Active clinical trials for "Tuberculosis, Pulmonary"

The aim of the study is to determine the impact of a package of smoking-cessation interventions on a composite measure of Tuberculosis (TB) treatment-related outcomes. Given the lack of objective clinical data/evidence about the impact of smoking-cessation on TB-related outcomes, yet subjective expert opinion that smoking cessation is highly likely to be beneficial particularly in patients with TB, this study proposes to determine the impact of an intensive package of smoking-cessation interventions aimed to promote smoking-cessation (counseling plus nicotine replacement therapy, NRT), on patient response to anti-tuberculosis therapy. This is to be compared with the structured counselling for smoking-cessation that is recommended to be routinely provided by health care workers to all patients who are smokers. If the results prove that such a smoking-cessation PI indeed improves outcomes in TB patients, such information would strongly motivate for the institution of more intensive smoking-cessation interventions in TB clinics than is currently being employed for TB patients

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy, diagnostic yield, operational performance, and time to diagnosis of a novel lateral-flow urine lipoarabinomannan (LAM) test in detecting tuberculosis in HIV-infected adults. A secondary study objective is to determine the accuracy, efficiency, costs, and cost-effectiveness of various combinations of Tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests, including the novel Xpert MTB/Rif test.

Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains at epidemic levels globally. Innate and adaptive immune responses evolve as protective mechanisms against mycobacterial infection in humans. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are transmembrane proteins characterized by an extracellular leucine-rich domain that participates in ligand recognition and an intracellular tail. TLRs are the first defense system to detect potential pathogens, initiate immune responses and form the crucial link between innate and adaptive immune systems. Stimulation of TLR initiates a signaling cascade that involves a number of proteins, such as MyD88 and IL-1 receptor-associated kinase. This signal cascade leads to NF-κB activation, which induce the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. TLR2 is a family of TLR family and has been reported to be the principle mediator of macrophage activation in response to mycobacterium. Growing amounts of data suggest that the ability of certain individuals to respond properly to TLR ligands may be impaired by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within TLR genes, resulting in an altered susceptibility to, or course of, infectious disease. The genetic polymorphism of TLR2 (arginine to glutamine substitution at residue 753 (Arg753Gln)) has been associated with a negative influence on TLR2 function, which may, in turn, determine the innate host response to mycobacteria. In addition, another polymorphism (Arg677Trp) of the TLR2 was reported to be associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis in Tunisian patients. Moreover, in Mycobacterium leprosy patients with TLR2 mutation (Arg677Trp), production of IL-2, IL-12, IFN-gamma, and TNF-alpha by M. leprae-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cell were decreased compared with that in groups with wild-type TLR2. To date, there have been no studies of the association of SNPs of TLR2 with cytokine profiles and clinical outcomes on M. tuberculosis. We hypothesize that polymorphisms in the TLR2 are associated with : increased prevalence of active pulmonary TB infection, altered levels of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in serum, clinical outcomes and presentations. We thus design a prospective case-control study to test this hypothesis. The frequency of TLR2 polymorphisms in both pulmonary TB patients and healthy controls will be determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Serial serum levels of IL-12, IFN-γ, and IL-10 in pulmonary TB patients with or without TLR2 polymorphisms will be measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Relationships between TLR2 polymorphisms and serum cytokines dynamics or clinical outcomes will be analyzed.

In all treatments of tuberculosis, the second-line drugs are usually less effective but have more drug toxicity than the first-line ones. For the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients, who are resistant to the major first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs such as Rifampin and Isoniazid, the second-line agents, like Cycloserine in this research, are in frequent use. Taking patients' safety into consideration, therapeutic drug monitoring of Cycloserine has been listed as a routine examination during the tuberculosis treatment and established a suggested Cycloserine serum concentration of 20~35 mcg/mL. While this suggested drug concentration was set up, it isn't suitable to all races in the world. The investigators plan to develop the therapeutic drug monitoring protocols and a suggested treating concentration fitting for Asian (Taiwanese). In addition, through this research, the investigators can also realize that factors causing different pharmacokinetics and the clinical outcomes in different Cycloserine level.

