All Clinical Trials

Ankle braces are commonly prescribed to individuals who have suffered a stroke to help their ankle joints work properly, which allows these individuals to walk better. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines to follow when choosing which brace is best for an individual. Prior work has shown that customizing the level of assistance that these braces provide based on each individual's level of ankle impairment improves the individuals' walking function more than their current brace. The next important step is to fine-tune the customization and work to develop a set of guidelines that can be used by clinicians to help them prescribe the right brace for each patient's needs. The purpose of this study is to test different levels of assistance provided by the brace to determine the optimal customization method. Additionally, this study aims to begin to create a guide to help clinicians choose the best brace for each individuals' needs. To accomplish this goal, individuals will walk with a brace under five different assistance level conditions. The individual's walking function, performance on clinical measures, and response to questionnaires will be examined to determine both the optimal brace for each individual and hopefully identify clinical tools that can be used to guide prescription of the brace. This study is a major step towards developing effective, standardized prescription guidelines that optimize walking of individuals post-stroke. Read Less

Hospitalized medical patients have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) across the continuum of care, including after hospital discharge. In the APEX Trial of hospitalized patients with acute medical illness, extended-duration post-discharge thromboprophylaxis with oral betrixaban reduced the frequency of asymptomatic proximal deep venous thrombosis (DVT), symptomatic proximal or distal DVT, symptomatic nonfatal pulmonary embolism (PE), or VTE-related death compared with short-duration enoxaparin. Obstacles to integration of these data in the hospitalized Medical Service patient population, including failure to identify at-risk patients, educational gaps in strategies for VTE prevention after discharge, and medication nonadherence, can be overcome with alert-based computerized decision support. This study is a single-center, 400-patient, randomized controlled trial of an EPIC Best Practice Advisory (BPA; alert-based computerized decision support tool) to increase prescription of extended-duration post-discharge thromboprophylaxis and decrease symptomatic VTE in high-risk patients hospitalized with medical illness. Specific Aim #1: To determine the impact of electronic alert-based CDS (EPIC Best Practice Advisory \[BPA\]) on prescription of extended-duration post-discharge thromboprophylaxis in high-risk patients hospitalized with medical illness who are not being prescribed any prophylactic anticoagulation for VTE prevention after discharge. Specific Aim #2: To estimate the impact of electronic alert-based CDS (EPIC BPA) on the frequency of symptomatic VTE in high-risk patients hospitalized with medical illness who are not being prescribed any prophylactic anticoagulation for VTE prevention after discharge. Read Less

Design: U.S.-based, single-center, proof-of-concept study Brief Description: A standard clinical contrast-enhanced chest CT scan performed 48 hours after clinically-indicated standard anticoagulation will be compared with a standard clinically-indicated baseline contrast-enhanced chest CT scan using a previously-studied and previously-validated 3-dimensional reconstruction technique to assess changes in the pulmonary vasculature in patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). This previously-studied and previously-validated 3-dimensional reconstruction technique has been used to assess the response of the pulmonary vasculature to catheter-based fibrinolysis in acute PE as well as to assess the pulmonary vasculature in a number of chronic lung diseases. However, the pulmonary vascular response to standard anticoagulation for acute PE has not been assessed previously. Purpose: To compare the pulmonary vasculature before and after standard clinically-indicated anticoagulation for acute PE using a previously-studied and previously-validated 3-dimensional reconstruction technique applied with a standard clinically-indicated baseline contrast-enhanced chest CT scan (used to diagnose the acute PE) and a standard clinical contrast-enhanced chest CT scan performed 48 hours later as indicated by the study protocol. Population: Inpatients diagnosed with acute PE, in whom clinical providers have prescribed standard anticoagulation alone for treatment based on clinical grounds at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Enrollment: 10 subjects with acute PE Clinical Site Location: Single-center, Brigham and Women's Hospital Study Duration: 12 months Primary Imaging Outcome: CT-determined percent change in perfusion of the pulmonary vasculature from baseline to 48 hours in inpatients diagnosed with acute PE, in whom clinical providers have prescribed standard anticoagulation alone for treatment based on clinical grounds at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Secondary Imaging Outcome: CT-determined percent change in right ventricular (RV) volume from baseline to 48 hours in inpatients diagnosed with acute PE, in whom clinical providers have prescribed standard anticoagulation alone for treatment based on clinical grounds at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Read Less

Novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a major international public health concern. While much of the morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 has been attributed to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) or end-organ failure, emerging data suggest that disorders of coagulation, in particular hypercoagulability and venous thromboembolism (VTE), may represent an additional major, and possibly preventable, complication (Wu C, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2020 Mar 13. \[Epub ahead of print\] and Tang N, et al. Thromb. Haemost. 2020 Feb 19. \[EPub Ahead of Print\]). Abnormal coagulation testing results, especially markedly elevated D-dimer and FDP, have been associated with a poor prognosis in COVID-19 infection. We propose the following Electronic Health Record (EHR)-guided 10000-patient, retrospective observational cohort study to assess VTE incidence, risk factors, prevention and management patterns, and thrombotic outcomes in patients with COVID-19 infection. In order to gain the valuable perspective of other regional and national centers providing care for large populations of COVID-19, we have started a collaborative network with 5 additional sites which will provide us with de-identified data from 1000 patients each. These 5000 patients in addition to the 5000-patient cohort we are enrolling within the Mass General Brigham Network will comprise this study population. Read Less

