University of Maryland, Baltimore

A standard polyenergetic CT (computed tomography) procedure utilizes 100 ml of iodinated contrast. A recent world-wide shortage of iodine based intravenous contrast has highlighted the need to search for alternative methods or doses. Reducing iodinated IV contrast dose can mitigate IV contrast supply shortages and enable significant cost savings for the radiology practice and hospital system. In addition, decreased IV contrast dose can potentially reduce the rate of acute kidney injury, specifically in patients with decreased renal function. The purpose of the study is to determine whether low IV contrast dose CT with monoenergetic reconstruction can be use for presurgical planning of transcatheter valve replacement (TAVR) procedure.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2023

open study

The HIP ATTACK-2 trial is a multicentre, international, parallel group randomized controlled trial to determine whether accelerated surgery for hip fracture in patients with acute myocardial injury is superior to standard care in reducing death at 90 days after randomization. The trial will also assess secondary outcomes at 90 days after randomization: inability to independently walk 3 metres, time to first mobilization (first standing and first full weight bear), composite and individual assessment of major complications (e.g., mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction, acute congestive heart failure, and stroke), delirium, length of stay, pain, and quality of life.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Nov 2021

open study

This is an open-label, non-randomized study. Volunteers will be vaccinated with the typhoid oral vaccine, Vivotif. Vivotif has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for travelers to developing countries. Volunteers will also be asked to provide blood, saliva, and stool specimens over a follow-up time period of up to eight years. The specimens obtained in this clinical research study will be used to further the investigator's understanding of the protective immunological mechanisms that can be elicited systemically and may be applicable to other enteric pathogens.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jan 2004

open study

The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and effectiveness of MRI-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) for treating task specific focal hand dystonias (TSFD). TSFD is a type of dystonia that affects hand movements during specific tasks such as writing, playing instruments or typing, often causing involuntarily movements or cramping.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2024

open study

A multicenter, international, prospective, observational case series patient cohort with incomplete cervical SCI without instability will be enrolled to obtain information and data that could inform the feasibility of administering a set of additional core and optional outcome assessments in cervical SCI patients to capture the aspects of neurologic impairment. Baseline, intraoperative, and postoperative characteristics, including demographics, injury details, treatment details, neurological assessments, gait and balance assessments and upper extremity assessments, will be recorded for adult patients.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Dec 2023

open study

The study will enroll 200 women newly diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy within 5 months postpartum in a randomized placebo controlled trial of bromocriptine therapy to evaluate its impact on myocardial recovery and clinical outcomes. Given that bromocriptine prevents breastfeeding, an additional 50 women with peripartum cardiomyopathy excluded from the trial due to a desire to continue breastfeeding but meeting all other entry criteria will be followed in an observational cohort.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2022

open study

The APOLLO study is being done in an attempt to improve outcomes after kidney transplantation and to improve the safety of living kidney donation based upon variation in the apolipoprotein L1 gene (APOL1). Genes control what is inherited from a family, such as eye color or blood type. Variation in APOL1 can cause kidney disease. African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Hispanic Blacks, and Africans are more likely to have the APOL1 gene variants that cause kidney disease. APOLLO will test DNA from kidney donors and recipients of kidney transplants for APOL1 to determine effects on kidney transplant-related outcomes.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Mar 2019

open study

The goal of this study is to rapidly cool trauma victims who have suffered cardiac arrest from bleeding with a flush of ice-cold sodium chloride to preserve the patient to enable surgical control of bleeding, followed by delayed resuscitation with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2016

