All Clinical Trials in Canada

Background: In premature babies, many organ systems are not fully grown and developed, including the lungs and respiratory muscles, so they will need breathing support to help them to breathe by preventing their tiny air sacs to collapse. This support commonly done by CPAP and Non-Invasive Positive Pressure Ventilation (NIPPV) therapy by giving some pressure and oxygen to their lungs through an interface placed on their noses. Both (CPAP and NIPPV) can be used as a support modality for respiratory distress syndrome, apnea of prematurity, and providing breathing support after extubation from the full mechanical breathing support. The CPAP supports the baby's immature lungs by delivering constant pressure to keep their lungs and breathing well supported. Whereas the NIPPV will use constant pressure in the background (similar to CPAP), and on top, it will give extra intermittent puffs at regular intervals to support the baby's breathing. The NIPPV is the most common choice by the clinicians when the traditional CPAP is no longer effective, to avoid the full mechanical breathing support and to protect the developing lungs. Studies suggested that NIPPV is better than the traditional CPAP in reducing the need of the baby to need full mechanical breathing support. This might be because the investigators tend to use lower pressures with CPAP (5-8 cmH2O) compared to relatively higher pressures with NIPPV. More recently, clinicians showed the safety of using equivalent higher CPAP pressures (\>9 cmH2O) to what the investigators use in the NIPPV in preterm babies. One way to measure the support that the investigators are giving to the patient with the different devices is to measure the diaphragm activity, which the investigators call the Edi signal, using a special feeding catheter and a specific machine to measure it. The catheter is placed and used as a routine feeding tube but has sensors at the end to measure this Edi signal. One opening of the tube will be connected to a computer to record the Edi signals. The other opening of the tube will be used for feeding. Read Less

This study is one of the three projects of an NIH Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium. A "consortium" is a group of centres sharing information and resources to perform research. The consortium research focuses on brain blood vessel malformations in three different rare diseases. The focus of this specific study is on Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT). HHT is a condition characterized by blood vessel malformations, called telangiectasia and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), occurring in the brain, nose, lungs, stomach, bowels and liver. Brain AVMs (BAVMs) in HHT are difficult to study because they are rare, affecting approximately 10% of people with HHT. While other types of BAVMs have been studied in depth, studies in the HHT population have been very small. Here, we propose the first large-scale collaboration by joining with 12 HHT Centers of Excellence in North America to perform a large study of risk factors for bleeding from BAVMs, called intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in HHT patients. The current standard of clinical practice across North America, is to screen all HHT patients for BAVMs with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). If BAVMs are detected, patients are referred to a multidisciplinary neurovascular team for consideration for treatment. Treatment decisions are made on a case by case basis, balancing risks of complications from the BAVM with risks of therapy, but are limited by the few studies available in HHT. We hope that the knowledge we obtain about the risk factors for intracranial bleeding in these patients from this larger study will help us to improve the care of HHT patients. We plan to study risk factors for rupture of BAVMs, including primarily genetics and imaging characteristics of the BAVMs. Knowledge about risk factors will help in the care and management of HHT patients. This will be achieved through the collection of health information to construct a HHT database, blood sampling and banking (through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke \[NINDS\]), and through genetic analysis at the University of California San Francisco. Read Less

Effective pain control is important following breast surgery as it improves quality of recovery, decreases the risk of chronic pain development and reduction of overall health care cost. Current strategies of pain management for breast surgery include use of opioid medication or addition of regional anesthesia along with general anesthesia. Serratus block and parasternal infrapectoral blocks are newly developed fascial plane blocks that are technically easy to perform, effective and safe based on our daily clinical practice and published evidence. We are comparing the addition of serratus and parasternal infrapectoral nerve block with general anesthesia to a combination of placebo and general anesthesia for breast reduction surgery. We propose that this would result in an improved efficiency resulting in early hospital discharge and improve quality of patient care, following breast reduction surgery. Read Less

Evaluate surgical treatment outcomes and identify best practice guidelines for complex adult spinal deformity (ASD) patients, including radiographic and clinical outcomes, surgical and postoperative complications, risk factors for and revision surgery rates, and the role of standard work to improve patient outcomes and reduce surgical and postoperative complications. Read Less

Rates of obesity in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (SSD)s have reached epidemic proportions, with established contributing effects of antipsychotic (AP) medications. Among agents approved for chronic weight management, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) are associated with reductions in cardiovascular mortality, with recent FDA approval for once weekly semaglutide for this indication. This study will investigate whether semaglutide is effective in reducing body weight in overweight or obese individuals with SSDs who are on APs and do not demonstrate adequate weight loss on metformin (the first line treatment for weight loss in SSDs). Read Less

This research is a continuation of a usability study with the MARVIN chatbot. The investigators aim to adapt the MARVIN chatbot to open it to other health domains (e.g. breast cancer) and populations (e.g. pharmacists). Therefore, this protocol constitutes a master research protocol that will englobe different research projects with individual chatbots. The investigators adopt an adaptive platform trial design, which will allow flexibility in handling multiple interventions adapted to different populations while retaining the characteristics of a platform trial design allowing early withdrawal of ineffective trial arms based on interim data (implementation outcomes) and introduction of new trial arms. Read Less

