this study is to investigate the appetite, insulin and incretin hormone responses to a high-calcium meal.

Experiments have shown that some artificial sweeteners like those in diet soda can cause changes in how the body responds to and uses sugar. These changes increase the chance of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. In this study, the investigators plan to see if the most common artificial sweetener, aspartame (brand name Equal, NutraSweet), causes these changes. The investigators believe that if metabolic changes are observed in a person who consumes aspartame, then removing all aspartame from the diet might lead to a reversal of the changes and a normalization of test results.This would impact sweetener additives in our foods and thus decrease the incidence of obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome.

Eleven National Sports Teams are located in the Quebec Metropolitan Area. In these groups, many athletes are aiming for Olympic medals in Beijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. A consultation of the coaches of these National Teams revealed that although a large proportion of these athletes present various cardio-respiratory symptoms, they do not have a rapid access to a systematic medical evaluation and follow-up. Furthermore, little is done in regard to prevention and optimization of treatment of pulmonary and cardiac conditions in the elite athlete's population of the Quebec area. Cardiorespiratory problems are therefore commonly found in high-level athletes. However, these pathologies are not well characterized in athletes and the associated symptoms often not well perceived. These problems can be serious and it is important to detect them before they appear1 while setting up a systematic medical follow-up. Health professionals should monitor health of the young athletes and help to reduce the risks associated with high level exercise. The following project is an evaluation and follow-up program of high-level athletes, aiming at gathering key-information on long-term effects of high-level training on cardio-respiratory and metabolic parameters. Our aims will be to establish a long-term program of systematic evaluation and follow-up of cardiorespiratory health and performance of high elite athletes. to evaluate the prevalence of respiratory, circulatory and metabolic problems among high-level athletes to evaluate the effects of treatments on cardiorespiratory conditions and exercise performance in athletes who need asthma medication.

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are a class of anti-HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) drug that can be an important part of an HIV treatment regimen. Because anti-HIV therapy may have negative side effects, there is a great need to carefully study HIV infected patients on such regimens. One negative side effect observed in many HIV infected patients is lipoatrophy, a condition that results in fat loss in the body. It is unclear if NRTIs also have a role in the development of mitochondrial toxicity, a condition that affects the body's ability to produce energy. The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of an NRTI-based, protease inhibitor (PI)-sparing drug regimen on fat loss in HIV infected, treatment-naive adults. Study hypothesis: The initiation of NRTI-containing, PI-sparing therapy will inhibit mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) synthesis and lead to a decrease in mtDNA content in adipose tissue, skeletal muscle and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), will cause deterioration in mitochondrial function, will increase fat apoptosis and oxidative damage biomarkers, and will lead to progressive decrease in body fat content.

This observation will look at patient care decisions of the primary healthcare provider utilizing the results of the DNA testing of patients' metabolic pathways using 2C19, 2C9, 2D6, 3A4, Factor II, Factor V and MTHFR and VKORC1. Findings of the data collection will be published to optimize the benefits of pharmacogenomics testing and publish health outcomes.

Glycogen storage disease (GSD) patients frequently experience periods of hypoglycemia, putting them at risk for several complications, such as hepatomegaly, adenomas, and cirrhosis. As of now, glycogen storage disease patients are limited to using finger stick glucose meters to monitor their glycemia at home. Diabetes Sentry, a non-invasive hypoglycemia detector designed like a watch, has been available for diabetic patients to non-invasively alert for hypoglycemia, but has never been tested in a GSD population. The investigators propose to test the accuracy of the Diabetes Sentry on patients with GSD types 0, I, III, VI, and IX, by measuring their metabolic markers every two hours, as well as whenever the device alerts for hypoglycemia. If accurate, it could be a useful tool for GSD patients in managing hypoglycemia, both clinically and at home.