open study

Warfighter Performance Optimization in Extreme Environments remains an area of important and intense investigation, with the following goals: (1) Optimize, sustain and augment medical readiness and physiological/ psychological performance in extreme and hazardous military operational environments and (2) develop joint DoD countermeasures and guidance to sustain performance, assess physiological status, and reduce injury risk in extreme and hazardous operational environments. Successful and safe outcomes in extreme and hazardous operational environments require that warfighters maintain optimum cognitive and exercise performance during physiologic stress. Extreme environmental conditions encountered in such environments include warfighter exposure to hypoxia and hypothermia, alone or in combination. Both hypoxia and hypothermia undermine O2 delivery system homeostasis, imposing dangerous constraints upon warfighter cognitive and exercise capacity. While red blood cells (RBCs) are commonly recognized as O2 transport agents, their function as a key signaling and control node in O2 system delivery homeostasis is newly appreciated. Through O2 content-responsive modulation of RBC energetics, biomechanics, O2 affinity and control of vasoactive effectors in plasma - RBCs coordinate stabilizing responses of the lung, heart, vascular tree and autonomic nervous system - in a fashion that maintains O2 delivery system homeostasis in the setting of either reduced O2 availability (hypobaric hypoxia) or increased O2 demand (hypothermia). Human RBCs demonstrate adaptive responses to exercise, hypoxia and hypothermia - these changes are commonly appreciated as a key element enabling high altitude adaptation. However, under conditions of hypoxia and hypothermia, without prior adaptation, RBC performance is adversely impacted and limits the dynamic range of stress adaptation for O2 delivery homeostasis - therefore limiting warfighter exercise capacity and cognitive performance in extreme environments, such as during acute mountain sickness.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Dec 2023

open study

Parallel-group, prospective, randomized, controlled phase III trial of home High flow Nasal Therapy (HFNT) via myAirvo 3 plus usual COPD medical care vs. usual COPD medical care, for at least 1 year and up to two years in 642 GOLD Grade D, Stages II-IV patients with moderate to very severe COPD at risk for moderate and severe exacerbations with a prior history of severe exacerbation requiring hospitalization within the past 6 weeks.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2022

open study

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness (prevention of thromboembolic events) and safety (major bleeding) of adding oral anticoagulation (OAC) to background antiplatelet therapy in patients who develop new-onset post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF) after isolated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. All patients with a qualifying POAF event, who decline randomization, will be offered the option of enrollment in a parallel registry that captures their baseline risk profile and their treatment strategy in terms of anticoagulants or antiplatelets received. These patients will also be asked to fill out a brief decliner survey.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2019

open study

The purpose of this study is to learn about the safety, tolerability and immune effects of a pneumococcal vaccine in toddlers. Participants will take part in this study for approximately 6 or 8 months depending on which group they are assigned to. During this time participants will have 2 clinic visits and 1 phone visit for the 1-Dose group, or 3 clinic visits and 1 phone visit for the 2-Dose group. At these clinic visits, participants will be asked if any side effects were experienced. The participants will also have to give blood samples during some clinic visits.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2024

open study

The COPE-AKI study is a randomized, pragmatic, parallel-arm trial comparing a multimodal intervention to usual care on hospital-free days through 90 days of study follow up. The primary study hypothesis is that patients randomized to the intervention will have increased odds of more hospital-free days through 90 days (primary clinical) compared to those randomized to usual care. Key secondary hypotheses will investigate the impact of the intervention on rates of major adverse kidney events, rates of recurrent AKI, and changes in patient-reported outcomes. Participants (N=2145) will be allocated 1:1 to the intervention or usual care using a web-based system to maintain allocation concealment using stratified randomization with randomly permuted blocks. Randomization will be stratified by clinical site.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2023

open study

This study is being done to see if the investigators can improve the outcome of patients with biliary tract cancer that do not qualify for surgery. This study will compare the effects, good and/or bad, of using a combination of standard of care chemoimmunotherapy, with the addition of radiation and deep hyperthermia. In this study, participants will be receiving standard of care chemoimmunotherapy (gemcitabine, cisplatin, and durvalumab), radiation (spatially fractionated radiation therapy), and deep hyperthermia. Chemoimmunotherapy Chemoimmunotherapy is when chemotherapy drugs are combined with immunotherapy drugs. Chemotherapy uses different drugs to kill or slow the growth of cancer cells, whereas immunotherapy drugs are used to help the immune system attack cancer cells. For this study, the drugs Gemcitabine, Cisplatin, and Durvalumab will be used. Chemoimmunotherapy will be delivered over 4 cycles for this study and can continue longer if the treating physician decides this is appropriate. Each cycle will last 3 weeks. Spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT) SFRT is a form of radiation therapy that gives a single large dose of radiation to large tumors or tumors that do not qualify for surgery. This is not a standard type of treatment for people with this diagnosis. For this study, participants will be receiving radiation once on day 1 of the second chemoimmunotherapy cycle. Deep Hyperthermia (HT) Hyperthermia is used in combination with chemoimmunotherapy and radiation treatment in this study. Hyperthermia has the potential to make both chemotherapy and radiation treatments more effective. For this study, participants will receive HT three times: on the first day of cycles 2, 3, and 4 of chemoimmunotherapy.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2024

