Clinical Trials

This is a randomized, double blind, Phase 1 study. There will be a 12-week comparison of the safety of DS-01 versus placebo with a secondary outcome measure of the efficacy in a cohort of 100 men or women with IBS with constipation. 50 IBS-C or IBS-M patients will receive DS-01 (Daily Synbiotic, once daily) for 12 weeks, while 50 IBS-C or IBS-M patients will receive the placebo (once daily). Safety is a paramount concern in the study design and will be monitored carefully throughout the study. Study subjects will also receive extensive education on use of the synbiotic.

This study investigates the efficacy of secukinumab in necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum (NLD).

The purpose of this study is to determine whether administration of a pectoral nerve blocks (Pecs I and II) with 0.25% bupivacaine are more effective as compared to placebo to provide analgesia for cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) placement in cardiac electrophysiology lab

Primary high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing has become first line screening for cervical cancer in high-income countries. The feasibility of this approach in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is less clear, as is the role of HPV testing among women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The proposed study seeks to evaluate the accuracy of cervical cancer screening algorithms using primary HPV testing followed by various forms of visual evaluation, including visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), colposcopy and automated visual evaluation (AVE) for the detection of high-grade cervical dysplasia, using histology as the gold standard. We will validate the AmpFire Assay for HPV self-sampling in our setting. We will determine safe screening intervals in women living with HIV (WLHIV) in an HPV-based cervical cancer screening program and compare triage strategies for positive HPV results at WHO recommended screening intervals for WLHIV. We also seek to understand in-depth the attitudes, acceptability and preferences regarding cervical cancer screening, HPV testing, and self-sampling, for women in Botswana through interviews of a sub-set of women recruited for the cervical cancer screening study. Finally, we will analyze the cost of two-stage cervical cancer screening algorithms using high-risk HPV testing in Botswana.

The purpose of this study is to determine if the cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided navigation bronchoscopy is better in diagnosing lung nodules compared to navigation bronchoscopy alone.

The purpose of this study is to monitor fracture risk associated with bone tumors in cancer patients.

Previous studies from our lab have suggested that it is possible to compute the mechanical strength of bones with tumors using computed tomography (CT) scans, which are like three-dimensional X-ray pictures of the affected bones.

The next step in determining the usefulness of this type of strength analysis is to see if we can accurately predict who is at risk for bone fracture and which patients are at high risk of fractures.

This non-invasive analysis may help physicians determine the best treatment to reduce the risk of an impending bone fracture in the future.

This research is studying a new investigative imaging instrument called a nonlinear microscope (NLM). A nonlinear microscope can produce images similar to an ordinary pathologist's microscope, but without first processing tissue to make slides. This study will determine if a NLM can be used to evaluate tissue during lumpectomy surgery for breast cancer in order to reduce the probability that standard pathologic examination of the specimen after the end of the operation will find close or positive margins, thus possibly requiring the patient to have additional breast surgery.

The goal of this research study is to develop and test a website to help primary care providers (PCPs) discuss the pros and cons of mammography with women aged 75 and older and to help participants make decisions about mammography.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare medications in women having a cesarean delivery. The main question it aims to answer are:

• Which medication is better to use as a first-line prevention agent for nausea and vomiting Participants will rate their nausea, pain and other symptoms after surgery Researchers will compare two drugs, ondansetron and dexamethasone to see if the side effects of pain medications are improved after cesarean.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether administration of a non-centrally acting muscle relaxants will improve the Overall Benefit of Analgesia Score (OBAS), and Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS) scores in patients undergoing lumbar fusion.

Cesarean delivery has become the most common surgical procedure in the US. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been shown to improve the quality of post-cesarean analgesia and markedly reduce opioid consumption. The effect of NSAIDs on healthy volunteers results in inhibition of platelet aggregation and prolonged bleeding time. However, in the obstetric population, the presence and degree of platelet inhibition after NSAID exposure is less clear. The investigators plan to use Platelet Aggregometry and Thromboelastography (TEG) to evaluate the effect of ketorolac on platelets.

To determine the half time of the emptying of the stomach of women in early labor with and without epidural pain relief when drinking either water or a carbohydrate-based sports drink.

