Active clinical trials for "Lung Diseases, Obstructive"

The UK population is ageing and the likelihood of having a long term health condition increases with age. Three out of every five people over 60 in the UK have a long term condition. Ageing and having a long term condition increases the chance of having difficulty being independent and carrying out day to day activities. In recent years the NHS has made a greater effort to prevent these difficulties in patients with long term conditions. One approach to help patients with long term conditions is case management, where by (usually) a community matron visits patients at home, looking for early warning signs of any worsening of their condition and arranging care and treatment. But the current way this is done varies across the country and hospital admissions are still rising. In order to give the right care at the right time, effective monitoring is needed to help the community matron detect and act on changes in the patient's condition. Loss of muscle strength in old age is linked to a poor health, but it is not known whether simple measures of muscle strength could be used to detect and predict declines in health in the short to medium term to help maintain independence and prevent an accident or hospital admission. The aim of this study is to look at whether monitoring muscle strength in case managed patients is practical, acceptable and useful in detecting when a patient's condition worsens. Each patient will be visited by the researcher in their home twice in the first week, then once every two weeks, for another 5 weeks, to carry out three simple measures of grip and respiratory strength, and complete questionnaires about their health and ability to carry out day to day activities. Each visit will last about 20 to 30 minutes. A small group of clinicians will be asked about their views of the strength measures. Database analysis will allow descriptive data on the patient group to be gathered and analysed.

This study is investigating the possible mechanisms of action of an inhaled treatment (Seretide), currently used worldwide in millions of patients with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and how it improves the symptoms of these patients. Previous research has failed to identify the mechanisms at play other than dilation of the airways. The research community has long thought the mechanism to be immune based or anti inflammatory but despite intensive research this has not yet been identified.

The primary objective of this non-interventional study is to evaluate daily symptom variability in COPD patients. The secondary objectives are; to evaluate effects of COPD symptoms on the morning activities of patients, to determine therapeutic expectations of patients and physicians in COPD, to determine which and how frequent non-drug approaches are recommended in order to prevent COPD exacerbations, to define COPD patient profiles about the below-mentioned issues: Demographic characteristics, Disease characteristics, Concomitant diseases and implemented drug treatments. All patients, who apply to the study physicians and fulfill all patient selection criteria during patient enrolment period, will be included. Patients, who provide all of the following measures will be included in the study: To apply to a physician for outpatient treatment for any reason, Age over 45 years, being diagnosed with COPD, being a smoker or used to be a smoker once (> 10 package years), to give consent for the use of their medical data. The patients that exhibit the following exclusion criteria will be excluded from the study: COPD exacerbations still on-going or experienced in the last 3 months (Exacerbation is defined as worsening of COPD symptoms leading to antibiotic and/or short-term oral steroid treatment and/or hospitalization or admission to the emergency unit.); Presence of lung cancer or an important respiratory disease such as bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial pulmonary disease, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis; Participation in an interventional clinical trial at present and Enrollment in this study once. In this study, patients will be recorded at their visit to the physician and there will be no follow-up thereafter.

This study is intended to be an evaluation of the properties of human sputum collected from patients with COPD. It is hypothesized that cationic airway lining modulators will have beneficial effects on the rheological properties of sputum derived from patients with COPD. Approximately 10 patients with COPD will collect sputum at home for 5 days. Samples will be collected and tested in laboratory tests.

Cigarette smoking, the major risk factor for COPD, causes not only airway and lung inflammation, but also systemic effects. These systemic effects of smoking could substantially contribute to the development of chronic diseases, other than COPD, particularly chronic heart failure (CHF). The aim of this project is to assess the frequency and severity of CHF and COPD in outpatients with history of smoking referred to Hospital because of dyspnea and/or chronic cough.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a new questionnaire to capture the patient experience of COPD. The information collected will be used to validate the Shortness of Breath with Daily Activities Questionnaire.

The objective of this study is to assess the effects of using HRQL measures in the clinical care of pre- and post-lung transplant patients. The hypotheses are that the inclusion of HRQL measures, the Health Utilities Index System Mark 2(HUI2) and Mark 3 (HUI3), in routine clinical care of pre- and post-lung transplant patients, will: 1) improve patient-clinician communication;2) affect patient management; 3) improve patients' HRQL.

Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) may benefit from an 8-week pulmonary rehabilitation programme. However, the effect of the programme tends to attenuate with time. Patients who complete the programme are randomized to continued rehabilitation follow-up and control follow-up.

The role of HGF and KGF in COPD is poorly known. Plantier et al found that cultured fibroblasts harvested from patients with emphysema produced less HGF (but similar amounts of KGF) than controls, and Bonay et al found a direct relationship between the severity of airflow obstruction and HGF mRNA content in lung samples of smokers. These two studies suggest, therefore, that the pulmonary regulation of HGF may be abnormal in patients with COPD. However, both HGF and KGF can also be released by extra-pulmonary organs, thus having the potential to act systemically. Given the current clinical relevance attributed to the systemic effects of COPD, in this study we compared the levels of HGF and KGF in the pulmonary (bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid) and systemic compartment (circulating blood) of smokers with and without COPD and never smokers.

The objectives of the study are to determine the prevalence of respiratory virus infections in COPD patients, during and outside acute exacerbation to explore the impact of these viral infections on the outcome of these patients to explore the association between blood procalcitonin levels and viral infections in this population.