Learn about Research & Clinical Trials
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Epigenetic Regulation of Altered T-cell Immunity in Sarcoidosis
Sarcoidosis is a multi-system granulomatous disorder that is triggered and influenced by gene-environment interactions. Although sarcoidosis predominantly affects the lungs in most cases, the clinical disease course is highly variable and any organ can be affected leading to end organ damage despite currently available therapeutics that unfortunately also have numerous and potentially devastating side effects. The environmental triggers of sarcoidosis are unknown but several occupational, environmental and infectious agents have been associated with sarcoidosis in susceptible hosts. Exposure to these triggers result in inflammation,...
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Establishment of an ELISA for the Recognition of Procalcitonin Variants in Patients With Hyperprocalcitonemia.
Procalcitonin is a protein consisting of 116 amino-acids which can rapidly rise under inflammatory conditions and sepsis. More than 20 years ago it has been shown that dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) cleaves procalcitonin from the n-terminus, resulting in a truncated procalcitonin-variant which consists of 114 aminoacids. Within our workgroup we found that the truncated procalcitonin-variant had deleterious effects on vascular integrity during sepsis in mice. However, it is unknown if this applies also in humans. By using an ELISA-assay we want to examine the ratio between native and truncated human procalcitonin during diseases...
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European Management Platform for Childhood Interstitial Lung Diseases - chILD-EU Register and Biobank
Generation of a common European database and biobank Continous assessment and implementation of guidelines and treatment protocols Establishment of a large observational cohort of chILD patients Determination the value of outcomes used in child Assess treatment variations used, deliver data from defined protocols and linked outcomes
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Evaluate the Remission MAINtenance Using Extended Administration of Prednisone in Systemic Anti-neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies (ANCA)-Associated Vasculitis.
Immunosuppressive therapy of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA, Wegener's) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) has transformed the outcome from death to a strong likelihood of disease control and temporary remission. However, most patients have recurrent relapses that lead to damage and require repeated treatment associated with long-term morbidity and death. Rituximab has been shown to be as effective as cyclophosphamide to induce remission and maintenance of remission in severe GPA and MPA patients, with an acceptable safety profile . Although rituximab is becoming the standard of care for maintenance therapy in these ...
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Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Rituximab in Patients With Progressive Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) With Inflammatory Component: a Multicentre Double-blind Placebo-controlled Randomized Trial
The main objective of the EvER-ILD2 study is to evaluate the efficacy on lung function at 6 months of one course rituximab (2 infusions) comparatively to one course of placebo (2 infusions) in a broad range of progressive ILD patients with inflammatory component.
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Evaluation of HRCT Patterns in Systemic Sclerosis-associated Interstitial Lung Disease
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a heterogeneous systemic autoimmune disease with distinct prognosis according to patients. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) concerns almost 50 % of SSc patients and represents the main cause of mortality. SSc-ILD is variable: from limited forms (with asymptomatic patients) to extensive lesions. Disease course in SSc-ILD is also highly variable: patients can experience stable disease, slow or fast progression. Investigators performed unsupervised clustering analysis to classify SSc-ILD according to elementary radiological lesions on HRCT scan.
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Evaluation of Pneumoconiosis High Risk Early Warning Models
Precaution of pneumoconiosis is more important than treatment. However, the current process can't early warn the high-risk dust exposed workers until they are diagnosed with pneumoconiosis. With the feature of efficiency, impersonality and quantification, artificial intelligence is just appropriate for solving this problems. Therefore, we are aiming at adapting deep learning to develop models of pneumoconiosis intelligent detection, grade diagnosis and high risk early warning. The annotated images will be used for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) algorithm training, aiming at pneumoconiosis screening and grade diagnosis....
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Evaluation of the Value of 18F-Fluoromisonidazole (18F-FMISO) Positron Emission Tomography Hypoxia Imaging in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare, chronic, lethal disease of unknown etiology and with a variable course. There is currently no test in routine care that can assess both the anatomical and functional damage of the disease at an early stage. This is the first human study in IPF to evaluate the value of a non-invasive tracer, 18F-fluoromisonidazole (18F-FMISO), targeting hypoxia in IPF patients. This is a Phase I, proof-of-concept, single-center, open-label, parallel group study. It will include 2 groups: - 1 group of 10 IPF patients - 1 group of 10 healthy volunteers matched to IPF patients for age...
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Evolution of Lung 18FDG Uptake in Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Receiving Pirfenidone
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare and fatal lung disease characterized by unpredictable changes with variable kinetics of progression. Changes in pulmonary function (FVC, DLCO) assessed at the time of diagnosis, or decline in pulmonary function within 12 months after diagnosis, are the best predictors of survival, but poorly predicted disease activity and evolution. 18FDG positron emission tomography (18FDG PETscan) provides the ability to quantify cell metabolism in vivo and non-invasively using a labeled non-metabolizable substrate. Several parameters can be measured in an automated and reproducible way, such as the...
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Exhaled Breath Analysis Using eNose Technology as a Biomarker for Diagnosis and Disease Progression in Fibrotic ILD
The ILDnose study a multinational, multicenter, prospective, longitudinal study in outpatients with pulmonary fibrosis. The aim is to assess the accuracy of eNose technology as diagnostic tool for diagnosis and differentiation between the most prevalent fibrotic interstitial lung diseases. The value of eNose as biomarker for disease progression and response to treatment is also assessed. Besides, validity of several questionnaires for pulmonary fibrosis is investigated.
