Clinical Research Directory

Combination of High-flow Nasal Oxygen (Optiflow) and Vibrating Membrane Nebuliser (Aerogen) in the Pre-hospital Setting - Before/After Study

The aim of this observational before/after study is to determine how to optimally administer oxygen to patients experiencing an asthma or COPD exacerbation in emergency medical services. The aim will be to determine which method will achieve the target oxygen saturation objectives: \> 95% in asthma exacerbations and between 88% and 92% (or \> 92% in ambient air or with FiO2 21%) in COPD exacerbations. The study will compare a group "before" receiving standard care with a nebulizer mask to a group "after" using a combination of a vibrating membrane nebulizer and high-flow nasal oxygen.

Efficacy of Nebulized Long-Acting Bronchodilators (Formoterol and Revefenacin) vs. Short-Acting Bronchodilators (Albuterol and Ipratropium) in Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department With Acute Exacerbation of COPD (ECOPD)

The primary aim is to determine whether nebulized Formoterol twice daily plus Revefenacin once daily is non-inferior to standard-of-care nebulized Albuterol and Ipratropium therapy four times daily in relieving dyspnea among patients with ECOPD presenting to the ED and requiring hospitalization, as measured by the Modified Borg Dyspnea Scale. The hypothesize is that patients in the ED for ECOPD, improvement in symptoms, safety, and length of ED or hospital stay after treatment with nebulized Revefenacin and Formoterol will be non-inferior to the Albuterol and Ipratropium combination. The long-acting bronchodilator regimen will provide comparable symptom control with fewer total drug doses compared with standard treatment with short-acting bronchodilators, namely, nebulized Albuterol and Ipratropium. To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first prospective, randomized, double-blind investigation to compare a combination of long-acting nebulized LAMA/LABA bronchodilators with a standard-of-care combination of short-acting nebulized SAMA/SABA bronchodilators in patients with an ECOPD in the ED/hospital setting.

Physiological and Environmental Data in a Remote Setting to Predict Exacerbation Events in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The study plans to monitor around 300 people from different hospitals with COPD for a period of 3 months after they are discharged from the hospital using a smartphone app and a Fitbit device. This device can passively track certain health metrics; this way the research team can research whether it is possible to identify the early warning signs of a decline in health by using these ongoing measurements of vital signs and symptoms. This could allow doctors to intervene early and potentially prevent further deterioration in health decline and hospital admission altogether. The study seeks to investigate how similar these physiological measurements are when collected in the real world rather than just in the hospital setting, and what influence environmental factors have on a patient's health and experience of their condition.

Early Detection of COPD Exacerbations Using Home Monitoring Device

The goal of this observational study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a home-monitoring device (RespirAI) in the early detection of COPD exacerbations in adults (age \>21) with physician-diagnosed COPD who are at high risk for exacerbations. The study will collect data from participants with COPD that will be analyzed using an AI-based algorithm to predict exacerbation events. The device's predictions will then be compared against clinically documented exacerbations to assess detection accuracy.

Emotional-distress-based Integrated Care Programme in Patients With an Acute Exacerbation of COPD

The investigators have developed a new counseling service that focuses on the emotional distress experienced by people living with COPD. The service has been specially developed for patients who have experienced a deterioration in their lung condition (known as an acute exacerbation of COPD). The new program is led by an APN team. Other professionals are involved in the program, such as medical staff and physiotherapists. The new counseling service lasts three months. Patients will receive ten counseling sessions with a specialized nurse. The overall objective of the study is to assess the feasibility of the newly developed emotional-distress-based integrated care programme.

