All Clinical Trials

This is a Pilot Study which is randomized, prospective, open label, dose escalation, non-controlled evaluating safety and feasibility of intra-articular Wharton's Jelly (WJ) allograft will be evaluated in patients suffering with knee osteoarthritis. The participants will be randomized to one of three dosing treatment arms that will consist of one intra-articular knee injection containing either low dose, medium dose or high dose WJ allograft tissue. Read Less

The goal of the study is to learn about the safety and how effective two different strengths of D-MNA compared to a placebo (a look-alike substance that contains no drug) in the treatment of nodular basal cell skin cancer Read Less

The purpose of this study is to understand how transcranial magnetic stimulation affects how quickly, easily, and accurately a person read. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a technique that uses magnetic fields to briefly affect how well certain brain regions function. The investigators would like to better understand how long the effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation occur in the reading system and at what point the effect is strongest in this system. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. At what point after stimulation are the greatest effects on behavior seen 2. How excitatory and inhibitory stimulation affect behavior Researchers will compare stimulation types against a sham condition to see effects on reading and language behavior. Participants will be asked to * undergo reading, language, and cognitive testing * receive an MRI * receive TMS stimulation * perform language, reading, and motor tasks Read Less

Antibiotics are lifesaving therapeutic drugs which have been used by adults, children, and infants alike for decades. There is an increase in global use of antibiotics over the course of lifetime and earlier in lifetime, with some countries recording as high as 12 courses a year in children younger than two. While antibiotics are successful in eradicating many pathogenic bacteria, research has demonstrated significant effect on beneficial gut microbiota, including long-lasting shift in the dynamics, composition, richness, and maturity of the intestinal flora. Microbiota alterations during early life, including through antibiotics use as well as birth via C-section, constitute a developmental perturbation, which increases the risk of modern diseases of immune and metabolic dysfunction. Strong epidemiological evidence suggests associations between early stressors of the microbiota and a number of common diseases, such as obesity, asthma, allergies, celiac disease, and Type 1 Diabetes. Furthermore, excess antibiotic exposure is associated with the development of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Currently, no strategies exist to restore the microbiome other than reliance on spontaneous repair mechanism, which often takes months in a healthy individual barring further antibiotic exposure. Contrary to popular belief, ingestion of probiotics, particularly after antibiotics, has been demonstrated to slow down the repair as it introduces an exogenous and massive amounts of only a few types of bacterial strains into a finely-tuned ecosystem of hundreds of different strains. It is hypothesized that by preserving the child's microbiome prior to antibiotic therapy and reintroducing it afterwards through an autologous fecal matter transplant (FMT) will assist in a quick, effective, and host-specific microbiome recolonization to the levels and patterns to those prior to antibiotics. This would in turn reduce the overall loss of microbiome diversity over the child's lifespan, essentially providing a 'reset' option to the child's most unadulterated version of microbiome. This approach utilizes delivering the sample by mixing it in maternal milk or formula and feeding it to the child through a bottle, which can be performed anywhere without any discomfort for the child. Read Less

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn how hormonal changes over the menstrual cycle affect mood symptoms in reproductive-aged women with depression that worsens during the premenstrual period. The main questions it aims to answer are: --How do fluctuations in estradiol and progesterone across the menstrual cycle affect the ability to experience pleasure and the neural sensitivity to reward in hormone-sensitive, depressed women? And consequently, how does stabilizing the luteal phase decline in estrogen and progesterone (using estradiol patches and progesterone pills) affect these changes? Participants will: * Receive hormones followed by placebo, or vice versa, for a total of four weeks across three menstrual cycles * Complete daily mood ratings * Collect home urine samples for hormone testing * Complete five biobehavioral testing sessions during which neural responses are recorded (via electroencephalography, or EEG) during an acute stress task and computer tasks Read Less

Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) will be used in an open label, single agent, multicenter, study for patients with neuroblastoma in remission. In this study subjects will receive 730 Days of oral difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) at a dose of 750 mg/m2 ± 250 mg/m2 BID (strata 1, 2, 3, and 4) OR 2500 mg/m2 BID (stratum 1B) on each day of study. This study will focus on the use of DFMO in high risk neuroblastoma patients that are in remission as a strategy to prevent recurrence. Read Less

