The Effect of Zoledronate on the Prevention of Pneumonia in Hip Fracture Patients
Hip FracturesPneumoniaNitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (N-BPs; such as alendronate and zoledronate) are commonly used in the treatment of osteoporosis and fracture prevention, in which zoledronate has a proven better efficacy than alendronate. In 2018, our real-world propensity score matched study showed that the use of N-BPs was significantly associated with reduced risk of myocardial infarction and stroke in hip fracture patients. In addition to cardiovascular diseases, both preclinical study and sensitivity analysis also suggest evidence for N-BPs in pneumonia prevention. Moreover, a pragmatic clinical trial is developed to evaluate effect of the tested intervention in real-life routine clinical practice since traditional explanatory radomised controlled trial (RCT) may have poor generalizability due to highly selected patients and controlled environments. This study aims to evaluate if zoledronate reduces risk of pneumonia in hip fracture patients using pragmatic clinical trial approach. This is an open-label, multi-centre, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial. Patients will be recruited from 4 hospitals, namely Caritas Medical Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Queen Mary Hospital, and United Christian Hospital. Age, sex, body mass index, eGFR, history of fracture, chronic respiratory diseases, and other medical history, will be measured and recorded at recruitment.
Zinc Intervention in Elderly for Prevention of Pneumonia
Zinc DeficiencyPneumonia is a major public health problem for the elderly and is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death for this population, particularly for elderly nursing home residents. This planning grants seeks to establish a safe and effective dose of zinc supplementation with the goal to conduct a larger randomized clinical trial to study the effect of zinc supplementation in nursing home elderly with low serum zinc levels on the risk, antibiotic use, and duration of sick days with pneumonia. This project has significant potential to positively impact the health and quality of life in the elderly and to reduce the economic costs associated with their care.
Cuff Pressure Control and Evacuation of Subglottic Secretions To Prevent Pneumonia
Respiratory FailureMulticenter, cluster randomized, controlled, open-label trial to assess if AnapnoGuard System can minimize tracheal microaspiration and the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia when compared to standard treatment
Promoting Optimal Treatment for Community-acquired Pneumonia in the Emergency Room (PIONEER)
Community-acquired PneumoniaPneumonia in children can be caused by different types of germs such as bacteria and viruses. Giving antibiotics to children with bacterial bugs is helpful while giving antibiotics to children with viruses will not help them. Unfortunately, it is difficult for doctors to tell when a child's pneumonia is caused by bacteria or viruses. Most young children are given antibiotics even though it doesn't help them. Our study wants to test a new way to care for children with pneumonia so that only children who will benefit from antibiotics will receive them. The study will use a combination of the child's symptoms, x-rays results, and lab testing to better determine if a child needs antibiotics. The study team will then review the testing results and follow up with the patient and their family in the following days to ensure that the child is improving. PIONEER will test a novel care pathway for treating non-severe pediatric pneumonia with the goal of decreasing antibiotic prescription while maintaining equal clinical outcomes to standard care.
Impact on the Use of Antibiotics of a Multimodal Algorithm for the Diagnosis and Management of Acute...
Community-acquired PneumoniaReducing antibiotics prescription is still to date, the main goal in low respiratory tract infections (LRTI). Several studies have shown conflicting results on the impact of multiplex PCR as a point of care tool. Our experience has highlighted an impact on single room assignments during the winter season but not yet on antibiotics prescriptions. This project aims to evaluate a new multimodal algorithm including multiplex PCR at the point of care to reduce antibiotics prescription and therefore has the ability to have a positive impact on antibiotics resistance phenomenon.
The Effectiveness of Oral Care With Chlorhexidine in Medical Intensive Care Unit
Ventilator Associated PneumoniaOral care with chlorhexidine was used to be considered an effective way to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). However, recent evidence revealed that oral care with chlorhexidine may associate with higher mortality and increasing risks of acute respiratory distress syndrome due to the aspiration of chlorhexidine. In addition, the majority of relevant studies in the past have only focused on cardiothoracic intensive care unit (ICU) or post-operation patients. Thus, whether this is effective and safe for medical ICU patients remains unclear.
