All Clinical Trials

Oropharyngeal dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, is a devastating condition that affects physiological and psychosocial functioning in 1 in 25 adults. Many dysphagia treatments exist, but our ability to adequately measure treatment outcomes is limited. Pharyngeal high-resolution manometry (pHRM) directly measures swallowing pressures, providing an objective measurement of physiology that characterizes the basic mechanisms of swallowing. pHRM is well-poised to measure outcomes of dysphagia treatments due to its direct, objective, and reproducible measures of swallowing function. This proposed project will address a central hypotheses that objective swallowing measures (including (pHRM) will reveal treatment-mediated swallowing changes, will align with patient-reported outcome measures, and will be able to predict who will benefit from treatment. The investigators will follow a cohort of participants with oropharyngeal dysphagia as they undergo either pharyngeal strengthening therapy or relief of upper esophageal sphincter outlet obstruction at three time points: baseline, mid-treatment (4-6 weeks) and post-treatment (10-12 weeks). The investigators will compare participants to healthy controls using pHRM, videofluoroscopy, diet assessment, functional reserve tests, and patient-reported outcome measures. Read Less

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a major public health issue in both children and adults, present in 1-5% of children and 10-30% of adults. It is characterized by repeated episodes of airway obstruction during sleep, leading to brain arousal, sympathetic activation, oxygen desaturation, sleep fragmentation, and non-restorative sleep. Patients report daytime tiredness, insomnia, and morning headaches. Children with OSA experience daytime somnolence, difficulties at school, behavioral problems, enuresis, and reduced quality of life. If left untreated, OSA can lead to numerous complications including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and insulin resistance. Sleep partners are also affected, with patients viewing their disorder as a burden and sleeping in separate rooms. Further, disease prevalence is increasing as obesity increases. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the current gold standard treatment for OSA. If used effectively and consistently, it can improve patient symptoms. However, adherence is generally poor, with patients experiencing physical discomfort, chest discomfort, and dry mouth. For those patients that cannot tolerate CPAP, surgical intervention is an option. In children, this typically starts with adenotonsillectomy. However, 20-75% of children will have persistent symptoms after adenotonsillectomy. In adults, anatomic factors including tonsil hypertrophy and redundant pharyngeal tissue can contribute to upper airway obstruction and may also necessitate higher pressures for effective CPAP treatment. Even if surgical intervention does not cure the OSA, it may make CPAP more tolerable and improve CPAP adherence. Sleep-related airway obstruction is a complex phenomenon potentially involving multiple anatomic levels. For patients with persistent symptoms despite initial therapy or intolerance to CPAP, further evaluation of the upper airway is clinically valuable. Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSA, but it does not provide information on the location(s) of upper airway obstruction. Knowledge of the precise sites of obstruction is critical to planning effective sleep surgery. Currently, this is accomplished with drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE). DISE was originally proposed in 1991 and involves administering anesthetic to a patient to simulate a sleep state, and then visualizing the upper airway using transnasal flexible endoscopy. Sites of obstruction at key locations including the adenoids, soft palate, lateral oropharynx, tongue base, and epiglottis can be identified. Though DISE offers valuable clinical information, it has notable limitations. First, it cannot evaluate the entire upper airway simultaneously, as any obstruction occurring superiorly precludes visualization of any obstruction occurring more inferiorly. Second, interpretation of DISE is subjective and there is no universally accepted system for analysis. Rating systems are qualitative, using grades such as complete, partial, or no obstruction as opposed to quantitative measurements. The optimal sleep assessment would be quantitative, reliable, and provide information on the entire upper airway simultaneously. A potential alternative to DISE which could meet these criteria is sleep manometry. Measurement of upper airway pressures captures the effects of obstruction along the entire upper airway, from the nasopharynx to larynx. Prior studies have attempted to employ manometry, but have been limited primarily by inadequate equipment and suboptimal methods of data analysis. Woodson et al. used a solid-state manometer with diameter of 2.3 mm and 5 sensors to detect palatal obstruction and tongue base obstruction in patients with OSA. They also used the same approach to detect persistent tongue base obstruction following uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. While these studies help demonstrate that manometry can be a useful adjunct to OSA assessment, they are severely limited both by the type of manometer used as well as the lack of a clear, detailed description of the method of data analysis. High-resolution manometry (HRM) uses pressure censors spaced 1 cm apart to allow for pressure measurement along the entire upper airway. The investigators have previously applied HRM to assessment of swallow physiology. Sophisticated methods of automated data analysis have been developed that have been shown to be reliable for both expert and novice users . Further, pattern recognition techniques have been applied to identify dysphagia and specific swallowing abnormalities. Application of this technology and modification of existing data analysis platforms will allow for a quantitative, reliable, and comprehensive assessment of upper airway obstruction during sleep in both children and adults, with potential for development of algorithms to predict effects of targeted surgical therapy at all levels of the upper airway. Read Less

The proposed of this randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled study is to assess the effect of SAMe compared to placebo in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis Child Class A and B. The primary objective of the study is to test relationship between SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) supplement on liver function. The hypothesis is that SAMe supplement will improve liver function in patients with alcoholic liver disease. The improvement in liver function will lead to the reduction in all-cause mortality in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis in those who receive SAMe supplement when compared to those receiving placebo. Read Less

This study is a Phase 3 multi-site, randomized, evaluator-masked, study of endurance treadmill exercise on changes in the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part III score at 12 months among persons with early stage Parkinson disease. 370 participants will be randomly assigned to 2 groups: 1)60-65% HRmax or 2)80-85% HRmax 4 times per week. The primary objective is to test whether the progression of the signs of Parkinson's disease is attenuated at 12 months in among persons who have not initiated medication for Parkinson Disease (PD) when they perform high-intensity endurance treadmill exercise. Read Less