While data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) estimate that 36.9% of patients with diabetes have CKD, only approximately 10% of patients are aware of their kidney disease. In its 2020 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, the ADA recommends that all patients with type II diabetes (T2DM) undergo annual measurement of urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) has also proposed an update to the requirements for assessment of adults with diabetes including both an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and uACR. The goal of accurately identifying patients with T2DM and CKD is to help providers intervene at an earlier stage of kidney impairment, improve renal outcomes, and reduce associated healthcare costs. Failure to adopt these guideline recommendations has widespread implications, including underestimation of the burden of CKD in the T2DM population, delays in diagnosis of renal impairment, and ultimately, underutilization of therapies that could improve clinical outcomes. This single-center, 400-patient, randomized controlled trial will assess the impact of an EPIC Best Practice Advisory (BPA; alert-based CDS tool) on guideline-directed assessment for CKD using UACR in patients with T2DM who have not had a UACR in the past year. Read Less

Primary Objective To compare two smoking cessation interventions among individuals undergoing lung cancer screening. Primary outcomes are: 3-month self-reported abstinence from cigarettes and 6-month self-reported and bioverified abstinence from cigarettes. Secondary Objectives 1) To evaluate reach and engagement overall and by subgroup (e.g., race and ethnicity, underinsured, readiness to quit). 2) To conduct an economic analysis to evaluate intervention costs from the health system perspective. Read Less

The investigator's overall goal is to develop new strategies to test optimization of Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) doses to maximize strategy to restore upper and lower-limb motor function in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The investigator proposes to use modern electrophysiological methods to enhance the efficacy of residual corticospinal connections. Defining the neural basis by which corticospinal volleys generate muscle responses will provide crucial information required to maximize residual motor output. The investigator's specific goals are to: 1) determine the temporal and spatial organization of corticospinal volleys and motor cortical representations of upper-limb muscles after incomplete cervical SCI and 2) develop methodologies to promote recovery of function. The investigator's focus on reach and grasp movements because of their importance in daily life activities. Read Less

This phase II trial studies how well 18F-FSPG positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) work in diagnosing early lung cancer in patients with lung nodules. PET imaging with an imaging agent called 18F-FDG is often used in combination with a PET/CT scanner to evaluate cancers. Giving 18F-FSPG before a PET/CT scan may work better in helping researchers diagnose early lung cancer in patients with lung nodules. Read Less

The goal of the clinical trial study (Phase 0) is to map out the developmental trajectory of functional spatial hearing abilities in reverberant environments for children with normal hearing between the ages of 6 and 18 years, and to understand the inter-relationships between the three perceptual abilities: auditory object size formation, spatial acuity, and spatial unmasking during typical development. Children are asked to perform psychoacoustic tasks when the auditory stimuli are processed to present in virtual acoustic environments (1) with no reverberation and (2) with one of the two levels of reverberation that emulate everyday indoor environments. The intervention of this clinical study is in the random assignment of one of the two reverberant environments. Researchers will compare these children with a group of normal-hearing adults to anchor matured performances. Read Less

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent disorder that has major consequences for cardiovascular health, neurocognitive function, risk of traffic accidents, daytime sleepiness, and quality of life. For years, a "classic" model of OSA has been used to describe the disorder, which fails to capture it's complexity. Recently, a model for OSA called drive-dependent OSA was discovered be more prevalent in the OSA population. This drive-dependent OSA is due to ventilation instability that occurs during respiratory events however these individuals have spontaneous increases in drive during respiratory events that stabilize their airway (i.e., via improving upper airway muscle activity) and reduce the risk of respiratory events in people with OSA. Therefore, by stabilizing the ventilatory drive, OSA should be treatable. Acetazolamide is a pharmacological ventilatory stimulant and has been previously shown to reduce OSA severity. As such in this study, the goal is to demonstrate acetazolamide improves OSA severity in 'drive-dependent' OSA people by improving drive-related pharyngeal obstructions compared to the 'classic' OSA people. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a visuospatial task on memory reconsolidation and trauma symptoms for trauma-exposed individuals after exposure to traumatic memory reactivation paradigm. Read Less

This is a prospective natural history study of CIPN in approximately 200 participants receiving taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel) for breast cancer, bortezomib for multiple myeloma, oxaliplatin-based regimens for colorectal cancer, or vincristine for lymphoma.. Demographic data, medical history, electronic PROs, ClinROs blood biomarkers including NF-L, PGx DNA analyses and Bedside-QST will be assessed at Baseline. The Observation Period will initiate with the first dose of chemotherapy and conclude with the last dose of chemotherapy. During the Observation Period, participants will be evaluated for the development of CIPN using PROs and ClinROs. Blood biomarkers and Bedside-QST will be measured at various timepoints corresponding with treatment regimen schedules throughout the observation period. The Post Chemotherapy Follow-up Period will begin with the first visit after the last dose of chemotherapy and conclude 6 months after the last dose of chemotherapy. During the Post Chemotherapy Follow-up Period, participants will be evaluated for CIPN using PROs and ClinROs. Blood biomarkers and Bedside-QST will also be measured at the beginning and at the end of the Post-Chemotherapy Follow-up Period. PROs will be assessed electronically on a monthly basis. Read Less