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355 active trials for Asthma

Exploring the Efficacy of myAsthma in Secondary Care

Asthma is a common lung condition that causes long-term breathing problems. There is no cure and if uncontrolled can be life threatening. Many asthma deaths are preventable if managed using a personalised treatment plan explaining what to do when unwell, how to manage symptoms and correct inhaler use. Those with controlled asthma are less likely to be admitted to hospital and more likely to have an improved quality of life. COVID19 has emphasised the need to redesign healthcare delivery to reduce avoidable exposure. Clinical services are turning to remote care including online digital health apps. Digital health offers mechanisms to promote effective asthma care, offer remote individual treatment plans, monitor asthma control in 'real time' and provides information to prevent asthma attacks. Regulatory health guidelines recognise that technology has the potential to improve asthma care and could lead to reductions in NHS service use and improve symptoms. This study aims to evaluate the delivery of an asthma self-management app 'myAsthma' in a secondary care asthma service. Patients will use the app to input and track their symptoms and report their medication usage. The app provides information on environmental triggers such as air quality to better prepare asthma sufferers in preventing an asthma attack. It offers educational videos to improve understanding of asthma, including online training in inhaler technique. The goals are to increase adherence to and correct use of medication, help patients self-manage dynamically to reduce their risk of an asthma attack and equip healthcare professionals with the data to identify those people at higher risk of an attack. This is an unblinded randomised controlled trial with two arms: standard care (control) and myAsthma with standard care (intervention). Asthma control will be compared between the groups. It is a single-centre study which will take place in Bradford Teaching Hospital. A minimum of 60 participants will be recruited into the study and randomised on a ratio of 1:1 - 30 in the control arm and 30 in the intervention arm. Over 6 months outcomes will be measured using a combination of questionnaires and Asthma Control Test Scores (measure of symptom control). The main outcome of this study is to explore the efficacy of this new model of service delivery, whether it can provide an improvement in asthma control test scores, and will lead to a fully powered randomised controlled trial.

Start: May 2021
MUlti-nuclear MR Imaging Investigation of Respiratory Disease-associated CHanges in Lung Physiology

Lung magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with proton and inhaled inert gases has demonstrated a clinical ability to provide valuable structural and functional information in lung disease. Advances in lung MRI methods have led to our department handling clinical imaging referrals from local and national respiratory units. Hyperpolarised Xenon-129 gas MRI is now the gold-standard MRI modality used in clinical practice for asthma and COPD in Sheffield. In this new study we will use Xenon gas MR imaging and 19F gas MR imaging to obtain physiological, structural, and functional information about patients with known respiratory disease, namely asthma and COPD. Up to 20 patients with asthma and up to 20 patients with COPD will be recruited. Study visits will involve lung function tests and imaging using proton MRI, hyperpolarised xenon gas MRI, and 19F perfluoropropane MRI. After initial baseline assessments, patients will be followed up after 3 and 6 years to investigate the utility of MRI and lung function measurements in tracking disease progression over time. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic will also be studying the long term effects of this novel disease. We will use Xenon gas MR imaging and pulmonary vascular 1H MR imaging to obtain physiological, structural, and functional information about patients with COVID-19, including hospitalised patients and mild, non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Participants may be invited for baseline assessments during the symptomatic phase of the disease and/or be followed up after 6, 12, 24 and 52 weeks (in line with clinical follow up for hospitalised patients) to investigate long term effects of this novel disease. Our novel approach will provide mechanistic insight in to clinical observations such as : (i) why previously healthy patients can respond so poorly to oxygen/ventilation therapy, (ii) why patients respond to proning, and (iii) whether this is caused by alveolar-capillary interstitial changes and /or microvascular clotting in the pulmonary vasculature (leading to V/Q mismatch), and (iv) whether these acute changes lead to long term interstitial lung disease.

Start: September 2019
A Study to Investigate the Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Asthma Symptoms in Adults With Asthma (VITDAS)

Asthma is a disease characterised by chronic inflammation of the airways leading to symptoms including periods of shortness of breath, wheezing and a tight chest due to airway narrowing in affected patients. Current data show that one in 12 adults are currently receiving treatment for asthma in the United Kingdom (UK), with the UK having some of the highest rates in Europe. In the winter, 30-40% of the UK population are vitamin D deficient with some asthma patients having significantly lower vitamin D levels compared to normal patients. Vitamin D has been shown to be involved in the development of immune-related disorders including asthma. Cross-sectional research has shown that reduced vitamin D levels are associated with reduced lung function, increased airway hyper-responsiveness and reduced response to glucocorticoids, suggesting vitamin D levels may also implicate asthma treatment. To date, there have been three randomised controlled trials (RCT) assessing the effect of vitamin D supplementation in adults with symptomatic asthma. These trials have not found a significant effect of vitamin D supplementation on asthma. However, these studies relied on high doses of vitamin D with long time periods between doses. There is a requirement for RCTs in adults with daily supplementation of lower doses of vitamin D as it has been suggested that daily supplementation is more effective for inducing non-classical actions of vitamin D. However, vitamin D has been found to significantly improve airway function as measured by forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in adults supplemented with 100, 000 international units (IU) vitamin D intramuscularly plus 50, 000 IU oral vitamin D weekly. Therefore, the effect of daily dosing on lung function also requires investigation. Furthermore, these trials have focussed on clinical outcomes without investigating the cellular mechanisms affording protection.

Start: October 2019