Clinical Research Directory

Communication During Hospitalization About Resuscitation Trial

This multicenter RCT of 200 hospitalized patients and their family members evaluates an "informed assent" approach to discussing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, compared to usual care, in older seriously ill hospitalized patients with severe life-limiting illness or severe functional impairment.

The Danish Pre-HCQ COVID Dialysis Study

Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The presented multicenter parallel-group open-label randomized clinical trial aims to investigate the efficacy of prophylactic hydroxychloroquine on mitigation of risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 in patients with end-stage renal disease.

The Effect of Intradialytic Eye Exercise in Hemodialysis Patients

This pilot randomized trial will evaluate whether a structured intradialytic eye-exercise program can be delivered safely and consistently during maintenance hemodialysis and whether it shows preliminary promise for improving physical function, balance, and fall-related concern. The study is needed because hemodialysis patients commonly experience impaired physical performance, reduced balance, and fear of falling, and these problems are associated with higher fall risk; at the same time, supervised exercise during dialysis is increasingly viewed as a practical way to reach this medically complex and often sedentary population. Eye-movement and gaze-stability training has also shown benefit for balance- and fall-related outcomes in older adults and stroke survivors, but its feasibility and potential value during dialysis sessions remain uncertain.

Development and Test of a Communication Skills Training for Transplant Providers - Aims 2 & 3

The goal of this clinical trial is to understand the communication occurring between Black and Caucasian patients and their transplant providers during transplant evaluation consultations and assess relationships between these communicative elements and patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and living donor transplant outcomes - living donor referrals, evaluations, and transplants. We will use these findings to inform the development of a communication skills training for transplant providers and test the impact of the training on providers' communication about live donor kidney transplants with Black and Caucasian patients and living donor transplant outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: * How does the use of the use of instrumental, relational and affective communication by patients and providers during the transplant consultation differ by patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and patient ethnicity? * What elements of instrumental, relational and affective communication will be predictive of live donor kidney transplant (LDKT) process outcomes (LD inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs)? Participants will be asked to complete brief surveys before and after the transplant consultation and to give permission for the consultation to be audiorecorded. This data will be used to develop a training to educate providers on the key communication factors predictive of LDKT process outcomes specific to Black and Caucasian patients, and provide guidance on their application during patient consultations. Researchers will then compare communication and patient-reported and LDKT process outcomes between trained and untrained providers to see whether the training has any effect on living donor inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs.

Kidney Alone Versus Islet-After-Kidney in Type 1 Diabetic Kidney Transplant Recipient.

Islet transplantation is associated with a benefit on glycaemic control compared to optimized insulin therapy in recent clinical trials. However, there is a lack of evidence concerning the long-term impact of islet transplantation on type 1 diabetic kidney transplant recipients' prognosis. The objective of the study is to assess the impact of islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes and a kidney transplantation on the risk of graft failure. Every type 1 diabetic recipient transplanted with a kidney in France between 2000 and 2017 is included. Patients transplanted with pancreatic islets are compared to controls treated with insulin alone according to a matching method based on time-dependent propensity scores which allow to ensure patients comparability at the time of islet transplantation. Time-dependent propensity scores are built according to variables associated with both the probabilities of being transplanted with islets and the outcome of interest. These variables are assessed by a direct acyclic graph. The primary outcome consists in death-uncensored graft survival, defined by death or return to dialysis. Secondary outcomes include the risk of death, or the risk of death-censored graft survival.

Proteinuria and Renal Perfusion in Renal Transplant Recipients

Cardiovascular disease remains one of the major cause of mortality in renal transplant recipients, with the rate of cardiac death 10-times higher than that of the general population. An independent association between post-transplant proteinuria and cardiovascular risk has been previously reported. Diseased native kidneys with residual urine output or the transplanted kidney could be the source of proteinuria following renal transplantation. A clear differentiation of the source of proteinuria (native kidneys versus allograft) could be important for appropriate management. Proteinuria from native kidneys falls rapidly after renal transplantation, and persistent or worsening proteinuria is usually indicative of allograft pathology. The mechanisms behind the resolution of proteinuria of native kidney origin in the early post-transplant period are not well described. An association between vascular parameters of the macrocirculation and post-transplant proteinuria has been described. To the best of our knowledge no data is available describing a link between post-transplant proteinuria and vascular parameters of the microcirculation. In this study our goal is to analyze in a clinical trial in patients with end stage renal disease and residual urine output the relationship between proteinuria and renal perfusion of native kidneys before and after renal transplantation. In addition the investigators analyse if pre or post-transplant proteinuria is associated vascular and circulatory changes in the retinal circulation. Our hypothesis is that renal perfusion of native kidneys correlates with early post-transplant proteinuria. Moreover the investigators hypothesize that post-transplant proteinuria is associated with vascular remodeling processes of the microcirculation 2 and 4 to 12 months after transplantation. To prove this hypothesis the investigators aim to include 25 pre kidney transplant patients of our living donor kidney transplantation program. Total duration of this study for each patient is 5-12 months with total 4 visits, of which all are performed at the Clinical Research Center of the Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. This study is important to better understand the mechanisms behind the fall of proteinuria after renal transplantation and the association between post-transplant proteinuria and cardiovascular risk.

