Active clinical trials for "Respiratory Tract Infections"

With this study the investigators want to determine, if a fast identification of germs, causing hospital-acquired infections of the lower respiratory tract, is possible through the use of MCC-IMS technology - a method that allows on time detection and identification of very small amounts of substances in gas samples. Therefore aspiration samples from the respiratory tracts of ventilated patients, which are suspected to develop such an infection, will be collected, cultivated and analyzed by MCC-IMS. The investigators want to determine if MCC-IMS diagnostic could be a faster alternative to conventional microbiological methods. The results of the MCC-IMS analyses therefore will be compared with results of conventional microbiological methods.

Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) represents an unprecedented challenge to the operations and population health management efforts of health care systems around the world. The "Pandemic Research Network (PRN): Duke Community Health Watch" study leverages technology, clinical research, epidemiology, telemedicine, and population health management capabilities to understand how to safely COVID-19. The target population is individuals in the Duke Health region as well as individuals beyond the Duke Health region who have flu-like symptoms, a viral test order for COVID-19, confirmed COVID-19, or concern for exposure to COVID-19. A subgroup of particular interest within the target population is health care workers (HCW) and families of HCW. Community members will enroll in the study electronically and for 28 days will be reminded via email or SMS to submit signs and symptoms related to COVID-19. Participants who report symptoms will be provided information about COVID-19 testing (if needed) and established mechanisms to seek care within Duke Health. Instructions for telemedicine and in-person visits, which is available publicly at https://www.dukehealth.org/covid-19-update, will be presented to participants. Participants who are unable to report symptoms independently may be contacted via telephone by Population Health Management Office (PHMO) or Clinical Events Classification (CEC) team members. Data collected through the "Pandemic Response Network (PRN): Duke Community Health Watch" study will be used for three objectives. First, to characterize the epidemiological features of COVID-19. Specifically, we will have a high-risk subgroup of HCW and families of HCW that we enroll. Second, to develop models that predict deterioration and the need for inpatient care, intensive care, and mechanical ventilation. Third, to develop forecast models to estimate the volume of inpatient and outpatient resources needed to manage a COVID-19 population. The primary risk to study participants is loss of protected health information. To address this concern, all data will be stored in Duke's REDCap instance and the Duke Protected Analytics Compute Environment (PACE).

An open access study that will define and collect digital measures of coughing in multiple populations and public spaces using various means of audio data collection.

This study series consists of four related studies and aims to explore and describe many important elements of alopecia areata over three key areas: (1) the current epidemiology of alopecia areata, (2) the prevalence and incidence of psychiatric co-morbidities in people with alopecia areata, (3) the prevalence and incidence of autoimmune and atopic conditions in people with alopecia areata, and (4) the incidence of common infections in people with alopecia areata.

Pneumonias and lower respiratory tract infections can have important long-term consequences, particularly in the context of lung transplantation, where pneumonia is a major cause of death. Candidate organs and lung transplant recipients undergo bronchoscopic inspection to assess for lower respiratory tract infection, but traditional culture methods take time, leading to increased risk from inappropriate therapy. The investigators hypothesize that the rapid detection of lower respiratory tract infection, using a semi-quantitative multiplex molecular assay, can decrease the time to appropriate clinical decision making.

Respiratory virus infections cause a majority of asthma exacerbations in the fall to spring months. Current diagnostic platforms for respiratory viruses have limitations including cost, availability, and invasiveness. The use of noninvasive breath collection to analyze breath metabolites may be used to differentiate virus-infected asthmatics from other causes of acute asthma exacerbations.

This study will identify infants between the age of 3 and 24 months of age who are experiencing one of their first acute respiratory infections with confirmed wheezing. Infants who are also confirmed to be wheezing and whose caregiver signs consent will be enrolled from a primary care clinic, emergency room or hospital.

Acute respiratory infections (such as influenza-like illness and upper respiratory tract infection) and acute infectious diarrhea are, for the most part, conditions that do not require medical management or specific treatment. Depending on the level of their transmission in the community, however, these diseases place significant clinical and financial burden on the healthcare system, particularly on emergency departments (ED). The investigators propose a prospective multicenter cohort study with which they aim to validate clinical decision rules combining 1) rapid molecular tests and 2) risk stratification tools to identify patients at low risk for complications related to acute respiratory infection and acute infectious diarrhea. The use of these clinical decision rules by nurses in ED triage could allow low-risk patients to be sent directly home for self-treatment without having to see the emergency physician. By eliminating the need for physician assessment, paraclinical testing and prolonged waiting in the ED, these triage-based clinical decision rules could provide a new, safe care pathway for acute respiratory infections and acute infectious diarrhea, reducing the burden on the patient, the healthcare system, and society.

The Belgian Severe Acute Respiratory Infections network (BELSARI-net) was implemented during the influenza season 2011-2012 following the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor severity of influenza viruses in hospitals. The network is composed of 6 hospitals throughout the country, two in each administrative region (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels-Capital), and operates during the influenza epidemic period (from the last week of December or first/second week of January to the third/last week of April, depending on when influenza virus circulation is detected by the general population, based on the Influenza-like illness (ILI) network of general practitioners). Enrollment is performed for all cases matching the SARI case definition (based on WHO's case definition) and accepting to take part. A respiratory specimen is sampled systematically from each participant, and detailed clinico-epidemiological data, such as information on age, sex, symptoms and potential risk factors such as pregnancy or comorbidities (chronic respiratory diseases, asthma, chronic cardiovascular diseases, renal insufficiency, obesity, diabetes, hepatic or renal insufficiency, immunodeficiency, neuromuscular disease, pregnancy) is also collected. Participants are followed up during hospitalization for the occurrence of complications (detection of pneumonia based on chest radiography, development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), requirement for respiratory assistance and/or for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), admission in intensive care unit (ICU)), or death (all-cause death). The current project includes all the samples received by the Belgian National Influenza Centre (NIC) during the influenza seasons 2011-2012 till 2019-2020.

The Checkable Medical At-Home Strep A Test is a rapid chromatographic immunoassay for the qualitative detection of Group A Strep (GAS) antigens from throat swabs. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the clinical performance of the investigational device (i.e., sensitivity, specificity, NPV and PPV) when used by untrained lay persons to detect the presence of Group A Streptococcal antigens in throat swab specimens from individuals five years of age and older with signs and symptoms of pharyngitis, such as fever and sore throat.