Early life exposures may lead to adverse effects on health in later life. The Boston birth Cohort study is designed to study a broad array of early life factors and their effects on maternal and child health outcomes. Read Less

Catheter ablation is an established cornerstone of therapy for patients with symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) who wish to avoid anti-arrhythmic drug therapy or for whom anti-arrhythmics have proven ineffective. Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), in which circumferential ablation is performed around the ostia of the pulmonary vein - left atrial junctions, is the standard ablation approach internationally. Single-procedure success rates (1y, freedom from AF, off anti-arrhythmics) for patients with paroxysmal AF is roughly 70%, and even worse (roughly 50%) for patients with persistent AF. A number of strategies have been developed to improve outcomes in patients undergoing AF ablation, particularly in patients with persistent AF. Unfortunately, large prospective randomized trials (including STAR-AF II, published in NEJM in 2015) have demonstrated a failure of ancillary ablation techniques to improve AF ablation outcomes relative to PVI alone. In a collaborative effort between the Cardiology electrophysiology group and the Trayanova laboratory (Biomechanical Engineering), investigators have developed a strategy of patient-specific modeling to identify pro-arrhythmic sites in AF patients that may be amenable to ablation. In this approach, patients undergo a pre-ablation cardiac MRI with late gadolinium enhancement, to delineate regions of healthy atrial tissue and regions of scar (this scan is clinically indicated, and performed currently in patients undergoing PVI for AF). A novel in silico modeling to determine regions supporting electrical reentry in the atrium, driving ongoing AF, has been developed by the Trayanova lab. In preliminary studies, investigators have demonstrated the ability to identify and target these regions with catheter ablation in patients undergoing PVI. Investigators would like to conduct a prospective, randomized clinical trial in patients undergoing ablation for symptomatic persistent AF. All patients enrolled would undergo standard pre-procedure imaging (LGE-MRI) prior to the day of procedure. Investigators have developed methodology termed OPTIMA (OPtimal Target Identification via Modeling of Arrhythmogenesis) to determine, based on non-invasive patient-specific anatomic and tissue data from late gadolinium enhancement cardiac MRI (LGE-CMR) and simulation of cardiac electrical function, personalized ablation targets for persistent AF in patients with fibrotic remodeling.. Patients would be randomized to receiving PVI only versus PVI + OPTIMA ablation at the time of ablation. Patients would then be followed in standard clinical fashion at 3m, 6m, and 12m to assess for ablation efficacy and for procedural complications. Investigators postulate a 20% improvement in freedom from AF with PVI + OPTIMA ablation form 50% to 70% (compared to PVI alone), investigators anticipate that in 1:1 randomization, a sample size of 80 patients in each arm will yield a power calculation of 80% with an alpha of 0.05. Investigators anticipate that enrollment and 1y clinical follow-up for 160 patients (total) undergoing AF ablation will require a 4y timeline. Read Less

This is an open label, non-randomized, 2-center, phase 1/2 trial of a single infusion of sickle allele modified cluster of differentiation (CD34+) hematopoietic stem progenitor cells (HSPCs) in subjects with in subjects ≥12 years old to 35 years old severe Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The study will evaluate the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) using CRISPR/Cas9 edited red blood cells (known as CRISPR_SCD001 Drug Product). Read Less

This study assesses two active treatments in different sequences and a standard of care group among infants with cerebral palsy. Read Less

The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of batten grafts plus septoplasty and turbinate reduction (intervention arm) compared to septoplasty and turbinate reduction alone (control arm), both in terms of subjective and objective assessments. Read Less

Shared decision making is the first overarching principle for the treat to target guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and has been proposed as a potential mechanism to reduce health disparities, however there is little evidence to inform effective ways to implement this practice in the care of Veterans with RA. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component shared decision making intervention on RA disease activity, adherence to RA medications and patient knowledge of RA. The proposed research will contribute to fundamental knowledge about how to effectively foster shared decision making across varied VA rheumatology clinical settings to improve patient disease outcomes and experience; and support clinicians to engage patients in meaningful ways with the ultimate goal to improve health, reduce disability, and eliminate disparities. Read Less