Eosinophil-driven Corticotherapy for Patients Hospitalized for COPD Exacerbation

The primary objective of this study is to compare treatment failure rates between a group of eosinophilic (eosinophilia \> 2% on day 1 of hospitalization) patients hospitalised for a COPD exacerbation treated via corticotherapy versus a similar group treated via placebo. Secondarily, treatment failure rates will also be compared between a group of non-eosinophilic patients hospitalised for a COPD exacerbation treated via corticotherapy versus a similar group treated via placebo. Study arms will also be compared for additional aspects of efficacy and safety: * speed of recovery during the initial hospitalization; * corticosteroid side effects / induced comorbidities; * changes in symptoms and episodes of exacerbation; * pulmonary function, oxygen use and ventilation; * patient trajectories and resource use (e.g. survival, consults, episodes of hospitalization, medications); * drug consumption (especially as relates to COPD management, exacerbations and induced comorbidities); * health status, quality of life, activity/disability; * patient safety / adverse events in general. Eosinophilia thresholds optimizing the prediction of corticosteroid response and COPD outcomes will be re-evaluated. The relationships between corticosteroid response and key biomarkers (e.g. infectious groups) will be thoroughly explored, including within eosinophil strata. Potential gender subgroups differences will also be evaluated. Finally, in prevision of further exploratory studies, a biological collection and an imaging library will be created in association with this protocol. The biological collection will be used to explore the genetic basis and physiology linked with treatment response, gender and patient trajectories. The image library will be used as a platform for the exploration of new imaging markers developed, for example, via machine learning and affiliated techniques.

Multidisciplinary Management of Severe COPD

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common chronic disease that is characterized by persistent airflow limitation, that is due to airway and/or alveolar abnormalities usually caused by significant exposure to noxious particles or gases, particularly cigarette smoking. Latest updates of the Global Burden of Disease emphasize the dramatic size of the problem. In 2015, 3,2 million people died from COPD worldwide, an increase of 11,6% compared with 1990. The overall prevalence of COPD increased by 44,2% and was associated with a significant increase of disability-adjusted life years. In Sweden the prevalence of COPD is approximately 8% bringing the annual total estimated cost for society of 9.1 billion SEK. About 1/3 of patients with COPD undergo periods of acute worsening of respiratory symptoms, particularly dyspnea. Acute worsening of respiratory symptoms is associated with increased in-hospital mortality (up to 20%), short term- (up to 60% at 1 year) and long-term mortality (\> 50% at 5 years) and high risk of re-hospitalization. Because patients with COPD often suffer concomitant disorders that significantly worsen their health status and vital prognosis, the management of the patients is not only the management of COPD but must include identification and treatment of other concomitant chronic diseases. Accurate diagnosis, assessment of severity, and long-term interdisciplinary management of both COPD and concomitant chronic diseases in patients with COPD could be associated with a decreased number of hospitalizations and deaths, improved quality of life and decreased health care utilization in the following 3 years. This longitudinal study will evaluate the effectiveness of detailed phenotyping and comprehensive multidisciplinary management of COPD and multimorbidity in patients. This is a prospective, open label, cohort study using design of intervention and registries data. The anticipated study time is 5 years, with 3 years of intervention (including 2 years of recruitment period) and 1-year data collection from the National Registries. The study will compare number of rehospitalizations from all causes of patient recruited after a hospitalization due to acute exacerbations of COPD to control patients included from the Swedish Airway Register (SAR). The selection of the control population within the SAR is based on risk score matching. At the first visit a thorough individual's assessment will be performed. The assessment includes information about demographics, COPD and exacerbations, medical history, comorbidities, vital parameters, blood and sputum tests and assessment of quality of life. Based on the outcome from the assessment and disease phenotype, personalized care plans will be prepared and given to the patients, including dietary program, adjusted exercise program, psychological counselling, treatment of comorbidities etc. Patients will come for planned follow-up visits, according to the protocol. The last visit will take place at 5th year after the study start. The "end of study" is defined as last visit of the last subject or if the effectiveness of the intervention is shown before. Data collected at eCRFs will be combined with the data from SAR and complemented with data from Swedish National Registries.

Atorvastatin Effect on Reduction of COPD Exacerbations

It is a randomized, multicenter, prospective, double-blind, placebo controlled, interventional clinical trial that will be conducted in Poland, in about 12 Hospital Pulmonary Departments to evaluate the effectiveness of atorvastatin on the reduction of inflammation process in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, and possible biomarkers for personalized treatment of COPD.