open study

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the impacts of an attachment-based intervention (Attachment Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC) and Home Book-of-the-Week (HBOW) program on emerging health outcomes (i.e., common childhood illnesses, body mass index, and sleep) in low-income Latino children (N=260; 9 months at enrollment). It is hypothesized that children randomized to ABC will have better health outcomes in comparison to the HBOW control group.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2023

open study

People with psychotic disorders are excluded from most suicide-focused clinical trials despite incredibly high rates of completed suicide, and interventions that have been tested for this population have shown limited impact on suicide. Emotion dysregulation is a significant suicidogenic factor that is understudied in people with psychotic disorders. The investigators propose to implement and evaluate an intervention targeting emotion dysregulation in people with psychotic disorders while employing rigorous statistical modeling and measurement techniques including Ecological Momentary Assessment, which will support future advanced research on suicide and suicide prevention for this high-risk group.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2022

open study

There is need for a whole blood analog for use when banked blood is unavailable or undesirable. In civilian trauma, hemorrhage accounts for ~ 35% of pre-hospital deaths; moreover, ~ 20% of military casualties are in hemorrhagic shock on arrival to field hospitals and an additional 5% require urgent transfusion. A recent review concluded that hemorrhage accounted for ~ 90% of potentially survivable battlefield deaths - lives that could be saved with better hemorrhage control capabilities and improved, field-ready blood, blood components, or blood substitutes. While study of ideal composition for resuscitative fluids is ongoing, it is evident that for those in hemorrhagic shock, volume replenishment alone (without O2 carrying capacity) is insufficient. Alternatively, with massive blood loss or with ongoing bleeding from non-compressible injuries, resuscitation with an O2 carrier alone may be complicated by acquired coagulopathy (either dilutional or trauma-induced). Development of a balanced resuscitation fluid that treats both shock and coagulopathy (comprising a field-deployable O2 carrier with lyophilized humoral hemostatic components and platelets) is essential to allow on-scene treatment during the critical 'golden-hours' after injury. As such, the whole blood analog described herein could be this product, thus transforming care in both civilian and military settings.The scientific purpose of this study is to develop a combined whole blood substitute from individual artificial prototypes that have been separately developed for each blood component (i.e., combining an artificial oxygen carrier, with an artificial plasma analogue and an artificial platelet analogue). Together, these combined components will recapitulate the composition and performance of natural whole blood. Blending and combination experiments of the individual artificial prototypes will be performed to test compatibility and optimize efficacy. State of the art in vitro (bench top) assays will be performed to assess physicochemical and functional performance (hemodynamics, oxygen delivery, hemostasis), with data being compared to experiments performed on fresh and stored whole blood.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Apr 2023

open study

The hypotheses to be tested in this application is: GLP-1 will acutely protect arterial endothelial function and reduce pro-atherothrombotic and pro-coagulant effects of repeated hypoglycemia in T1DM.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2020

open study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the treatment regimen of using Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) and Hypo-fractionated Radiation Therapy to treat patients with recurrent gliomas.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jan 2020

open study

Hypoglycemia can produce a spectrum of pro-inflammatory and pro-atherothrombotic changes. To date no studies appear to have investigated the effects of differing levels of hypoglycemia on the vasculature and pro-atherothrombotic balance during hypoglycemia in healthy man. The specific aim of our study will be to determine the effects of differing levels of hypoglycemia on in-vivo vascular biologic mechanisms in a healthy population.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2015