An Extension to Assess the Effect of Expanded Dialysis on Patient Reported Symptoms Using LEVIL

Investigators know that many patients who are on dialysis suffer from burden of unwanted symptoms, which can affect quality of life. The understanding and treatment of symptom burden by healthcare providers is limited and should be recognized as a high priority in the care of the dialysis population. In this study, the investigators will be assessing symptom burden using the London Evaluation of Illness "LEVIL," an application based platform where patients self-report their symptoms with one to three hemodialysis treatments per week for 28 weeks. The investigators would like to compare the currently available dialyzer with a new dialyzer that is capable of removing solutes of higher molecular weight that may or may not cause patients to experience symptoms related to increased amounts of toxins in their blood.

Maturation of Arteriovenous Fistula With Automated Sonography Assessments Trial

This is a prospective, multi-center, two-arm, randomized trial to quantify the performance of the EchoMark®/EchoSure® System for AVF diagnostic ultrasound when used under a protocol of biweekly use for assessing fistula maturation and reducing time to Clinical Maturation.

Shared Decision Making for Kidney Transplant Candidates to Plan for an Organ Offer Decision

The goal of this pilot randomized trial is to learn about shared decision making in kidney transplant candidates. The aim of this proposal is to evaluate the Donor Plan Donor Choice tool to promote high-quality Shared Decision Making for providers and kidney transplant candidates at two transplant centers. Participants will: * Review an online education tool, Donor Plan Donor Choice. * Discuss a Kidney Offer Plan with a transplant provider. * Answer questions about willingness to consider different donor types. Researchers will compare the Shared Decision Making group to usual care to generate pilot data and implementation outcomes for a larger trial.

Solv Multi-Pass Hemodialysis System In-Center Clinical Study

Solv In-Center clinical study is a pre-market, prospective, multicenter, single arm, open-label clinical study. The patient population will include patients with kidney failure or insufficiency requiring hemodialysis and/or ultrafiltration. Eligibility will be open to incident dialysis patients and patients currently receiving HD in an in-center environment. All vascular access types including AV-fistula, AV-graft, and tunneled hemodialysis catheters.

Light Therapy in End Stage Kidney Disease

The goal of this clinical trial is to test light therapy in patients with end stage kidney disease who are receiving hemodialysis. The main aim is to determine if light therapy decreases fatigue severity. Participants will receive light therapy using special glasses for one hour during the dialysis sessions for four weeks of treatment.

Impact of Envarsus XR® on Kidney Biopsy Subclinical Rejection and Blood Immunologic Profile

This will be a single center, prospective, open-label, randomized, controlled trial comparing Envarsus XR® to twice-daily tacrolimus. The targeted population will be patients with end stage renal disease listed for primary solitary kidney transplant. Transplant Surgery is not part of the study.

Efficacy and Safety of XyloCore Peritoneal Dialysis Solution.

Randomized, controlled, parallel groups, open-label, blinded end-point assessment, multicenter study, comparing the effects of a low glucose peritoneal dialysis solution, XyloCore, to glucose solutions (Physioneal, Fixioneal, Dianeal, Balance, Bicavera, Bicanova or Equibalance) only regimen, in patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) receiving Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), over a 6-month study period.

Effects of Hemodialysis Plus Hemoperfusion in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients: A Clinical Study

This multi-center, open-label, randomized, parallel controlled trial aims to investigate the efficacy of hemoperfusion (HP) in combination with hemodialysis (HD) by assessing blood β2-microglobulin (β2-MG), parathyroid hormone (PTH) and C reactive protein (CRP) clearance in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

Maintaining or Stopping Immunosuppressive Therapy in Patients With ANCA Vasculitis and End-stage Renal Disease

This prospective randomized trial aims to evaluate the feasibility, risk and benefit of the discontinuation of immunosuppressive maintenance treatments in AAV (Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis) patients who have reached ESRD (end-stage renal disease). Our hypothesis is that discontinuation of immunosuppressive therapy in AAV patients with ESRD will not expose these patients to an excessive risk of extra-renal AAV relapse, while reducing the rate of complications due to immunosuppression, particularly infections. Patients with ESRD related to AAV will be randomized into 2 arms: arm 1: discontinuation (or not initiation) of maintenance treatment (Experimental group) arm 2: maintenance (or initiation) of immunosuppressive treatment (Control group). The main objective of this study is to demonstrate a superiority of immunosuppression discontinuation in ESRD-AAV patients compared to standard maintenance immunosuppressive therapy in terms of severe prejudicial event-free survival at 24 months. The second objectives include the frequency of major and minor relapses, of infectious episodes and leukopenia in both groups and the establishment of a prospective database regarding the outcome of ESRD-AAV patients.