This study is a pilot clinical trial to assess the feasibility of implementing a group-psychotherapy intervention to modify emotional stress (e.g., anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress) following ICU hospitalization

The objective of this study is to investigate a technique to monitor blood pressure in women undergoing cesarean delivery with suspected placenta accreta spectrum. To achieve this objective, the investigators plan to conduct a prospective, observational study with the following aims:

Specific Aim 1: Compare concordance between the systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP), and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) readings from the continuous non-invasive arterial blood pressure (CNAP) and IABP at several discrete points throughout the procedure

Specific Aim 2: Determine the feasibility of using CNAP to aid in decision making by examining the parameters of volume responsiveness and arterial elastance at several discrete points throughout the procedure.

The investigators hypothesize that the investigators can obtain similar blood pressure monitoring using CNAP as compared to the gold standard IABP in women undergoing cesarean delivery with suspected placenta accreta.

This study is intended to determine whether ultrasound imaging can improve the ability to place a spinal or epidural needle in obstetric anesthesia. By evaluating the use of ultrasound for the placement of epidural catheters the investigators hope to answer two questions:

1. How does the traditional technique based on palpation compare to one using ultrasound to place an epidural catheter? 2. Does ultrasound reduce one potential risk in epidural placement?

This is a randomized double blinded non-inferiority study comparing the duration of pain relief when patients receive one of three doses of spinal morphine. Enrolled patients will be randomly assigned to receive either 50 mcg, 150 mcg, or 250 mcg. All patients will receive standardized postoperative care, including multimodal analgesia. The primary outcome will be the time until the patient requests additional opioid pain medications.

The investigators hypothesize that multi-port thoracic epidural catheters will provide superior pain relief when compared to uniport catheters for post-surgical patients.

The goal of this pilot study is to obtain preliminary data on the magnitude of the treatment effect of IVIG on the neuropathic pain and neuropathy severity associated with treatment induced neuropathy (TIND).

The investigators hypothesize that immune globulin, administered intravenously (IVIG), will reduce the pain associated with treatment induced neuropathy and reduce the neuropathy severity.

Treatment induced neuropathy in diabetes, is an iatrogenic complications of diabetes. The preliminary data will be used to power a larger treatment trial, and to aid the understanding of the mitigating factors in the treatment response.

Airway stents are used as standard of care to identify which patients with excessive dynamic airway collapse will benefit from a definitive surgical treatment. However, the specific way in which these stents are effective has not been tested. The purpose of this research study is to determine the effectiveness of airway stents when used in the airways of patients with severe symptomatic excessive dynamic airway collapse compared to patients with severe symptomatic excessive dynamic airway collapse that do not receive airway stent.

The long-term goal of this proposal is to provide a pre-treatment evaluation that can assist in the rational selection of patients to undergo appropriate and definitive therapy for prostate cancer. In so doing, it may be possible to further improve the numbers and percentage of cancer patients who receive effective therapy that will cure the disease and maximize their quality of life following therapy.

Aim 1: To evaluate the accuracy of T2W MRI, DCE-MRI and their combined data for staging prostate cancer.
Aim 2: To evaluate the accuracy of MRI in determining tumor volume in the prostate gland.
Aim 3: To evaluate the accuracy of MRI in grading prostate cancer.

The investigators are studying the use of an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for measuring blood flow into brain tumors. This technique does not use radioactive tracers, and it can provide high quality images that can be obtained in a standard MRI scanner.

The goal of this clinical trial is to conduct a single-arm pilot trial of a brief cognitive-behavioral therapy-enhanced benzodiazepine deprescribing intervention in 20 older adults (aged ≥55 years) prescribed chronic benzodiazepines by their primary care clinicians.

Goal of this project is to investigate whether increases in inflammation that result from common patterns of restricting sleep on week nights and catching up on sleep over the weekend are caused by disruption in the newly discovered inflammatory resolution pathways. These pathways are crucial in the active termination of the inflammatory response, and their disruption may contribute to ongoing unresolved inflammation, which has been observed not only during periods of sleep restriction, but also after recovery sleep has been obtained. If the hypothesis is true, it is possible that increasing the body's natural production of endogenous, inflammatory resolution mediators may provide a non-behavioral strategy to limit the inflammatory consequences in those undergoing periods of sleep restriction with intermittent recovery sleep.