The investigators have developed a novel robot-guided stretching under intelligent control and combine it with active movement training, which helped increase joint ROM, reduce spasticity and joint stiffness, increase muscle force output, and improve locomotion. However, for stroke survivors with sensorimotor impairment, their peripheral muscle may not sufficiently be recruited. Functional electrical stimulation (FES), has been shown its advantage to activate the peripheral muscles for people with neurological conditions. The investigators thus make a hybrid robot-FES rehabilitation system, combining the advantage of robot and FES technologies for stroke motor recovery. The investigators further would like to translate the technologies from lab to home-based training. Thus, the investigators will conduct a randomized, controlled, primarily home-based clinical trial using an ankle robot alone or combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES) to treat sensorimotor and locomotion impairments post-stroke. Read Less

This is a prospective cohort study designed to investigate the range of metabolic abnormalities observed in patients living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy. This study will also explore the concurrent role of poor oral health in supporting and driving chronic immune activation and inflammation in HIV infection. Read Less

In this study, haploidentical relatives of a patient with recurrent or metastatic HPV 16-associated malignancy will be vaccinated with a therapeutic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series to generate HPV-specific leukocytes. The cancer patient with recurrent or metastatic HPV16+ cancer will then be randomized to one of two arms: 1) non-myeloablative allogeneic bone marrow transplant or 2) cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8)-depleted donor lymphocyte infusion. Read Less

This phase II trial investigates whether proton radiation therapy directed to the prostate tumor, pelvic, and para-aortic lymph nodes, is an effective way to treat patients with high-risk or lymph node positive prostate cancer who are receiving radiation therapy, and if it will result in fewer gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects. Proton beam therapy is a new type of radiotherapy that directs multiple beams of protons (positively charged subatomic particles) at the tumor target, where they deposit the bulk of their energy with essentially no residual radiation beyond the tumor. By reducing the exposure of the healthy tissues and organs to radiation in the treatment of prostate cancer, proton therapy has the potential to better spare healthy tissue and reduce the side effects of radiation therapy. Read Less

The investigators propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial with a wait-list control to determine efficacy in reducing risk of obesity and related disease in Native American employees of Twin Arrows Casino. Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group or the wait-list control. The experimental group will receive a 12-week mNDPR nutrition intervention with culturally relevant materials. Five NAU Masters of Public Health (MPH) students will be trained in Motivational Interviewing and the mNDPR nutrition protocol to serve as Lifestyle Coaches. These students will lead weekly, group-based coaching sessions with up to 15 participants each at Twin Arrows Casino. Participants will be assigned to their designated group based on their availability. The 12 weekly group sessions will be scheduled to accommodate various work shifts (day, night, and swing). The first group session will be 2-hours long to serve as an 'immersion', followed by weekly 1-hour sessions, all led by the Lifestyle Coaches. The Lifestyle Coaches will use Motivational Interviewing techniques to assist participants to develop personal goals. Lifestyle Coaches will also provide nutrition education, specifically using the mNDPR protocol. Participants in the wait-list control will receive the same intervention after the experimental group completes their 12-week intervention. In addition to measures at weeks 0 and 13, a 24-hour diet recall will be conducted in week 26 for the experimental group to explore long-term durability of diet quality changes. Read Less

The overall goal of this proposal is to investigate effects of obesity on pharmacokinetics of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and to develop strategies for optimization of dosing of IgG in obese patients. There is an ongoing debate regarding the most appropriate dosing of IgG formulations in obese patients. Obesity poses significant health risks; and evidence supporting dosing strategies of IgG in obese patients is inadequate. Some of the adverse reactions have been attributed to a relative overdosing in these patients, due to a limited distribution of IgG into fat tissue. Read Less

The Rett Global Registry is a fully remote, global, caregiver-reported registry to collect information about caring for a loved one with Rett syndrome. In addition, caregivers have the ability to track and graph their loved one's symptoms and care strategies over time, store information for central access, and opt-in to complete medical record consolidation and summary. Qualified researchers and therapeutic developers may request access to de-identified aggregate information to further Rett research, or assist with clinical development planning to facilitate and expedite more effective clinical trials. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to learn whether it is safe to give HER2-CAR T cells in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor drug (pembrolizumab or nivolumab), to learn what the side effects are, and to see whether this therapy might help patients with sarcoma. Another goal of this study is to study the bacteria found in the stool of patients with sarcoma who are being treated with HER2 CAR T cells and immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs to see if the types of bacteria influence how well the treatment works. The investigators have found from previous research that they can put a new gene into T cells that will make them recognize cancer cells and kill them. They now want to see if they can put a new gene in these cells that will let the T cells recognize and kill sarcoma cells. The new gene that the investigators will put in makes an antibody specific for HER2 (Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2) that binds to sarcoma cells. In addition, it contains CD28, which stimulated T cells and make them last longer. After this new gene is put into the T cell, the T cell becomes known as a chimeric antigen receptor T cell or CAR T cell. In another clinical study using these CAR T cells targeting HER2 as well as other studies using CAR T cells, investigators found that giving chemotherapy before the T cell infusion can improve the effect the T cells can have. Giving chemotherapy before a T cell infusion is called lymphodepletion since the chemotherapy is specifically chosen to decrease the number of lymphocytes in the body. Decreasing the number of the patient's lymphocytes first should allow the infused T cells to expand in the body, and potentially kill cancer cells more effectively. The chemotherapy used for lymphodepletion is a combination of cyclophosphamide and fludarabine. After the patient receives the lymphodepletion chemotherapy and CAR T cells during treatment on the study, they will receive an antibody drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor, pembrolizumab or nivolumab. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs that remove the brakes on the immune system to allow it to act against cancer. Read Less