Active clinical trials for "Constriction, Pathologic"

Differentiating malignant from benign bile duct strictures is a conundrum, since no diagnostic test is highly sensitive for diagnosing cancer. While ERCP is effective in palliating obstructive jaundice, standard diagnostic tools in ERCP have a low diagnostic sensitivity and confirm the stricture's etiology in <50% of cases. During the first ERCP, standard practice is to obtain routine cytology (RC) using a single brush sample. If this is not diagnostic, patients often undergo repeat ERCP, endoscopic ultrasound or other, increasing health care costs. The incremental yield of performing alternate ERCP-based diagnostic tools during the first ERCP including fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), cholangioscopy w/biopsy and multiple brushes for routine cytology is currently unknown. There are no studies quantifying the amount of testing utilized to firmly diagnose the etiology of the stricture, or the most efficient combination of diagnostic tools during the first ERCP. These are important knowledge deficiencies since a definitive tissue diagnosis during the first ERCP could reduce the need for downstream tests and expedite treatment, thereby improving patient-centered and economic outcomes. The added costs of using multiple tools during the first ERCP may be offset by these benefits. Among patients with indeterminate bile duct strictures, the investigators hypothesize that a multimodality approach will be more sensitive without a significant reduction in specificity compared to multiple brush samples for routine cytology. The investigators will test this hypothesis using an experimental trial design by randomizing patients during their first ERCP to multiple brushing samples for cytology vs. a single brush sample for cytology + FISH + cholangioscopy w/biopsy. To obtain preliminary data for a definitive multi-center trial, the investigators propose a pilot and feasibility study to compare the performance characteristics of each approach by evaluating the prospective clinical course, including treatment delay, quality of life, and life expectancy for each enrolled patient. If our hypothesis is validated in a subsequent definitive study, the standard approach to tissue sampling during the first ERCP may be altered.

The idea behind the Teledi@log consortium is to develop tele-rehabilitation concepts and technologies so that all types of heart disease patients, regardless of degree of severity, can be offered individual, customized and coordinated tele-rehabilitation across sectors. The project is innovative, breaking new ground in relation to existing national and international research projects in the area. The Teledi@log consortium sees its major task as developing and testing scenarios which can lead to a more coherent rehabilitation for heart patients in areas such as patient training, organization across the boundaries of the health system and using tele-rehabilitation technology. The Teledi@log consortium seeks to develop new tele-rehabilitation concepts which bring the patient closer to the health system and thereby promote the heart patient's rehabilitation, giving the patient and their families a more active role via new tele-rehabilitation technologies.The hypothesis of the study is that heart patients participating in a telerehabilitation program will have a higher quality of life compared to heart patients following traditional rehabilitation activities.

This study aims to test a new groundbreaking treatment for narrowing of the voicebox and upper windpipe, which can be due to injury, inflammatory disease or cancer treatment. Narrowing of the voicebox or upper windpipe can leave patients dependant on a tracheostomy tube to breath through (a tube or hole in the neck), which can require a high level of care with regular hospital visits and can lead to recurrent chest infections. Regular surgical procedures may be necessary to widen the airway. Speaking may be very difficult or not even possible, breathing is usually a struggle and swallowing can also be affected. Patients feel very tired all the time. The new treatment tested by this study is an implant that will partially replace the voicebox or upper windpipe in order to cure the narrowing. The implant is based on a human donor voicebox or windpipe that has been processed with detergents and enzymes in order to remove all the cells from the donor, leaving a 'scaffold' of connective tissue. The patient's own stem cells are removed from the bone marrow, then are grown on the scaffold in the laboratory. These cells will form the cartilage in the wall of the scaffold. A split skin graft from the patient may be needed to line the inside of the implant. The implant can be considered 'living' due to the cells grown on it, and this type of treatment is referred to as 'tissue engineering' or 'regenerative medicine'. Once these cells have attached and started to grow on the scaffold, it is ready to be implanted into the patient, and an operation is performed which occurs in two separate stages. The final stage of the operation involves removing the narrow section of voicebox or upper windpipe and implanting the scaffold to reconstruct it. Patients will be followed up for two years after this operation, with investigations such as CT scans, examination of the voicebox and windpipe with a flexible camera (bronchoscopy) and blood tests performed at specific times. It is intended that this treatment will significantly improve patients' symptoms resulting in better breathing, swallowing and voice function, reducing the need for repeated hospital visits and procedures and enhancing patients' quality of life.

The goal of this study is to describe the increase in plasma serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in patient with increased severity of aortic stenosis and increased weight cardiac muscle.

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the Composite Clinical Success of the study group receiving the Superion® IDS is not inferior to the success rate observed in the study group treated by direct decompression at 60 months follow-up. Secondarily, the trial is intended to establish that Composite Clinical Success of the study group receiving the Superion® IDS at 24 months is not inferior to the success rate observed at 24 months in patients treated with the Superion® IDS in the original IDE trial. Thirdly, the trial is intended to establish that Composite Clinical Success of the population receiving the Superion® IDS in this trial at 24 months is not inferior to the success rate observed at 24 months in patients treated with direct decompression.

In this pilot study, investigators will test the efficacy of AlloGen-LI, an allograft derived from amniotic fluid, injected into the epidural space at the level of spinal stenosis as an anti-inflammatory treatment to relieve back and leg pain symptoms in patients with spinal stenosis and/or disc herniation. The patients will be followed for 12 weeks. The effect of this treatment will be examined by patient reported changes in pain and disability utilizing validated outcome measures, and MRI imaging evaluating changes in contrast enhancement and T2 signal related to that reflect inflammation and degeneration.

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of CorCTA by comparing the results of the test with another imaging method called Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR), which is done as a part of the cardiac catheterization.

The purpose of this study is to look at the safety (what are the side effects) and efficacy (how well does it work) of Magnevist (the study drug) used for MRI of the renal arteries. The results will be compared to the results of MRI taken without Magnevist and with the results of your X-ray angiography.

The purpose of the study is to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the Merit WRAPSODY Endovascular Stent Graft for treatment of stenosis or occlusion within the dialysis access outflow circuit in the thoracic central veins

The aim of this study is to compare the effect of different anesthetic drugs used for induction of anesthesia ketamine versus sevoflurane on the RV pressure in pediatrics undergoing balloon dilatation for congenital pulmonary stenosis.