Active clinical trials for "Syndrome"

The purpose of the DACAPO study ("Surviving ARDS: the influence of quality of care and individual patient characteristics on quality of life") is to investigate the role of quality of care and individual patient characteristics on quality of life and return to work in survivors of ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). It is hypothesized that higher quality of care is associated with better health-related quality of life and a higher rate of return to work among survivors. A prospective, observational, multi-centre patient cohort study is performed in Germany, using hospitals from the "ARDS Network Germany" as the main recruiting centres. It is envisaged to recruit 2400 patients into the DACAPO study and to analyze a study population of 1500 survivors. They will be followed up until 12 months after discharge from hospital. Quality of care will be assessed as process quality, structural quality and volume at the institutional level. The main outcomes (health related quality of life and return to work) will be gathered by self-report questionnaires. Further data assessment includes general medical and ARDS-related characteristics of patients as well as sociodemographic and psycho-social parameters. Multilevel hierarchical modelling will be performed to analyse the effects of quality of care and individual patient characteristics on outcomes, taking the cluster structure of the data into account.

INTRODUCTION Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common condition that results in impaired hand function. In cases of CTS the "pinch grip" force between the thumb and index finger becomes unnecessarily high to prevent objects from slipping when they are picked up. HYPOTHESES The proposed study will investigate the following hypotheses regarding CTS. As an object is picked up, the investigators suspect there will be several points at which grip force will be different between patients with different severities of CTS, i.e. grip may deteriorate as CTS gets worse. The investigators also suspect grip force will be affected depending on the weight of the object, i.e. patients with CTS may struggle with objects of a certain weight. Patients with CTS sweat less, and this may affect their grip. The investigators suspect that pinch grip in CTS patients is disproportionately altered by the frictional properties of the object and by the moistness of the skin. The investigators suspect patients with CTS will be less able to adapt to sudden changes in an object's weight. The investigators wish to examine how the above are affected after surgical treatment of CTS. METHODS The investigators will include patients with symptomatic, idiopathic CTS, aged between 18 and 80 years. The investigators' centre will recruit CTS patients who will attend their National Health Service (NHS) outpatient appointment followed by nerve conduction studies. An equal number of healthy participants will be recruited for comparison purposes. At the aforementioned appointment, patients will undertake a pinch grip force test using a device that will test the above points. Patients will have normal care under their surgeon, which may include an operation for treatment of CTS. Therefore some patients will be invited back to have grip tests again after their operation. No aspect of the study will prevent a patient from receiving their normal National Health Service (NHS) care.

Healthy women and women with breast cancer have been enrolled in our nested case-control study between 2008 and 2009 in order to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome and breast cancer, analyzing anthropometric parameters blood pressure, assessing serum HDL-C, triglyceride, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, testosterone and uric acid levels and administering a questionnaire about physical activity, food intake, tobacco use, alcohol abuse, personal and familial history of disease. Our data support the hypothesis that metabolic syndrome may be an indicator of breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. The change of the hormonal arrangement in postmenopausal, along with an increase in visceral adiposity, probably favour the hormone dependent cell proliferation, which drives tumorigenesis. Adjustments in lifestyle with physical activity intensification and healthy diet may represent modifiable factors on which sporadic breast cancer primary prevention may work on.

This is a study intended to evaluate a new device that uses light to measure the amount of oxygen in the muscles of injured and non-injured legs and forearms in specific situations. The name of this technology is NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy). This is a prospective observational cohort study intended to gather data using NIRS among injured and noninjured extremities over time. Additionally, this data will help in establishing diagnostic perfusion value thresholds to be used in a subsequent interventional study confirming the efficacy of NIRS-based ACS monitoring.

Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) have increased intestinal permeability. In addition, mucosal soluble mediators are involved in the pathophysiology of pain in IBS. The investigators aimed to investigate: paracellular permeability in colonic biopsies of IBS patient the ability of soluble factors from colonic biopsies to reproduce in vitro these alterations

Mechanisms that link metabolic syndrome to atherosclerosis are incompletely understood. As a part of Hämeenlinna Metabolic Syndrome Research Program (HMS) surrogate indicators for atherosclerosis are studied in 120 men with metabolic syndrome, 120 men with coronary heart disease and 80 physically active controls and in different settings.

Background: Both prasugrel and clopidogrel are prescribed drugs which compete as platelet inhibitors in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Whether rates of drug resistance/hyporesponsiveness are lower with prasugrel and whether more consistent and earlier onset of platelet inhibition may reduce infarct size in patients with ACS undergoing early PCI remains, at present, unknown. Study design/study population: This trial is a prospective, open-label, single centre observational trial. Patients receive either prasugrel (60mg) or clopidogrel (600mg) at the discretion of the attending cardiologist. Patients with exclusion criteria for prasugrel will be excluded for clopidogrel as well. The study population includes 80 subjects with moderate to high-risk ACS, ie patients with unstable angina (UA) and non-ST-segment elevation MI (NSTEMI) and TIMI risk score of 3 or higher, within 72 hours after onset of symptoms. In all patients early PCI is planned. Study objective/endpoint/methods: The primary objective of this trial is to evaluate whether rates of hyporesponsiveness are lower with prasugrel and whether more consistent and earlier onset of platelet inhibition may reduce infarct size in ACS in patients undergoing early PCI. The primary endpoint is the rate of drug resistance at time of index intervention. Optical and impedance aggregometry using ADP (5 and 20 μM) and collagen (1 μg/ml) as platelet agonists is used to measure platelet aggregation. Addition of the specific antagonists aspirin and mesamp to the probe is used to discriminate between pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic drug resistance. Secondary endpoint is the reduction of myocardial infarct size determined by post-interventional increase of high sensitive TnT (TnT hs) during the days following the index event reflecting earlier, more effective and more consistent inhibition of platelet function. Tertiary endpoint is the composite clinical endpoint of cardiovascular death, nonfatal MI, or stroke and urgent target vessel revascularization during hospitalization and after 6 and 12 months. Safety endpoint is any TIMI major or minor bleeding during hospital stay and after 6 and 12 months including intracranial and life-threatening bleeding.

The aim of the study is to examine the kinetic, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and cellular cholesterol efflux properties of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in subjects with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and lean individuals.

A pilot, prospective, comparative study. To include both male and female patients who have presented an ischaemic stroke (full stroke or TIA) or an ACS, 5 to 30 days prior to inclusion. The proposed study aims to investigate and analyse the differences in functional and structural arterial properties between the patients who presented an ischaemic stroke and those who presented ACS. The hypothesis is that the patients in both groups will present differences partly in terms of their "traditional" cardiovascular risk factors, but also in terms of their arterial properties. All of the confounding factors studied (cardiovascular risk factors, treatments) will be taken into account in order to explain the differences in the arterial properties found between the two groups. Furthermore, the prevalence of signs and symptoms in the two populations will be studied.

The metabolic risks associated with obesity are closely correlated with central (abdominal), rather than a peripheral (gluteofemoral) fat pattern It has been shown that weight loss after bariatric surgery is followed by metabolic improvements. The amount of fat lost from each site may be independently regulated. Very scant information is found in the literature regarding the relative changes in different fat body compartments, and their effect on the improvement of the metabolic profile. In this study we define the absolute and relative changes in the different adipose tissue compartment after weight loss surgery