Hyperbaric Oxygen in the Prevention of Radiation Pneumonitis
Radiation PneumonitisRadiotherapy is one of the important treatments to improve the survival rate of breast cancer patients, but also has the risk of radiation lung injury, which can develop into pulmonary fibrosis. Hyperbaric oxygen can improve the tissue after radiation by promoting the function of vascular endothelial cells and fibroblasts, and reducing the secretion of inflammatory factors, thereby inhibiting the process of fibrosis and fiber atrophy after radiotherapy, and promoting tissue repair. Therefore, it has the potential value of treating chronic radiation injury. We aim to investigate whether hyperbaric oxygen treatment can reduce the incidence of radiation pneumonia and improve patients' quality of life, and to evaluate its safety and the impact on the patients' long-term survival outcomes.
Simple Mechanical Device to Control Pressure in the Balloon of the Endotracheal Tube to Prevent...
Mechanical VentilationTracheal Intubation2 moreHypothesis: Nosten® device is able to reduce the time of underinflated balloon and removes excess pressure. This device may thus reduce the risk of ventilator-acquired pneumonia (VAP) and early tracheal lesions resulting from intubation with decreased discomfort, morbidity, and nursing workload. The main objective of the investigators is to show that Nosten® device is more effective than monitoring and manual inflation of the balloon of the tracheal tube to prevent VAP occurrence.
Prophylactic Inhaled Steroids to Reduce Radiation Pneumonitis Frequency and Severity in Lung Cancer...
Radiation PneumonitisThis randomized clinical study aims to assess whether prophylactic treatment with inhaled steroids in patients with locally advanced or concomitantly treated non-small cell lung carcinoma who are candidates for combination treatment with QT/RT or IMT + QT/RT. The main questions it aims to answer are: Whether prophylactic treatment decreases the severity of NPR on CTCAE v4.0 and RTOG scales. Whether inhaled steroid use modifies the response to radiation therapy treatment compared to patients who do not receive prophylactic inhaled steroids.
CT Scan Compared to CXR and LUS in Pneumonia in the Elderly
PneumoniaElderly InfectionIntroduction: Pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality and a common indication for antibiotic in elderly patients. However, its diagnosis is often inaccurate. We aim to compare the diagnostic accuracy, the clinical and cost outcomes and the use of antibiotics associated with three imaging strategies in patients >65 years old with suspected pneumonia in the emergency room (ER): Chest-X ray (CXR, standard of care), low-dose CT scan (LDCT) or lung US (LUS). Methods and analysis: This is a multicenter randomized superiority clinical trial with three parallel arms. Patients will be allocated in the ER to a diagnostic strategy based on either CXR, LDCT, or LUS. All three imaging modalities will be performed but the results of two of them will be masked during 5 days to the patients, the physicians in charge of the patients and the investigators according to random allocation. The primary objective is to compare the accuracy of LDCT vs CXR- based strategies. As secondary objectives, antibiotics prescription, clinical and cost outcomes will be compared, and the same analyses repeated to compare the LUS and CXR strategies. The reference diagnosis will be established a posteriori by a panel of experts. Based on a previous study, we expect an improvement of 16% of the accuracy of pneumonia diagnosis using LDCT instead of CXR. Under this assumption, and accounting for 10% of drop out, the enrolment of 495 patients is needed to prove the superiority of LDCT over CRX (alpha error =0.05, beta error=0.10). Impact of the study: Superiority of the LDCT or LUS strategy over CXR would affect recommendations for the diagnosis of pneumonia in elderly patients. A higher accuracy of one of the strategies may decrease antibiotics overuse and lead to better outcomes and reduced costs.