Predicting Adverse Outcomes Using Machine Learning of COPD Patients in Hong Kong

This study aims to develop predictive models for patients with a diagnosis of COPD at discharge of an index admission on these outcomes using machine learning: Primary outcome: Early admission Secondary outcomes: 1. Frequent readmission 2. Composite outcome (Early + Frequent readmissions) 3. Mortality 4. Longstayers

A Repeat Ascending Dosing Study of the Safety and Clinical Activity of R-3750 in Patients With Mild to Moderate COPD

The goal of this study is to determine the safety and tolerability of orally taken probiotic (R-3750) in patients with mild to moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Advancing Health Information Exchange (HIE) During Inter-hospital Transfer (IHT) to Improve Patient Outcomes

Sub-optimal transfer of clinical information during inter-hospital transfer (IHT, the transfer of patients between acute care hospitals) is common and can lead to patient harm. To address this problem, the investigators will use key stakeholder input to refine and implement an interoperable health information exchange platform that integrates with the electronic health record and improves the reliability of and access to necessary clinical information in three use cases involving transfer of patients between sending and receiving hospitals with varying levels of affiliation and health record integration. The investigators will assess the effect of this intervention on frequency of medical errors, evaluate the use and usability of this platform from the perspective of those that interact with it, and use these results to develop a dissemination plan to spread implementation and use of this platform across other similar institutions.

Study on Home Obstructive Respiratory Exacerbations

Strados Labs has developed the Strados™ Respiratory Care Platform, including the RESP™ Biosensor System, which encompasses a clinically validated wearable, non-invasive, Bluetooth-enabled device capable of remotely collecting respiratory data. RESP was designed to extend both the geographical and temporal range of lung sound recordings, which can improve the remote monitoring of high-risk COPD patients. The RESP Biosensor continuously captures lung sounds and chest wall motions that are wirelessly transmitted through a mobile app to a web application to be analyzed for changes in respiratory health. Preliminary data suggest good patient compliance and the potential for RESP to detect early COPD exacerbation. However, uncertainty on the optimal RESP monitoring procedure and insufficient longitudinal RESP data for definitive statistical correlation with COPD exacerbations warrant further study. We plan to conduct an observational study to assess feasibility of home RESP remote patient monitoring and secondarily collect the longitudinal data necessary to establish the correlation between RESP based measures and standard of care measures of COPD symptom severity.

Telehealth Education Leveraging Electronic Transitions Of Care for COPD Patients

Transitions of Care (TOC) between hospital, ambulatory, and home settings for high-risk, frequently hospitalized adults with chronic diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are complex, costly, and vulnerable to safety threats and poor health outcomes. One potential solution to address this gap in care is the Transitional Care Model (TCM), which utilizes a patient-centered approach with in-home interventions; since in-person in-home visits are costly, using innovative telehealth, such as virtual visits via teleconferencing may be just as effective with greater feasibility, scalability, and sustainability, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era as has been seen the rapid expansion of these technologies. With a transdisciplinary team of experts from cognitive science, care transitions/handoffs, human factors engineering, design, implementation science, and health services research, the study team proposes to implement and evaluate via a randomized clinical trial the "TELE-TOC: Telehealth Education: Leveraging Electronic Transitions Of Care for COPD patients," intervention which includes a virtual visit, pharmacy-based, in-home intervention for COPD patients to improve medication use and patient outcomes among a population at high risk for readmission and medication safety events.

High-intensity Resistance Training in Post-exacerbation COPD

After a COPD exacerbation, many individuals experience severe weakness in the leg muscles, especially the quadriceps. This weakness can make daily activities difficult and slow down recovery. Traditional respiratory rehabilitation usually focuses on endurance training, which is effective but often hard to tolerate soon after an exacerbation due to persistent symptoms and limited functional capacity. This study aims to compare two early rehabilitation approaches during recovery from a COPD exacerbation: a maximal strength training (MST) programme using high loads and few repetitions, and a traditional endurance-based training programme. The investigators aim to determine whether MST is easier to tolerate, especially in terms of breathlessness, and whether MST can improve muscle strength, efficiency, and overall exercise tolerance as well as or better than endurance training. The results will help identify the most suitable rehabilitation strategy for individuals recovering from a COPD exacerbation, particularly for those who struggle with high-intensity endurance exercise.