Overview of study. This is an observational study that is intended to provide the first in-human data using EIT as a biomarker of muscle health in neuromuscular conditions. We will seek patients with neurological disorders (both neuromuscular and other neurological conditions) as well as healthy subjects for study. EIT measurements will be performed on appendicular muscles (in the upper and lower extremities) depending on the condition, both at rest and with contraction. EIT measurements will be repeated on an intermittent basis to assess repeatability as well disease progression or improvement over time.

This study is evaluating the use of two painless, non-invasive technologies in the assessment of muscle health over time in both healthy volunteers and patients who have diseases that affect the nervous system.

This is an observational study that is intended to determine the capacity of three technologies to serve as diagnostic biomarkers for myofascial pain syndrome. Investigators will seek patients with myofasical pain syndrome as well as healthy subjects for this study. Electrical impedance myography (EIM), myofiber threshold tracking (TT) excitability testing, and ultrasound with shear wave elastography (SWE) measurements will be obtained from the trapezius muscle (the muscle that extends over the back of the neck and shoulders). These measurements will be repeated within 2-5 days to assess repeatability of these methods.

This is an unblinded pilot study to investigate the technical feasibility of using an electrical impedance tomography device for noninvasive pulmonary function monitoring in ALS patients. The study will enroll patients with ALS in one cohort and healthy volunteers in a second cohort that will both undergo EIT imaging with the investigational device prior to and while performing a standard PFT procedure.

The purpose of this protocol is to perform a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, pacebo-controlled clinical trial to determine the influence of a non-invasive positive pressure ventilation device on exercise capacity and symptoms in adult patients with ECAC. Primary outcome will include the total distance traversed by the study subject during a standard 6-minute walk test, and secondary outcomes will include peak flow measurement and symptom reporting before and after the exercise testing. The study will focus on the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. CPAP is FDA-approved for the treatment of various medical conditions, including obstructive sleep apnea and heart failure, but is not FDA-approved for the treatment of ECAC. The study will enroll 32 ambulatory study subjects with confirmed ECAC at the BIDMC, and each study subject will be monitored for up to 3 months.

This is a randomized, controlled trial designed to investigate whether the use of virtual reality immersive relaxation during hand/arm operations can allow for a relaxing operating room experience for patients while potentially reducing anesthesia requirements.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether speed-dependent measures of gait can be identified in patients with neurological conditions that affect gait, particularly in subjects with parkinsonian disorders.

The main purpose of this study is to test the safety of the dendritic cell/tumor fusion study vaccine in combination with a laboratory-made agent called Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF). Another purpose is to determine the type and severity of any side effects associated with this study vaccine. GM-CSF is similar to a substance in the body that stimulates the production of white blood cells. To create the study vaccine, cells will be removed from the participants tumor and fused with dendritic cells which are obtained from the participants blood. Dendritic cells are responsible for immune responses to "foreign" substances that enter the body. Animal studies have shown that these fused cells can stimulate powerful anti-tumor responses.

The goal of the study is to evaluate whether pain control achieved by Ultrasound Guided Femoral Nerve Blockade (USFNB) is equal in efficacy to standard pain management practice of parenteral injection of opioid pain medication in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with hip fracture.

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of ultrasound guided hematoma block versus traditional "blind" hematoma block for analgesia in distal radius fracture reduction.

The purpose of the study is to determine the optimal surgical approach (ventral vs dorsal) for patients with multi-level cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). There are no established guidelines for the management of patients with CSM, which represents the most common cause of spinal cord injury and dysfunction in the US and in the world.

This study aims to test the hypothesis that ventral surgery is associated with superior Short Form-36 physical component Score (SF-36 PCS) outcome at one year follow-up compared to dorsal approaches and that both ventral and dorsal surgery improve symptoms of spinal cord dysfunction measured using the modified Japanese Orthopedic Association Score (mJOA). A secondary hypothesis is that health resource utilization for ventral surgery, dorsal fusion, and laminoplasty surgery are different. A third hypothesis is that cervical sagittal balance post-operatively is a significant predictor of SF-36 PCS outcome.

This project proposes to conduct the first study of the predictive utility of olfactory hedonic measurement for targeted psychosocial rehabilitation in schizophrenia. The information gathered from the project is of considerable public health relevance, in that, through simple, reliable olfactory assessment, it will provide knowledge about which individuals are most likely to benefit from these psychosocial interventions. Such information is crucial for tailoring existing interventions and developing new approaches to optimize outcomes in schizophrenia.

