Clinical Research Directory

Taxifolin/ergothioneine and Immune Biomarkers in Healthy Volunteers (TaxEr)

The complexities of the immune system make measuring the impact of dietary interventions upon its function challenging. The immune system is highly responsive to environmental influences, including the diet. An individual's diet provides the energy required to mount a strong and protective immune response, the building blocks required for synthesis of immune mediators such as antibodies and cytokines, and can also indirectly affect immune function via changes in the gut microbiome. Immune function varies across the lifecourse, with a well understood decline in immune function with age, resulting in impaired vaccination responses and an increased risk of infections and of severe complications and mortality arising from common communicable diseases such as influenza. This impaired immunity with ageing is known as immunosenescence and this affects both innate and acquired arms of the immune system.

Postoperative Analgesia Between Paravertebral Block and Epidural Block in Esophageal Surgery

Prevention of postoperative pain is essential for the recovery of esophageal surgery. Epidural analgesia is a traditional and standard perioperative pain management for these patients. Beneficials of epidural analgesia have been widely established. However, there are still several potential disadvantages such as perioperative hypotension, failure of administration, rare but serious neurological complications. Ultrasound-guided regional nerve block has become a widely used technique due to its low degree of trauma and precise target of action. In combined with liposome bupivacaine (LB), a new long-acting local anesthetic, was proven to have a maximum duration of 72 hours, thus improving postoperative analgesia, reducing opioid consumption, and enhancing patient satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of TPVB liposomal bupivacaine (LB) or plane bupivacaine (SB) for Overall Benefit of Analgesic Score (OBAS) after esophageal surgery.

Thermotherapy in Acute Nonspecific Neck Pain

Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal pain disorders secondary to low back pain. Medical and non-medical treatments such as physiotherapy are applied in its treatment. Patients with nonspecific neck pain (NBA) can be treated with various interventions such as drug therapy, manual therapy, heat and exercise. Although it is frequently used in clinical practice, there is no evidence that superficial thermotherapy (hot or cold) methods effectively relieve neck pain. Therefore, this study aims to compare the short-term effects of superficial hot or cold applications on pain, range of motion and functional status in patients with NBA.