Background: -Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection of the lungs caused by bacteria. In Mali, TB is diagnosed with a test that is fast and inexpensive but not always accurate. The purpose of this study is to test a new method for diagnosing TB, called the microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility (MODS) test. The MODS test takes 7 days to show results. The test also gives information on which drugs will work best in each case. Objective: -To test a new method for diagnosing tuberculosis called the microscopic observation drug susceptibility test. Eligibility: Participants must be 12 years of age or older. They must have a diagnosis of TB from a sputum smear, or have symptoms of TB and an x-ray indicating that TB is present. Design: Participants will take part in the study from 6 months to 21 months and be assigned to one of three groups, depending on what type of TB they have. At the first visit, researchers ask questions about general health and symptoms of TB. They check vital signs, draw blood, and ask for a sputum sample. The blood is used to check for HIV infection and for the number of CD4 cells, which measures the severity of the HIV infection. The 2-, 5-, and 6-month visits are similar to the first. Those who do not have multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB will end their participation after the 6-month visit. MDR TB is tuberculosis that has not responded to isoniazid and rifampicin. Participants with MDR TB will remain in the study for 21 months. No treatment is provided as part of this study.

This project proposes to develop and pilot a novel smart phone-based intervention to improve tuberculosis (TB) treatment adherence in Cambodia, which integrates video-enabled Directly Observed Treatment (vDOT) with an automated rewards system that transfers mobile money and eventual phone ownership to compliant patients. The results will be of immediate relevance to Cambodia's National TB Control Program (which is partnering with us), the major implementing field partner Operation ASHA (a leading TB-focused nonprofit organization), as well as other TB control programs seeking new alternatives to improving adherence, especially where traditional DOT may be infeasible or costly, and outside the area of TB where adherence to treatment is critical, such as HIV, and will provide key insights into mobile health (mHealth) programs in a setting relevant to other developing countries. The project will involve building new capacity in Cambodia for behavioral research, mHealth,and communications through hands-on training for study staff in-country, and through general training sessions for internal and external stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of food on pharmacokinetic profile of multiple doses orally administered first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in subjects with pulmonary tuberculosis.

The current treatment regimen for MDR-TB has poor outcomes and costs of treating MDR-TB are greater than treating drug susceptible TB, both in terms of health service and patient-incurred costs. Urgent action is needed to Identify short, effective and tolerable treatments for people with MDR-TB. The PRACTECAL economic evaluation sub-study (PRACTECAL-EE) will take place alongside the TB PRACTECAL trial, aiming to assess the costs to patients and providers of such regimens and to estimate the cost-effectiveness and poverty impact of an introduction of new MDR-TB regimens in the three countries participating in the main study.

A pragmatic open, three-arm individually-randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation will be conducted in one primary health care centre in Blantyre, Malawi, where HIV and TB are major contributors to early mortality. Participants will be adults with symptoms of tuberculosis (cough of any duration) attending the primary clinic with an acute care episode. We will exclude adults who have taken treatment for TB within the previous 6-months, who are taking isoniazid preventive therapy, who are not resident of Blantyre, or who plan to move out of Blantyre in the following 6-months. Participants will be randomly allocated into one of three groups: Group 1: Standard of care: Participants will be seen by facility health workers and receive clinician-directed screening for HIV and TB according to Malawi national guidelines. Group 2: Optimised HIV testing and treatment linkage: Participants will be offered testing for HIV using rapid oral fluid kits by research assistants. Those with confirmed HIV infection will be linked to the HIV care clinic where facility healthworkers will screen for TB using standard sputum-based diagnostics. Group 3: Optimised TB diagnosis, HIV screening and treatment linkage: Participants will receive a high-throughput and high-sensitivity TB screening intervention, in addition to the HIV testing intervention. This will comprise of an initial digital chest x-ray classified by the CAD4TB image-recognition software as either "high probability of TB", or "low probability of TB". Participants whose x-rays are suggestive of TB will receive confirmatory sputum testing with Xpert MTB/Rif Ultra cartridges, whilst participants whose x-rays have a low probability of TB will be referred to facility healthworkers for routine care. All participants will be seen at the health facility at day 56, where they will be tested for HIV (if not on ART) and screened for TB. The Primary Trial Outcome will compare between groups the time to tuberculosis treatment initiation by day 56. The trial is sufficiently powered to permit 3 pairwise comparisons between groups (i.e. Group 1 vs. 2; Group 2 vs. 3; and Group 1 vs. 3). This three-arm pragmatic trial design allows us to efficiently answer two separate, important public health questions: firstly, by comparing Group 2 to Group 1, we should be able to determine whether HIV care should be prioritised for adults with TB symptoms. Additionally, by comparing Group 3 to Group 2, we will provide strong evidence for the effectiveness of an optimised and integrated HIV and TB diagnostic and treatment linkage approach.

A Study to Validate and Improve an Automated Image Analysis Algorithm to Detect Tuberculosis in Sputum Smear Slides