All Clinical Trials in United Kingdom

* Aim: to analyse the effects of microcurrent treatment alone, and combined with a resistance exercise programme, on muscle strength, body composition and physical functional capacity in middle-aged adults. * Methods * Randomised, balanced, double-blind parallel-group between-participants design. * Participants - non-regularly trained adults (people who do not engage regularly in physical sessions), aged 40 to 65 years old. * All participants will be invited to take part in a 6-week supervised resistance training programme that will be combined with microcurrent (MC) or sham (SH) intervention. The participants who do not accept to undergo the resistance training programme will integrate a non-exercise group involving a 6-week intervention period using the microcurrent (MC) or the sham (SH) device. The devices will be provided by Arc4Health (ARC Microtech Ltd, UK; https://arcmicrotech.com/arc4health/). The device Arc4Health has regulatory approval as a Class IIa medical device in the areas of pain management and tissue repair. The following will be analysed: 1. Microcurrent alone (MC) 2. Microcurrent with exercise (MC + RT) 3. Sham alone (SH) 4. Sham with exercise (SH + RT) * The participants who agree to take part in the training programme will have 2 sessions a week for a period of 6 weeks. The training programme involves elastic bands and is designed to increase strength and muscle mass. * Measurements of body composition (via plethysmography BodPod), strength, functional capacity, muscular structure (via non-invasive ultrasound), and immunological blood markers will be undertaken at baseline and after the 6-week intervention period. Read Less

Better methods for early detection of cardiac involvement in Fabry disease are needed to inform clinical management decisions that can help prevent or slow the progression of cardiac complications. In the Molecular Imaging of Inflammation in Fabry Disease of the Heart study, the investigators will test the use of 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/MRI for identifying myocardial inflammation in patients with Fabry disease. Read Less

The United Kingdom has a high prevalence of asthma (over 12%) and some of the worst health outcomes in Europe. The management of respiratory disease and associated patient outcomes has long been an area of focus and improvement for the National Health Service. With the advancement of digital health technology, there is the potential to transform patient care and improve outcomes. The Aptar Digital Health respiratory disease management platform, a digital therapeutic will be utilized to determine its value and how it supports: i) asthma patient engagement and facilitates communication between patients and providers to accelerate medication adherence; ii) asthma control through the use of the Asthma Control Questionnaire-5. In addition, spirometry and fractioned exhaled nitric oxide will be utilized during the study to validate and enhance current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. Read Less

The research area that focuses on the links between nutrition and health, nutrition and the immune system as well as nutrition-related public health interventions, which often falls into the gap between the agricultural and health domains. The rationale of this project is to study the influence of beneficial diets on the immune system of pre-diabetic patients and its potential to counteract infections. A clinical, an in vitro (cell systems) and an in vivo (animal model) approach will be used to study the influence of a seaweed bioactive supplement and a diet rich in components from a Mediterranean diet on a Salmonella typhimurium infection in prediabetic subjects. At the end of this project, we will provide evidence on the potential of these nutritional interventions to counteract infection, which are of high relevance to the society to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and obesity. This research is part of an ongoing research project funded by the Research State Agency (Spain), Health Research Board (HRB, Ireland) and the Medical Research Council (MRC-UKRI, UK) via the NUTRIMMUNE' Grant of the Joint Programming Initiative a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (JPI-HDHL). Read Less

While 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has been used as an early marker of drug efficacy in numerous clinical cardiovascular drug trials, as a glucose analog, its signal in the vasculature lacks inflammatory cell-specificity. Moreover, high background 18F-FDG signals from the myocardium often preclude coronary artery imaging, despite attempts to suppress myocardial tracer uptake by dietary manipulation. These limitations of 18F-FDG for measuring changes in vascular inflammation arising from drug intervention highlight important unmet needs, which might be overcome by using a somatostatin receptor subtype-2 (SST2) PET tracer. Read Less

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the medium to long-term outcomes (3-10 years) after Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) in ambulatory children and young people with cerebral palsy. The participants will complete a survey, come to hospital for some measurements and tests. Some parents and children and young people will also be invited to take part in an interview to understand their experiences of SDR. Read Less