DUET Versus Standard Interface for Hypercapnic COPD Patients

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare the new asymmetric nasal high flow interface with the conventional high flow nasal cannula in patients with COPD exacerbation. The main questions the study aims to answer are: • Does the use of the asymmetric interface lead to: 1. A greater decrease in the patients' carbon dioxide 2. A greater decrease in respiratory rate and less dyspnea 3. Less need for advanced oxygen therapy measures 4. Same tolerance and comfort 5. Lower heart rate and blood pressure Participants will be asked to: Wear the asymmetric and conventional cannulas for 3 hours each with a 30 minute gap in-between. Arterial blood samples and various clinical parameters will be collected throughout the study period. Researchers will compare the effect of asymmetric versus conventional cannulas to answer the aforementioned questions.

Influence of FreeO2 on Percentage of Time Within Oxygen Saturation Target Using Noninvasive Ventilation (NIV) and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) for Patients Admitted for AECOPD or Bariatric Surgery

The main objective is to evaluate the FreeO2 device combined with noninvasive respiratory support technique for COPD patients and postoperative bariatric surgery patients. The main hypothesis is that FreeO2 device for oxygen therapy associated with NIV or nasal high flow oxygen therapy (NHFOT) allows to reach better oxygenation and avoid hypoxemia and hyperoxia.

Standard vs Targeted Oxygen Therapy Prehospital for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The STOP-COPD trial is a randomized, patient-blinded, prehospital clinical trial designed to evaluate the effect of titrated oxygen therapy compared to standard oxygen treatment in patients with suspected acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) treated with inhaled bronchodilators. The primary objective is to determine whether a titrated oxygen strategy targeting SpO₂ 88-92% can reduce 30-day mortality compared to the current standard practice using 100% compressed oxygen as a nebulizer driver.

The COPD CARE Study: Evaluating the Impact of a Virtual-First COPD Service on Major Cardiac and Respiratory Events

A 12 month interventional study of up to 1,050 people with COPD to determine if the NuvoAir virtual-first clinical service leads to fewer moderate and severe COPD exacerbations and cardiac events, reduces healthcare utilization, and lowers the total cost of care compared to a control cohort that receives standard care only.

Effect of Home Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation on Exacerbation and Hospital Admission in Severe COPD

The study is a randomized controlled trial. The cases will be divided into two groups as the Homespirometer group and the control group. Breathing exercises, aerobic exercise and peripheral muscle strengthening will be performed in both groups. A home-type spirometer will be given to the homespirometer group and it will be requested to send the spirometric measurement every week. The cases will be called to the hospital for control and evaluated at baseline, 3rd, 6th and 12th months. Evaluations include assessments such as exercise capacity measurement, muscle strength measurement, disease attack frequency, symptom scoring.

Impact of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on the Occurrence of Acute Exacerbations of COPD in Patients With COPD-OSA Overlap Syndrome (CO-OS)

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) are both frequent respiratory diseases with estimated prevalences between 8 and 15% of the adult population. Because of those high prevalences those two entities are often associated in same patients (1 to 4% of the general population). This association is then referred to as Overlap Syndrome (CO-OS). Data from observational studies suggest that this association may have an additive or even synergistic negative impact on patient's prognosis. Indeed, in a cohort of patients diagnosed as having a CO-OS, patients who did not receive specific treatment for OSA had a 76% increased risk of death compared to patients treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and a 2-fold increased risk of acute COPD exacerbation. In another cohort of patients with both OSA and severe oxygen treated COPD, untreated patients for OSA had a 5-fold increased risk of death compared to patients treated with CPAP. There are strong signals from observational studies in support of a beneficial impact of CPAP therapy on respiratory outcomes in patients with CO-OS. However, those findings are not supported by any controlled study. It is difficult to directly transpose the observational data to current clinical practice in the context of the recent studies on the impact of CPAP on OSA prognosis. Indeed, data from similar observational OSA cohorts have reported a major impact of CPAP on the overall survival and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with OSA. Ten years later, this impact has not been confirmed by several randomized studies. To date, there is no consensus on a systematic screening and, if present, management of OSA in patients with COPD. The need for specific research on that field was emphasized in 2018 in an official American Thoracic Society Research Statement which recommends "randomized trials that compare clinical outcomes among patients with Overlap Syndrome whose OSA is treated to clinical outcomes among patients with Overlap Syndrome whose OSA is untreated".

