Trials
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Efficacy and mode of action of mesalazine in the treatment of diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is reported by one in ten of the population accounting for up to 40% of new referrals to gastroenterology outpatients. Patients characteristically have abdominal discomfort and disturbed bowel habit. Diarrhoea-predominant IBS is characterised by frequent loose stools with associated urgency and abdominal cramps. Current symptomatic treatments can reduce bowel frequency but often fail to reduce discomfort.Mesalazine is an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease. There is one pilot study suggesting it may be beneficial to patients who have diarrhoea-predominant IBS but these findings need to be confirmed in a larger trial. The current study aims to test the effectiveness of mesalazine to reduce symptoms in diarrhoea-predominant IBS patients. The study will also investigate the mode of action of the drug, especially its impact on mast cell activation. ⋯ This report describes a randomised controlled trial that will provide evidence of any benefit of treating diarrhoea-predominant IBS patients with mesalazine. The results will be available toward the end of 2013.
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Over the past three decades it has become increasingly recognized that systematic assessment of as high a proportion as possible of relevant research evidence is needed to protect the best interests of patients and the public. For example, this principle is manifested in clinical guidelines and, increasingly, in the design and monitoring of new research. For scientific and ethical reasons, those responsible for monitoring the progress of ongoing clinical trials may need to seek unpublished and interim data to protect the interests of actual or potential participants in research. ⋯ In this paper we review some of the commentaries on the issue and the few accounts of actual data monitoring committee experiences. We then present details of our own recent experience as members of the data monitoring committee for the BOOST-II UK trial (ISRCTN:0084226), one of five concurrent trials assessing the level of arterial oxygen which should be targeted in the care of very premature neonates. We conclude that efficient protection both of the interests of actual or potential participants in research and of science requires that data monitoring committees have access to all relevant research, including unpublished and interim data.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
WSG ADAPT - adjuvant dynamic marker-adjusted personalized therapy trial optimizing risk assessment and therapy response prediction in early breast cancer: study protocol for a prospective, multi-center, controlled, non-blinded, randomized, investigator initiated phase II/III trial.
Adjuvant treatment decision-making based on conventional clinical/pathological and prognostic single molecular markers or genomic signatures is a therapeutic area in which over-/under-treatment are still key clinical problems even though substantial and continuous improvement of outcome has been achieved over the past decades. Response to therapy is currently not considered in the decision-making procedure.ADAPT is one of the first new generation (neo)adjuvant trials dealing with individualization of (neo)adjuvant decision-making in early breast cancer and aims to establish early predictive surrogate markers, e.g., Ki-67, for therapy response under a short induction treatment in order to maximally individualize therapy and avoid unnecessary toxicity by ineffective treatment. ⋯ Recent trials, such as the GeparTrio, have shown that response-guided therapy using clinical response may improve outcome. For chemotherapy or HER2-targeted treatment, pathologic complete response in a neoadjuvant setting is an excellent predictor of outcome. For endocrine therapy, response to short induction treatment - as defined by decrease in tumor cell proliferation - strongly correlates with outcome. ADAPT now aims to combine static prognostic and dynamic predictive markers, focusing not just on single therapeutic targets, but also on general markers of proliferation and cell death. Biomarker analysis will help to optimize selection of subtype-specific treatment.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Phenylephrine versus ephedrine on cerebral perfusion during carotid endarterectomy (PEPPER): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Intraoperative arterial hypotension can lead to severe complications in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy, in particular if cerebral auto-regulation is impaired. Short-acting agents, such as phenylephrine or ephedrine, commonly used to correct intra-operative hypotension, have different hemodynamic effects. Recently, it was reported that, in healthy anesthetized subjects with intact cerebral auto-regulation, frontal lobe cerebral tissue oxygenation declined after phenylephrine bolus administration, while it was preserved after ephedrine use (Br J Anaesth 107:209-217, 2011; Neurocrit Care 12:17-23, 2010). However, the effect of both agents in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy is unknown. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of two routinely used vasopressors (phenylephrine and ephedrine) on the cerebral hemodynamics during carotid endarterectomy. ⋯ Phenylephrine and ephedrine are two of the most commonly used short-acting agents to increase blood pressure in clinical anesthesiologic practice. Monitoring of middle cerebral artery blood velocity with transcranial Doppler and frontal lobe cerebral tissue oxygenation with near infra-red spectroscopy are part of the standard of care. Furthermore, there are no reports that the three-minute modification in breathing frequency described in the "intervention"-section is harmful. Therefore, the risks for participating patients are negligible and the burden minimal.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in the prevention of relapse of depression: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Depression is a chronic illness that generally requires lifelong therapy. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive technique with few side effects that has been reported to be useful in the treatment of depression. However, no studies to date have evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) the efficacy of rTMS for maintenance treatment of depression. ⋯ The result of this trial will assess the efficacy of rTMS in the prevention of relapse of symptoms of depression by determining whether rTMS in combination with an antidepressant is more efficacious than the antidepressant alone for maintenance of the clinical response.