HDF is a dialysis technique which involves diffusion and convection. HDF with high convection volume has consistently shown to improve survival in dialysis patients in number of robust RCTs. The precise reason of this survival benefit remains unclear. The investigators hypothesize that this survival benefit with high volume HDF is related to enhanced middle molecule clearance and hemodynamic stability. However, this relationship has not been studied so far. This observational study is aimed to understand the relationship between HDF convection volume with middle molecules (Beta 2-Microglobulin) clearance during HDF. Exploring the relationship of HDF volume with middle molecules clearance has significant clinical ramifications. Only a minority of patients are able to achieve target convection volume. Understanding these relationships can rationalize the HDF prescription from convection volume-based prescription to β2-Microglobulin clearance-based prescription which may be applicable to wider range of patients. The relationship between pre-dialysis β2-Microglobulin levels and RKF offers the prospect of dispensing with pre- and post-dialysis urea and creatinine measurements and interdialytic urine collections, currently necessary for estimating RKF, thus simplifying its estimation. β2-Microglobulin reduction ratio and its component pre and post-dialysis β2-Microglobulin levels could therefore provide a composite estimate of small and middle molecule clearance and RKF. Read Less

The goal of this observational study is to to look for changes within the brain, and changes in body-to-brain signals in people with cancer and people who do not have cancer. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Are there differences in areas of the brain known to be related to appetite control, food reward and motivation, between participants with cancer related weight loss and healthy volunteers 2. Do responses to questionnaires and computer based tasks suggest participants with cancer related weight loss have reduced appetite and reduced motivation to eat compared to healthy volunteers, and if so, do questionnaires suggest that this is associated with any other symptoms? Researchers will compare the structure and blood flow in relevant areas of the brain using MRI images between participants with cancer related weight loss and healthy volunteers. Participants will complete questionnaires and computer based tasks to allow researchers to assess areas of the brain which become more active in response to different stimuli. Some computer based tasks will be performed during the MRI scan. This is called functional MRI. A further objective is to obtain an archive of blood samples which will be stored securely for future analysis if relevant hormones or analytes are identified that may be relevant to metabolism or body composition Read Less

BACKGROUND: Older patients with frailty have complex support needs. How they manage with daily tasks such as eating and drinking, mobilising, communicating their preferences, and the level of support they need, can vary on a day-to-day basis. They are at risk of rapid loss of functional independence when they are acutely unwell. When older people need input from multiple different professionals, ineffective communication is sadly very common. This leads to disjointed care, and patients becoming frailer and suffering avoidable health complications. One of the problems is that it can be difficult for healthcare professionals to build up a complete picture of a patient from brief verbal handovers and written information in medical records. It is believed that video-recordings capturing the changing functional abilities and support needs of individual patients could improve care-provider communication and support for older people. Smartphones with cameras are now a part of everyday life, and people often tell their stories using photographs and videos. However, video recording patients during care delivery is not commonplace. It is not know how patients and carers feel about being video recorded or whether video recordings improve care. AIM: To explore the perspectives of frail older patients, carers, and clinical staff around video recording during routine clinical care, and to understand how patient videos could impact on communication and care delivery across care transitions. METHODS: The study team will recruit frail, older inpatients, their carers, and clinical staff from a Medicine for the Elderly ward. Over three months, doctors, nurses, and therapists will securely record and view patient videos alongside providing usual care. Videos will capture patients' functional abilities and support needs to inform ongoing assessment and care delivery. The investigators will collect information from patients/ carers/ doctors/ nurses /therapists about their experiences of the video recording intervention through interviews and questionnaires. Read Less

The aims of this prospective natural history study are to define the seizure, neuro-developmental, and behavioural characteristics of SCN1A-related epilepsies/Dravet syndrome in children and adults longitudinally over a period of three years. In addition, this study will compare missense and truncating genotypes in terms of i) rates of change of countable convulsive seizures per month and ii) neurodevelopmental outcome and trajectories. Read Less

This is a pilot study to look at image quality of iDXA AP supine spinal images to see if the investigators can accurately measure the size of the curve from iDXA images and to see how patients with scoliosis feel about iDXA imaging compared to normal x-rays. With normal x-rays being taken standing (or sitting if patients are in a wheelchair), it is important that the investigators understand how the lying down images compare to the standing images. Where there may be some clinical benefit, images will be taken standing (normal x-rays) and lying down (iDXA images). The investigators will see if the addition of iDXA images can help in brace design and brace monitoring. Read Less

The purpose of this randomised control trial is to determine whether consuming PulseOn enriched crackers for breakfast influences post-prandial glycaemic response and markers of appetite (hunger, fullness, desire to eat) over 4 hours, and energy intake at an ad libitum lunch meal on the same day. Healthy individuals with no underlying metabolic disease will be recruited to take part in this study. Read Less