Active clinical trials for "Dyspnea"

The feeling of shortness of breath is very common in lung cancer. It is uncomfortable for patients and upsetting for their family. Although drugs like morphine and oxygen can help some patients feel better, they don't help everybody, and they are not used in patients with early symptoms. More relief is needed for these patients. The investigators are studying a drug called tiotropium, which is used in emphysema. It is an inhaler that opens the airways to allow easier breathing. Every patient will get the drug but also a placebo, in a random (flip of a coin) order. They will get each for 2 weeks. The investigators will see if they feel better with the drug.

The perception of breathlessness varies significantly among COPD patients with similar severity of airflow limitation; those with poorer perception report less exacerbations as compared to those with frequent exacerbations. Cross-sectional comparison of breathlessness perception in COPD patients with frequent exacerbations or without frequent exacerbations. To assess "Breathlessness Perception" the investigators will increase the ventilatory demand of the patients by CO2-rebreathing method.

In view of the multiple limitations and restrictions relative to CPET (technical, time, physical…), determination of individualized training threshold from this evaluation is today not possible for a lot of patients. The aim of this study was to propose a new clinical tool from 6MWT for individualized exercise training: the dyspnea threshold (DT6).

Routine surgery requires artificial breathing through the placement of a plastic tube into the patient's windpipe via mouth or nose. This tube serves as the source of providing oxygen to the patients during surgery. Difficulties during insertion of this tube may lead to serious complications and during this life-threatening crisis the only way to provide oxygen to the patient is by the help of a procedure called cricothyrotomy (CTY). CTY is a life saving procedure that involves an incision on the patient neck at a very precise location called Cricothyroid Membrane (CTM). The current method of identifying this location is by palpation of neck cartilages by the operator. The incorrect identification of the CTM could lead to many complications. In certain patients such as obese or distorted neck features the identification of CTM would be difficult. Ultrasound (US) has improved the success rate of many anesthesia procedures .Its use has been described for identification of neck structures; however, this technique of localization has not been validated against the gold standard which is the use of CT scan. The purpose of our study is to determine the precision of identifying the CTM using the US versus the conventional finger palpation when compared to the gold standard.

The new NcIQ thoracic impedance monitor is based on the predicate device, the IQ101. The new model uses the same 3-dimensional signal averaging as the original device, but also include second radio frequency signal to permit the device to work "wirelessly", i.e., without electrode lead attachments to the patient. This study seeks to 1) validate the use of the new device and confirm the correlation of the IQ101 and NcIQ. 2) Evaluate the ease of the new device. The new IQ2 thoracic impedance monitor is based on the predicate device, the IQ101. The new model uses the same 3-dimensional signal averaging as the original device, but with smaller housing and updated operating software. This study seeks to 1) Validate the use of the new device and confirm the correlation of the IQ101 and IQ2. 2) Compare the ease of the devices.

This is a multi-site collaborative study that will be done in the context of three Quebec hospitals' outpatient pulmonary rehabilitation programs: Montreal Chest Institute; University of Laval, and Hopital Sacre-Coeur Montreal. The objectives are two-fold. First, to determine the Minimal Clinical Important Difference in intensity ratings of perceived breathlessness for each of the 3-min constant rate shuttle walking (3-MWT) and stair stepping (3-MST) protocols in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Second, to test the hypothesis that both the 3-MWT and 3-MST protocols are able to detect statistically significant and clinically-meaningful improvements in exertional breathlessness following an 7-12 week outpatient rehabilitative exercise training program in COPD.

Historically, ultrasound imaging of the lung parenchyma has been challenging because of the high total ultrasound energy attenuation and scattering by the air in the lungs. However, recent technological advancements have allowed for rapid assessment of various pulmonary diseases via the use of lung ultrasound. Furthermore, it has been shown that clear reproducible Doppler signals can be recorded from the lung parenchyma by means of a pulsed Doppler ultrasound system incorporating a special signal-processing package. The LDS may contain information of significant diagnostic and physiological value regarding the pulmonary parenchyma and vasculature, as well as the cardio-vascular system in general. In a pilot clinical validation study of patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) patients, LDS signals unique to ADHF patients were identified, that superpose on the normal Lung Doppler Signals (unpublished data). These are high velocity "disorganized" variable signals that are not synchronous with the cardiac cycle but rather sometimes with respiration.

Breathlessness is a dangerous symptom. Preliminary data from national and regional Danish databases show, that patients with shortness of breath in the ambulance have a very high mortality. Breathlessness can be caused by many different conditions - but heart diseases and lung diseases are dominant. The mortality is especially high in patients with breathlessness caused by heart disease. Distinguishing these different causes of breathlessness is a classical, often difficult, discipline in medicine. Visitation and guidance of treatment in patients with breathlessness in the prehospital setting relies on medical history and physical examination and as a consequence prehospital treatment for breathlessness is often non-specific. The use of heart-failure specific biomarkers may improve prehospital visitation and treatment of patients with breathlessness. We hypothesize, that Supplementing the routine examination by prehospital anesthesiologist with measurement of a biomarker for heart failure increases the proportion of patients with severe shortness of breath caused by heart disease triaged directly to department of cardiology This strategy does not increase the proportion of patients with severe shortness of breath caused by non-heart disease triaged directly to department of cardiology

A feasibility RCT comprising two groups: Intervention (SELF-BREATHE in addition to standard NHS care) Control group (standard / currently available NHS care)

Patients being treated with non-invasive home mechanical ventilation (NIV) may experience morning dyspnea after each night of NIV use, when the therapy is abruptly ended. This study aims to show that dyspnea intensity can be significantly reduced by a gentle NIV therapy end, delivered by a continuously decreasing pressure level (inverse pressure ramp) after therapy end in the morning, a feature called softSTOPP, which can configured in prismaVENT NIV devices. This could also improve therapy adherence.