The study is a prospective, randomized, single-blind controlled superiority trial to evaluate the effect of viewing an informative animated video a day prior to surgery on preoperative anxiety in pediatric patients scheduled for elective otoplasty. The primary outcome will be modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS) score at the time of general anesthesia induction compared between families that were assigned to view the animated video the day before and those that were not. The participants for this study will be children undergoing elective otoplasty at the IWK Health Centre. Those participants randomized to the intervention group will receive a link to a short survey gauging parent anxiety levels. The survey will be followed by a link to an informative animated video which the participants and their families will watch. The control group will be participants assigned not to receive the email link to the informative animated video. Read Less

The goal of this project is to learn about differences in bone development between children with and without type-1 diabetes (T1D). The main questions this study aims to answer are: 1. Assess how and when sex-specific bone developmental trajectories in the leg and arm will differ between children with T1D and control cohorts relative to the critical period of rapid skeletal growth in puberty. It is hypothesized that children with T1D will have inferior bone development, particularly lower gains in bone strength. 2. Assess why bone trajectories differ between T1D and control cohorts by identifying the role of body composition, site-specific muscle force and physical activity on differences in bone properties in female and male children with and without T1D. It is hypothesized that children with T1D will have lower gains in lean mass, muscle force, number of daily bone impacts and minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity and will be associated with inferior gains in bone development. 3. Assess why T1D may impair sex-specific bone development by exploring the role of disease-related factors (e.g., duration, glucose control, hormones and markers of bone turnover) and fracture history on bone trajectories of children with T1D. It is hypothesized that longer exposure to T1D, poorer glucose control, alterations in hormones, lower bone formation markers and higher history of fracture will be negatively associated with bone trajectories of children with T1D. Participant's physical growth, bone growth, muscle strength, physical activity and nutrition habits will be assessed and followed up annually for up to 4 years. Read Less

Volume and Dose De-Intensified Radiotherapy for p16+ Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oropharynx: A Multi-Centre, Single Arm Prospective Cohort Study Read Less

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is one of the standard clinical treatments for infertility. ICSI involves the injection of a single sperm into an oocyte with a sharp micropipette. Injecting a sperm with DNA fragmentation (i.e., physical breakage of the DNA double strands) into the oocyte deterministically lowers the IVF fertilization rate \[1\]\[2\] and increases the miscarriage rate \[3\]\[4\]. Since the invention of ICSI in 1992, single sperm selection in ICSI has been made manually by embryologists, who select sperm by qualitatively choosing sperm with "good" motility and/or morphology based on their empirical experience. This involves significant subjectivity and inconsistency. We have developed a robotic system to select sperm with low sperm DNA fragmentation. Automated sperm selection also eliminates the subjectivity and inconsistency in manual sperm selection. The system consists of a camera to acquire images of sperm and a software to analyze the images. Embryologists select sperm by observing the same sperm characteristics as in the software criteria (e.g., speed etc.), but the software provides a more accurate and quantitative measure of sperm characteristics, thus ensuring the selected sperm have low DNA fragmentation. Read Less

Interventions that target excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG) with nutrition and exercise behavior change struggle with low program adherence. The investigators recently examined adherence in a randomized controlled trial to a previously established lifestyle program called the Nutrition and Exercise Lifestyle Intervention Program (NELIP) and found that those individuals with high adherence to the program were more likely to prevent EGWG. Perhaps offering participants a choice to intervention strategies may improve adherence. The current research question is: What impact does participant choice have on adherence to the introduction of nutrition and exercise components during 3 intervention strategies offered to pregnant individuals compared to no choice and does choice maintain pregnancy health outcomes? The strategies are: Group A - introducing both the nutrition and exercise components simultaneous at baseline (12-18 weeks of pregnancy) that is followed to delivery (NELIP); Group B - introducing the nutrition component first and then at 25 weeks adding the exercise component; or Group C - starting with the exercise component first, followed with introducing the nutrition component at 25 weeks. Both Groups B and C follow the full NELIP from 25 weeks to delivery (final intervention measures will occur at 34-36 weeks gestation). Follow-up will occur at birth (6-18 hours), 2, 6 and 12 months post delivery. Read Less

The prefrontal cortex, although well established as an efficacious target for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), has recently come into favour as a therapeutic target for alcohol use disorders (AUD). Depressive symptoms are also highly prevalent in individuals with AUD. A number of cognitive and psychological processes stemming from the prefrontal cortex, a common treatment target for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), are disrupted in both MDD and AUD. The proposed study will enhance the development of theta burst stimulation (TBS) as a new intervention for AUD in the context of depressive symptoms and uses integrated TMS-EEG to identify neurophysiological targets of executive dysfunction in this disorder. Read Less