The study is being conducted to learn why some patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) do not respond to a commonly used treatment drug, Finasteride. The hope is to find ways to predict which patients will not respond to Finasteride so that, in the future, these patients can be identified prior to offering this treatment and they can be offered alternative treatment strategies in its place. The aim is to see if noninvasive techniques such as MRI can detect inflammation of the prostate to assist with early detection of those who will and who will not respond to Finasteride.

The purpose of this study is to test a double screening strategy for pancreatic cancer, based on a model developed using patient medical records. Investigators would also like to test whether adding specific blood tests, can further help identify people who have a higher risk of pancreatic cancer than the general population, and would benefit from imaging in order to detect cancer early.

Simple meditation and EEG changes

The main purpose of this study is to learn how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) helps improve negative symptoms of schizophrenia. These 'negative symptoms' include anhedonia (the inability to enjoy things), low motivation, and decreased facial expression.

TMS is a noninvasive way of stimulating the brain. TMS uses a magnetic field to cause changes in activity in the brain. The magnetic field is produced by a coil that is held next to the scalp. In this study we will be stimulating the brain to learn more about how TMS may improve these symptoms from schizophrenia.

This study is to determine the tolerability and efficacy of an accelerated schedule of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for treating symptoms of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Fulvestrant has proven effective in the treatment of hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer. The dose used in studies so far has been well tolerated and may be too low for optimal effectiveness. In this study, a higher dose will be used to see whether an improved outcome will result.

The primary objective of this study is to examine the safety and effectiveness of physician-modified endovascular grafts (PMEGs) for endovascular repair of complex aortic pathology in high-risk patients. The study is divided into three study arms based on the subject's aortic pathology: (1) Complex abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA); (2) Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm; and (3) Aortic dissection.

The objective of this study is to investigate whether the addition of immersive virtual reality (VR) in the immediate postoperative period to an enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol could improve postoperative recovery from bariatric surgery.

The objective of this study is to investigate whether the use of virtual reality (VR) during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) can facilitate reductions in intraoperative sedative requirements while maintaining high levels of patient satisfaction as compared to both a music and sham VR + usual care control.

The investigators' goal is to conduct a prospective multicenter study to evaluate the yield and outcomes of screening of pancreas cancer in individuals who are at-risk for pancreatic cancer. We plan to use International Cancer of the Pancreas Screening (CAPS3) Consortium recommendations to standardize study population, screening methodology, and study outcomes.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of offering reimbursement for living donor lost wages on the rate of live donor kidney transplantation.

This study will include any participant who registered, and plans to attend the Inner Engineering In-Person Completion Course. In 2019, this course was offered in: Los Angeles in March, Philadelphia in April and Toronto & Dallas in November. This study has been involved in every IECO Course since 2019 and is still active today. Beginning in August 2021, investigators will recruit for the August Inner Engineering In-Person Completion Course. Investigators anticipate that this study can include up to 5,000 study participants. Participants would attend this course and complete the pre-modules regardless of whether or not they participate in this study.

This is a pilot study evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a non-pharmacological, mind-body intervention to improve sleep quality, including a preliminary evaluation of neurophysiological signals. The study involves 4 weeks of guided mind-body practice at home using a smartphone app during bedtime and pre/post in-lab sleep study visits.

Live donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) offers the most optimal survival and quality of life benefit for those with late-stage chronic kidney disease. However, minorities, especially blacks, are much less likely to receive LDKT than whites. Given the shortage of deceased donor organs, interventions expanding access to LDKT are needed, particularly for minority patients. House Calls (HC), an educational intervention developed by this study's PI has been shown to be an effective program for raising rates of live donation, especially for black patients. While the HC program has shown outstanding results, participant feedback suggested that follow-up may provide even more benefits. Previous research suggests that peer mentorship (PM) from former or current patients with ESRD may be effective in raising rates of living donation. As such, peer mentorship programs may act as an effective follow-up for HC participants. This study will examine the impact of the HC intervention combined with the peer mentorship program of the National Kidney Foundation on rates of live donor kidney transplantation.

This projects studies the role of tai chi exercise and wearable fitness trackers to promote physical activity in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) survivors.