open study

Exercise is a cornerstone of diabetes management. It helps reduce blood pressure, promote weight loss, lower insulin resistance and improve glucose and lipid (triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol) profiles. Unfortunately, the benefits of exercise are often not embraced by diabetic individuals because of the fear of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). My laboratory has demonstrated that Autonomic nervous system (ANS) counterregulatory failure plays an important role in exercise associated hypoglycemia in Type 1 DM. ANS responses are significantly reduced in Type 1 DM and are further blunted by antecedent episodes of hypoglycemia. Furthermore, there is a large sexual dimorphism of reduced ANS responses during submaximal exercise in both Type 1 DM and healthy individuals that is unexplained. Accumulating data are demonstrating that serotonergic pathways can regulate ANS discharge. Generally, serotonergic pathways are inhibitory but both single and longer term administration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) such as Prozac has been demonstrated to increase basal epinephrine levels and enhance baroreflex control of Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. What is unknown is whether fluoxetine can also enhance SNS responses and also override the large ANS sexual dimorphism present during sub maximal exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if the SSRI fluoxetine (Prozac) can improve SNS responses during exercise.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2012

open study

This clinical research study is being done to answer questions about how to treat cancer. To clear cancer cells from the body, the immune system needs the action of proteins called Type 1 interferons. The protein STING (for STimulator of INterferon Genes) stimulates the body to make Type 1 interferons. Type 1 interferons activate key molecules in cancer immunity to kill cancer cells. CRD3874 is a synthetic drug that activates STING, and STING stimulates the immune system to kill cancer cells. In experiments on blood from humans, CRD3874 makes blood cells produce molecules responsible for anti-cancer activity. CRD3874 was tested in mice with cancers including leukemia, head and neck cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and sarcoma. In these mice, CRD3874 made tumors shrink or disappear, and some mice developed long-lasting immunity against cancer. Also, when CRD3874 was given with other anti-cancer treatments, it increased their anti-cancer effects.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2024

open study

Approximately 150 patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) associated with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) will be randomized at up to 40 sites. Patients will be randomly assigned to either Auxora or matching placebo. Study drug infusions will occur every 24 hours for five consecutive days for a total of five infusions.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2024

open study

This study seeks to improve the treatment of chronic pain in people who are taking buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone, Subutex, Zubsolv). The research study is testing two different interventions along with usual clinical care: 1. Pain Self-Management (PSM): an educational program in which individuals with chronic pain work with a trained pain coach and a pain peer to explore strategies to effectively manage the daily problems that arise from chronic pain. 2. Patient-Oriented Dosing (POD): an alternative dosing of buprenorphine which will be adjusted based on pain levels. The interventions will take place over a period of 12 weeks (3 months). Additionally, participants will complete surveys every 3 months for a period of 1 year (total of 5 survey visits). Participants will receive $50 compensation for each survey visit completed (up to $250 over one year) and can receive up to an additional $100 bonus compensation. There are risks associated with participating in the study, including breach of confidentiality, psychological distress caused by discussing difficult topics, and risks associated with the POD intervention.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: May 2024

open study

Advances in our understanding of the pathogenesis of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) have opened up possibilities of new therapies to prevent disease progression. High quality clinical investigations in patients with ADPKD, however, pose significant challenges to investigators including limited access to patients with ADPKD,insufficient guidance by experienced investigators and lack of resources to conduct these studies. The Polycystic Kidney Disease Research Clinical and Translational Core (P30) aims to establish an infrastructure that will assist investigators in designing and conducting highest quality clinical and translational research focused on a diverse group of patients with ADPKD. Objective 1: To establish a Mid-Atlantic cohort of ADPKD patients (N=350) with baseline clinical phenotyping performed at the General Clinical Research Unit of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Objective 2: To establish a state-of-the-art biobank of specimens from the ADPKD cohort including serum, plasma,urine and DNA. Objective 3: To develop a collaborative network of physicians and practices in the Mid-Atlantic region who will contribute to the ADPKD cohort and will be willing to refer patients for future studies and trials. Objective 4: To establish a web-based registry of ADPKD patients in the Mid-Atlantic area.

Type: Observational [Patient Registry]

Start Date: Mar 2013

open study