All clinical trials

The purpose of this study is to compare intrapartum glycemic control using insulin pump versus intravenous (IV) insulin administration.

Acute anterior uveitis (AU) is a common reason for attendance at ophthalmic outpatient clinics. The painfulness and the fear of a transient or even persistent loss of vision may markedly reduce the individual's subjective well-being and pose a psychological burden. This study will test the hypothesis that during an attack of AU the patient experiences a marked reduction in psychological and physical well-being. Prospective, hospital-based epidemiologic study using a patient questionnaire with standardized psychological tests and a pain scale.

Androgenic alopecia, the common form of hair loss is a highly heritable disorder of considerable social significance affecting around 40% of adult men and women. A variety of genetic and environmental factors are likely to play a role in androgenetic alopecia. Genetic variants in the human androgen receptor gene (AR) have been reported to be associated with AGA in Caucasians. Other genes involved with hair loss also have been found. One of them being a gene on chromosome 3 (3q26). A recent genome-wide association study in 296 individuals with male-pattern baldness and 347 controls had carried out and five SNPs on chromosome 20p11 were found to be highly significant association for AGA (rs2180439 combined P = 2.7 x 10(-15)). No interaction was detected with the X-chromosomal androgen receptor locus, suggesting that the 20p11 locus has a role in a yet-to-be-identified androgen-independent pathway. The total number of evaluated patients with androgenic alopecia will be at least 300. All patients will be further grouped as good responders or poor responders to conventional medications, such as topical minoxidil and systemic finasteride. Candidate genes potentially involved in gout and its treatment response will be selected from the published literatures; specifically, two resources of candidate genes will be selected: (i) genes which are known to directly link with androgenic alopecia, and (ii) genes are potentially implicated in particular pathways of androgen/estrogen receptors, metabolism and downstream signals, and genes involved in anti-oxidants or hair growth. The SNP genotyping will be performed by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry. Data analysis will be performed by comparing SNPs allele frequency between good responder and poor responder to conventional medications of patients with androgenic alopecia and further comparing to the allele frequency of SNPs in healthy controls. A functional study will also be done to prove the genetic association.

The specified Apgar-Score in combination with the AAP-Score predicts the morbidity and mortality of asphyxiated newborns.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the near and intermediate visual outcomes of patients who have undergone routine cataract surgery (removal of cloudy crystalline lens) with phacoemulsification (the break-up and removal of cloudy lens) and monofocal IOL ( a plastic lens implanted to replace eye's natural lens) placement in the capsular bag in at least one eye.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is commonly seen in Western countries; however, it is gaining prevalence in Asia countries recently. In addition to the lower esophageal sphincter and the crural fibers of the diaphragm, the flap valve at the gastroesophageal junction is also responsible for maintaining an antireflux barrier. Hill et al developed a grading system of gastroesophageal flap valve (GEFV) and concluded that this flap valve system is simple, reproducible, and offers diagnostic aid in the evaluation of patients with suspicious reflux disease undergoing esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). It is a common belief that large meals provoke considerable postprandial reflux and it results from an increase in the rate of transient lower esophageal sphincter relaxations. One study also revealed that rapid food intake produces more gastroesophageal reflux in healthy volunteers. So this study attempted to evaluate the relationship between dietary habit and GEFV abnormality. The investigators used a questionnaire regarding the dietary habit to the population undergoing EGD in a self-paid health examination.

The study is designed to identify specific patterns of brain functional activity associated with chronic, moderate to severe tinnitus through the use of resting-state MEG scans. Robust patterns identified in this study will be used as a biomarker for subsequent clinical evaluation of experimental drug treatments for tinnitus. This study will conduct MEG scans on approximately 30 to 75 subjects with tinnitus and approximately 15 healthy control subjects. MEG scans will be obtained for each subject following screening, clinical and tinnitus evaluations. A subset of 6 subjects from the tinnitus cohort will be invited to undergo evoked auditory assessment during an extended MEG scan session to identify cortical regions that respond to the auditory stimulus. These six subjects also will be evaluated with a single structural MRI scan to support high-resolution mapping of the localized cortical regions. MEG data will be analyzed to identify patterns of brain activity that are specifically associated with the presence of tinnitus using both standard approaches and the Orasi Synchronous Neural Interaction™ (SNI) test. MEG scan results also will be evaluated to identify specific patterns of functional activity that correlate with other measures of tinnitus severity such as the Iowa Tinnitus Handicap Scale. This study will test the hypothesis that moderate to severe tinnitus is associated with altered patterns of brain functional activity measured by a brief, resting-state MEG scan. This hypothesis will be tested by comparing resting-state MEG scans of tinnitus patients with those the of healthy control subjects collected during this study and available in Orasi's existing MEG scan database.

Purpose of the study The predictive value of central aortic pressure and aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) in a Japanese population is not known. The purpose of this study is to quantify the predictive value of these indices in the determination of cardiovascular risk. Recently, a non-invasive method to separate the aortic pressure waveform into the separate ejection pressure wave and reflected pressure wave has become available. With this decomposition method, it is possible to estimate aortic PWV (named AVI). The second objective of this study is to determine if AVI can be a substitute for carotid-femoral PWV (cf-PWV), the current gold standard for aortic PWV measurement. To study vascular aging of the Japanese population by evaluating central blood pressure and aortic PWV by age, and compare these values to similar studies done in Caucasian and Chinese patient populations. To study the relationship between the magnitude of the aortic reflected pressure wave and the degree of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and LV diastolic function.

Neuromyotonia (NMT), so called Isaac's syndrome, is a rare disorder in which hyperexcitability of peripheral motor nerves leads to intermittent muscle contractions. It is characterized by muscle twitching at rest (visible myokymia), cramps, hyperhidrosis, paraesthesiae, mild muscle weakness. and impaired muscle relaxation, or pseudomyotonia. Electromyographic recording is a key diagnostic tool in detecting myokymia and neuromyotonia. Pathophysiology of neuromyotonia is claimed to be related immune disorder, autoimmune anti-voltage-gated potassium-channel antibodies and genetic mutation in potassium channel. KCNA1 (Kv1.1) mutation was mostly reported in a autosomal dominant trait. In the present study, we report a family affected with myokymia，worsening with elevated body temperature, febrile illness or spicy food. How the change in temperature influence clinical features of channelopathies is an interesting topic. Variant clinical severity of family members are recorded. The index patient has possible autoimmune mechanism involvement because of his clinical feature of myasthenia gravis with thymoma and hyperthyroidism. Further analyzing the genetic mutation in potassium channelopathy may provide researchers some pathophysiological insight into the Isaac's syndrome.

Comparison of different methods for measuring peoples corneal thickness