Active clinical trials for "Pulmonary Fibrosis"

The inclusion of Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) as part of the management of pulmonary fibrosis although being highly recommended and recommended in guidelines still sees studies exploring the outcomes from such an intervention limited. The present study aims to contribute to the available literature by investigating the effects of a high intensity, 12week PR programme on functional and quality of life measures in patients with a diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an irreversible, chronic and relentless lung disorder of unknown aetiology leading ultimately to respiratory insufficiency and death within 2-5 years after diagnosis. Treatment with the anti-fibrotic drug Pirfenidone slows down the disease progression and reduces the risk of acute exacerbations. Unfortunately, Pirfenidone represents a complex pharmacological regimen, in which patients have to take 3 tablets 3 times a day at mealtime. As for all chronically ill patients, adherence to a complex regimen might be challenging and nonadherence might reduce the full potential of Pirfenidone in patients with IPF. Due to extremely sparse availability of evidence on treatment adherence in the IPF population, it needs to be fully ascertained if, why, when and how many patients discontinue treatment or struggle to correctly take Pirfenidone as prescribed.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) is primarily a respiratory viral infection. At the time of writing this protocol, more than 25 million people have been affected globally. Of these, more than 850000 have died directly due to the disease. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there are as of now over 30000 cases and deaths from COVID 19. This has been declared as a Pandemic by WHO and has brought normal life to a standstill. There are many uncertainties regarding the pathophysiology and clinical course of this disease. It is estimated that 80 percent of those infected will not need special care. However, 1 in 5 (20%) patients will require hospitalization. Of these, typically, 5 percent will be critically ill and ventilated. Of those ventilated, 20 to 60 percent will die. However, this can vary from country to country due to various reasons. For example, in one study, 71.6% were hospitalized in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and 4.6% were admitted to intensive care. The rest of those who are hospitalized (95%), are at risk of having long term sequelae. From the SARS CoV infection data, 50 per cent had changes consistent with inflammatory lung disease at 4 weeks, and at 15 years, 4.6% (SD 6.4%) had pulmonary fibrosis. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) had typical lower lobe fibrotic changes in more than one-third of the patients. SARS CoV2 virus shares 79.5% sequence identity with SARS CoV and 50% with MERS CoV. The SARS CoV2 may also have similarities in the inflammatory response; emerging data shows that COVID 19 patients also have new interstitial lung disease changes and thromboembolic disease. These patients may have long term physiological disability such as exertional hypoxia, breathlessness, reduction in static and dynamic lung volumes and diffusion factors. There is currently no data available to predict who is at risk of developing long term chronic thromboembolic disease and interstitial lung disease. More importantly, there are no data available on the pathological changes of inflammatory lung disease. Pathologically classifying the disease may have a significant impact on the choice of the treatment for these patients who otherwise have the potential to be disabled lifelong. With appropriate phenotyping, appropriate risk reduction strategies and targeted therapies can be considered. Furthermore, studying biomarkers that could potentially identify those at-risk patients from very early on can provide an opportunity to start on the treatment very early on in the natural course of the disease history.

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that early viral infections alter the bacterial flora and inflammatory profile in the airway and accelerate progression of pulmonary disease in infants with cystic fibrosis.

Drug discovery can take many years especially since most studies to measure effectiveness depend on clinical outcomes like pulmonary function tests and hospitalizations. This is an observational study designed to collect information, blood, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in people who have IPF and those who do not. The people who have IPF will be followed for 12 months to collect more biological samples and record clinically relevant information. The goal of this study is to identify new molecular markers that are measurable and reliable in people who have IPF. It is hoped that these markers can be used in future drug studies to significantly speed up the process of finding drugs that help.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive scarring condition of the lungs the cause of which is unknown.There are currently no effective treatments for IPF and the condition tends to cause progressive disability and death with an average survival of 3.5 years from diagnosis. The condition is responsible for the deaths of 4000 people per year in the UK. At present the definite diagnosis of IPF rests on the identification of a specific pattern of fibrosis when a section of fibrotic lung tissue is examined under a microscope. Unfortunately, the process of obtaining a lung biopsy requires an operation and is not with out risk. The investigators hope to identify specific markers in the blood and lungs of patients with IPF that will enable the condition to be diagnosed without biopsy. Furthermore, the investigators hope to identify indicators(biomarkers) that will predict which patients have more aggressive and progressive disease and also to identify biomarkers that might be useful in identifying a response to treatment and might therefore be used in future clinical trials in IPF. As well as looking at markers in the blood and lungs the investigators also plan to assess the use of daily home lung function measurement and a computerised technique for analyzing lung sounds to see if these are investigations that are able to predict the development of worsening lung fibrosis.

This study has two aims: To determine the relationship of shortness of breath (dyspnea) to other conditions present in patients with pulmonary fibrosis. To define the relationship between shortness of breath and rate of functional decline in patients with pulmonary fibrosis.

Post-marketing surveillance of Pirfenidone

A 5-point decline of forced vital capacity expressed as % predicted, over 6 months, is the current definition of disease progression (fast decline in lung function) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. There is a need for techniques allowing to characterize disease progression earlier, so that treatment may be adapted as early as possible in the lack of a response. Hypothesis. Our hypothesis is that 3-month changes of lung function parameters measured by a novel technique, impulse oscillometry, predicts 6-month changes in forced vital capacity in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Two oral medications, nintedanib and pirfenidone, were approved simultaneously by the FDA in October 2014 for the treatment of this disease. They are both considered anti-fibrotic agents and they each proved to slow the progression of disease in their respective clinical trials. Because of their anti-fibrotic properties, there have been concerns about the potential of these medications to impair wound healing following surgery. These concerns have led to variable approaches with respect to the management of the medications in patients listed for lung transplantation. It is unknown whether continuing anti-fibrotic medications until the time of transplant increases the risks of intra-operative and post-transplant complications. Conversely, there are concerns that stopping the medications prematurely may promote a more rapid clinical decline in those awaiting transplantation and increase risk of death while on waiting lists. Whether there is a risk or benefit of continuing the medications during the pre-transplant period deserves investigation with the goal of establishing guidelines and best-practices. Once more is known about how best to manage anti-fibrotic therapy in the pre-transplant period, the question of whether these medications should be restarted following transplantation will also ultimately deserve exploration.