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176 active trials for Inflammation

A Population-based Investigation of Asthma in the Telemark Region of Norway

Respiratory conditions impose an enormous burden on the individual and the society. According to the WHO World Health Report 2000, the top five respiratory diseases - including asthma and COPD - account for 17% of all deaths and 13% of all Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Obstructive lung diseases are among the most common chronic diseases in working-aged populations affecting ~40 million individuals in Europe. The greatest economic burden of respiratory diseases on health services and lost production in the EU is due to COPD and asthma, at about €20 billion each for healthcare and €25 billion and €15 billion, respectively, for lost production. For Norway, there are no estimates of asthma prevalence for the country as a whole, but 80/1000 women and 55/1000 men used asthma medication in 2013 according to the national prescription register. Estimated annual deaths in Norway due to COPD were 4070 in 2015, which is 30% higher than for lung cancer. Unfortunately, a substantial proportion of patients are still difficult to treat. This underlines the need for better primary prevention and more knowledge regarding causes and exacerbating factors. Several risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases are identified, most important tobacco smoke, closely followed by air pollution and occupational exposure. However, according to recent reviews there is a lack of understanding regarding environmental risk factors and mechanisms of how these affect respiratory health, the importance of biological markers and comorbidity, and of socioeconomic risk factors. Moreover, there is a need for assessment of interactions between risk factors and between the individual and the environment. Telemark has a high proportion of craft- and industrial workers providing exposure contrasts. Furthermore, the use of medication against respiratory diseases and the rate of sick leave are higher in Telemark than elsewhere in Norway. Moreover, the county has a high rate of disability. There are previous studies from other parts of Norway, which have estimated the occurrence of respiratory diseases and provided valuable knowledge regarding some risk factors. However, these studies use crude measures of self-reported exposure and do not provide sufficient information on how to target intervention and implement effective prevention. In contrast to the Telemark study, these studies have not included register data or advanced modelling of environmental exposure.

Start: February 2018
Effects of Allopurinol on Inflammation and Ultrasonographic Changes in People With Elevated Uric Acid But no Symptoms

Hyperuricemia is a metabolic alteration defined as the presence of serum urate levels higher than 7 mg/dL. This has proven to be the maximum limit of solubility of urate in serum, any higher concentration leads to precipitation and eventually to the formation of monosodium urate (MSU) crystals. The accumulation of said crystals can manifest as gouty arthritis, uric acid nephropathy, urolithiasis or chronic tophaceous gout. A strong relation between hyperuricemia and other chronic degenerative diseases, including diabetes mellitus, systemic arterial hypertension, obesity and metabolic syndrome, has been consistently proven. Hypouricemic pharmacological agents have shown a decrease in cardiovascular complications and death in patients with gout. A series of studies conducted on individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia using musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) have shown the presence of morphostructural changes suggestive of MSU crystal deposits, combined with an elevation in a series of inflammation markers to a degree similar to those found in patients with chronic gout. Even though, there is evidence of morphostructural damage in individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia, there are no clinical, laboratorial or imaging parameters that indicate when hypouricemic treatment should be started. This clinical trial is proposed as a proof of concept which is looking to evaluate if treatment with allopurinol induces changes in levels of inflammatory markers in individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia and morphostructural changes suggestive of MSU crystal deposits. this proof of concept is not looking to measure the efficiency, effectiveness or security of the treatment. Our Hypothesis is that Individuals with asymptomatic hyperuricemia and morphostructural changes evidenced by MSUS (double contour sing, tophi, aggregates) will show a decent in inflammatory markers and their morphostructural changes will diminish or revert after treatment with allopurinol.

Start: August 2019
Electrophysiological Phenotyping Of Patients at Risk of Ventricular Arrhythmia and Sudden Cardiac Death

Obesity, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and gene-specific dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are common medical conditions. Small-scale studies have shown that these are associated with proarrhythmic changes on 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and a higher risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). However, these studies lack the deep electrophysiological phenotyping required to explain their observations. Electrocardiographic imaging (ECGi) is a non-invasive alternative to 12-lead ECG, by which epicardial potentials, electrograms and activation sequences can be recorded to study adverse electrophysiological modelling in greater depth and on a more focussed, subject-specific scale. Therefore, this study proposes to better define the risk of arrhythmia and understand the underlying adverse electrophysiological remodelling conferring this risk in three groups (obesity, RA and DCM). Firstly, data from two large, national repositories will be analysed to identify associations between routine clinical biomarkers and proarrhythmic 12-lead ECG parameters, to confirm adverse electrophysiological remodelling and a higher risk of arrhythmia. Secondly,ECGi will be performed before and after planned clinical intervention in obese and RA patients, and at baseline in titin-truncating variant (TTNtv)-positive and -negative DCM patients, to characterise the specific and potentially reversible conduction and repolarisation abnormalities that may underlie increased arrhythmic risk.

Start: November 2019