Non-contact Proactive Remote Monitoring of COPD Exacerbations

The goal of this observational study is to determine if a COPD exacerbation can be detected early in its onset. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Can an exacerbation be detected before the person recognizes they are unwell? * What are the biological signals which provide the best indication of decompensation? * How does this indication of decompensation compare to a daily CAT? Participants will be asked to place a device, DistaSense, on top of their mattress and then sleep as normal. In addition, they will be asked to complete a daily CAT.

Supported Rescue Packs Post-discharge in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic lung disease affecting approximately 10% of the adult population globally. COPD is recognised to be an important area of focus, as part of one of the healthcare challenges defined by the Office of Life Sciences. Patients with COPD often experience exacerbations which are triggered episodes leading to disease worsening. Exacerbations are associated with increased morbidity and a risk of mortality. Severe exacerbations, where patients are hospitalised, are of particular concern to patients, carers and healthcare givers. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that hospital clinicians looking after patients with COPD should provide rescue packs (a course of prednisolone and antibiotics) and a basic management plan to patients on discharge. It is recognised that there is a high-risk 90-day period to patients with COPD following discharge from hospital, where there is a 43% risk of readmission and a 12% risk of mortality; however repeated national audit data has shown that, despite NICE recommendations this high risk of readmission and mortality has not changed. A multicentre randomised clinical trial of 1400 patients will be conducted in 30 acute NHS trusts. This will test the hypothesis that a self-supported rescue pack management plan consisting of rescue packs + written self-management plan + twice weekly telephone/text symptom alert assessments in the high-risk 90-day period is better than standard care in reducing 90-day readmission by 20%. If successful, this intervention would be rapidly implementable, improve patient clinical outcomes and have a cost saving of approximately £350 million per annum.

Nasal High-Flow in COPD

Rationale: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. COPD exacerbations are the important contributor to disease deterioration and decrease in health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Since therapeutic options to treat exacerbations effectively are limited, many patients have persistent loss of vital functioning and suffer from frequent re-hospitalisations. Nasal high flow therapy (nHFT) is an innovative therapy that provides humidified and heated air through a nasal cannula. Although there is some preliminary evidence that nHFT is effective in stable COPD patients, there are no data at all regarding the effectiveness of nHFT in COPD exacerbations. A key problem in the implementation of nHFT is that the underlying working mechanisms are not clear and therefore the appropriate way to apply nHFT is unknown. Objective: The aim of the present study is to prove efficacy of nHFT in enhancing recovery from COPD exacerbations. We aim to improve the effectiveness of nHFT by developing new technologies to control and monitor the effect of nHFT and by providing background for optimal settings of nHFT. Study design: The study will be designed as a multicentre randomised controlled trial, with the University Medical Center Groningen, the "Medisch Spectrum Twente", "Albert Schweizer ziekenhuis", Rijnstate hospital, and the University of Twente, collaborating. Study population: One hundred thirty-six patients with known COPD GOLD stage II to IV and hypoxemic respiratory failure hospitalised with a COPD exacerbation will be included. Intervention (if applicable): Patients will be randomised to standard care or nHFT (≥ 6 hours/day) during hospitalisation and the 90 days after discharge, as added to standard care. Main study parameters/endpoints: The primary outcome will be improvement in HRQoL after 90 days.

Role of Oral Care in Prevention of Nosocomial Pneumonia Among COPD Patients

Poor dental hygiene has been linked to respiratory pathogen colonization in ICU patients. Therefore, respiratory pathogens tend to colonize dental plaque and oral mucosa in these populations. Therefore, strategies to eliminate respiratory pathogens from the oral cavity may improve oral hygiene and decrease the development of nosocomial pneumonia.