Active clinical trials for "Pleural Effusion"

Pleural effusion in lung cancer patients is one of the symptoms of metastatic disease that is inoperable and cannot be treated. Identification of cancer cells in the pleural effusion of lung cancer patients is a cytological test and serves as an initial diagnosis. These cells can then be used to prepare a cell block for staining and further tests. In some research despite clinical suspicions, the cytological diagnosis is negative, due to the specimen containing too few cells or damage to the cells whilst the specimen is processed. A new method of identifying rare cells in a fluid is by immunomagnetic separation. Using this method, an antigen binds to proteins in the cell wall that are unique to tumor cells. When the fluid is passed through a magnetic field, separation occurs of the cells with the magnetic tags from the remainder of the cells. The separated cells can then be stained or cultured. The currently approved method of immunomagnetic detection has been approved for clinical use in patients with breast cancer, cancer of the intestines and prostate cancer. An Israeli Biotech company has developed an advanced technology that allows identification of a larger number of cells without causing morphological damage to the cells. The purpose of the current study is to examine the technique of immunomagnetic separation in pleural effusion of lung cancer patients in comparison to the cytological tests. In the future it is hoped that a larger number of patient samples will be included and further characterization of the cells will be possible to be compared to the clinical and cytological characteristics.

The purpose of this study is: To study the clinical usefulness of nurse-performed ultrasound and echocardiographic examinations in a cardiac intensive care unit. To study reproducibility of nurse-performed ultrasound and echocardiographic examinations in a cardiac intensive care unit. To study which ultrasound measure that best correlate with the amount of pleural effusion.

Pleural effusion is an accumulation of fluid between the tissue layers that line the lungs and chest cavity. It has an estimated prevalence of 320 per 100,000 people in industrialized countries. The cause of the pleural effusion remains unclear in a substantial percentage of patients with persistently exudative effusions.

Malignant pleural effusion is a common clinical problem with median survival of approximately 6 months thus efficient management of Malignant pleural effusion is important. In patients with a Trapped Lung, pleurodesis will be unsuccessful and an indwelling pleural catheter should be inserted instead. Accurate detection of Trapped Lung prior to insertion would avoid futile attempts at talc pleurodesis, re-intervention following failed pleurodesis and allow adequate time to plan for an indwelling pleural catheter insertion.Pleural manometry allows direct and objective measurement of intra-pleural pressure during pleural fluid aspiration.The primary aim of this study is to determine whether the addition of digital pleural manometry to clinical judgment, prior to and during local anaesthetic thoracoscopy, results in a clinically meaningful improvement in Trapped Lung detection.

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is known to be a fibrogenic cytokine, it could be expressed in various fibrosis diseases. But, recent research showed that CTGF also be considered to be a tumor suppressive gene. The expression of CTGF protein is higher in normal Type I and II alveolar epithelial cells than metastatic tumor cells. CTGF appears to be a suppressor of lung tumor invasion and in metastasis and the decreased CTGF expression in tumor tissues was associated with advanced tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, early postoperative relapse and shorter patient survival. CTGF can be expressed in many human organs such as heart, brain, placenta, liver, muscle, kidney, peritoneal mesothelial cells and lung but did not known in the pleura. The CTGF protein is present in the peritoneal cavity and is increased during peritonitis. Considering pleural cavity comes from the same origin of mesenchyma with peritoneum, pericardium and fallopian tube, we aim to evaluate whether the CTGF expression increase in the pleurisy patients including the parapneumonic effusion and the TB pleurisy. The diagnosis of TB pleurisy depends on the effusion TB culture and pleural biopsy. Unfortunately the sensitivity of TB culture was only 20-30%. So most patients must receive invasive pleural biopsy. Adenosine deaminase(ADA) was developed as a screening test but should not be considered an alternative test to culture and biopsy. The sensitivity of ADA might vary from 32%-100% and the cutoff value also vary from 26 to 70 IU/L. We should develop a method to alternate the culture and biopsy . Therefore, our technologist Jao-Jia chu will develop the CTGF ELISA kit for this specific aim. If CGTF might increase expression in pleuritis but decrease in pleural metastasis, it might be a potential method help to differentiate lymphocytic pleural effusion between TB pleurisy and malignancy.

Among several markers of inflammation and sepsis, procalcitonin (PCT) markers is being studied to investigate their accuracy for the diagnosis of bacterial infections. PCT is the prehormone of calcitonin, which is normally secreted by the C cells of the thyroid in response to hypercalcemia; under these normal conditions, negligible serumPCT concentrations are detected. The mechanism proposed for PCT production after inflammation and its role are still not completely known. It is believed that PCT is produced by the liver and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, modulated by lipopolysaccharides and sepsis-related cytokines. It binds to polysaccharides in pathogens, activating the classical complement pathway. The reported diagnostic accuracy of PCT for the diagnosis of bacterial infections has varied across studies.

A current problem in Radiology Departments is the constant increase in the number of studies performed. Currently the largest volume of studies belongs to plain x-rays. This problem is intensified by the shortage of specialists with dedication and experience in their interpretation. In the field of computer science, an area of study called Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged, which consists of a computer system that learns to perform specific routine tasks, and can complement or imitate human work. Since 2018, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires has been running the TRx program, which consists of the development of an AI-based tool to detect pathological findings in chest x-rays. The intended use of this tool is to assist non-imaging physicians in the diagnosis of chest x-rays by automatically detecting radiological findings. The present multicenter study seeks to externally validate the performance of an AI tool (TRx v1) as a diagnostic assistance tool for chest x-rays.

We wants to analyse the EML4-ALK mutation rate in the patients who have non-small cell lung cancer.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the concentrations of interleukin-2, interleukin-10, interferon-gamma, PD1+ lymphocytes, and the interleukin-10 receptor expression in malignant and benign effusions.

Thoracic ultrasonography easily detects the movement of the visceral pleura on the parietal pleura This sign is absent when pleurodesis is successful.