CAPABLE Transplant

The purpose of this mixed methods study is to adapt CAPABLE as CAPABLE Transplant to accomplish two things: 1) To resolve barriers to being classified as active on the Kidney Transplant (KT) waitlist, 2) as a surgical prehabilitation intervention targeting the pre-frail/ frail KT waitlist population. It consists of two phases- an open label pilot and a randomized waitlist control trial, and 3) pilot test the feasibility and acceptability for CAPABLE Transplant in symptom and waitlist specific metrics amongst low-income active kidney transplant waitlist candidates.

A Phase 3 Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Pegcetacoplan in Adults at High Risk of Delayed Graft Function (DGF) Following Kidney Allograft Transplantation

A Phase 3 Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Pegcetacoplan in Adults at High Risk of Delayed Graft Function (DGF) Following Kidney Allograft Transplantation

Bupropion for Fatigue in End-stage Kidney Disease Patients on Hemodialysis

Fatigue is the most common symptom reported by end-stage kidney disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Unfortunately, there currently is no medical management for this overwhelming feeling of tiredness. As a result, patients continue to suffer with poor quality of life and impaired daily activities. The purpose of this pilot trial is to find out if bupropion (a medicine commonly prescribed for stopping smoking, seasonal mood disorder, and depression) may help lessen fatigue in hemodialysis patients. In this study, hemodialysis participants will receive bupropion tablet orally three times a week during routine dialysis procedure for consecutive 8 weeks. Study participants will complete a battery of questionnaires to self-report fatigue, cognition, and quality of life. The study team will collect biological specimens. All these procedures will be performed at the dialysis clinic during routine dialysis procedure.

CKD Specific Telemonitoring Platform to Minimize Adverse Outcomes in High Risk CKD Patients

The main purpose of this trial is to determine whether the addition of the VIEWER virtual care platform to usual care will lead to a reduction in composite emergency department (ED) visits and/or hospitalizations/or increase the perceived safety of virtual care among patients and providers.

SAVE-FistulaS: the SelfWrap-Assisted ArterioVEnous Fistulas Study

This is a prospective, randomized, multi-center clinical trial for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients referred for creation of a new arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in order to assess the safety and effectiveness of SelfWrap, a bioabsorbable perivascular wrap.

Impact on Quality of Life of Symptoms Routine E-monitoring Among Dialysis Patients.

In France, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects almost 170 people per million inhabitants every year, and 92,500 people are treated by dialysis or kidney transplantation (0.14% of the French population). The treatment of chronic renal failure is extremely costly: 4 billion euros in 2021, i.e. 2% of health insurance expenditure, and an annual cost of 42,000 euros per patient. The health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of dialysis patients is low, with reports of patients at 40%-60% of full health. In France, there has been a significant decrease in physical (-15.4 points) and mental (-6.9 points) component scores compared with the general population. Dialysis patients often present severe or overwhelming symptoms, which contribute to this poor HRQoL. However, in nephrology, studies have focused on survival and laboratory biomarkers, and very few interventions have been aimed at improving what was a priority for patients, i.e. treating their symptoms and improving their HRQoL. Opportunities to intervene and improve symptom management and overall HRQoL may therefore have been missed. Ignoring patients' symptoms is an important omission. Of 28 randomized trials in primary care and oncology that measured the impact of communicating patient-reported outcomes to clinicians, 65% showed improved care processes and 47% improved health outcomes. The results of two recent randomized trials in oncology suggest that symptom monitoring can improve HRQoL and overall survival. There is no evidence for dialysis patients, although therapeutic solutions are available in most cases. Nephrology teams do not sufficiently recognize the prevalence, severity and negative effects of symptoms in their patients, and patients under-report their symptoms. With systematic symptom screening and automatic transmission of symptoms in the form of alerts, dialysis staff will be able to react and implement routine management to alleviate patients' symptoms. The F-SWIFT study evaluates the hypothesis that regular symptom monitoring and feedback to hemodialysis patients and their dialysis staff improves patient HRQoL at 18 months. In addition, the trial aims to determine whether electronic capture of patient-reported outcomes within a national dialysis patient registry is feasible and cost-effective, evaluated using consumption data from the Système National des données de Santé (SNDS) medico-administrative database. F-SWIFT is the French part of an international project (SWIFT) initiated in Australia in 2021: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry #ACTRN12620001061921. This French part is funded by Inserm's AAP MESSIDORE 2022. F-SWIFT is also the continuation of the pilot study n° 2021-A00776-35 accepted by the CPP EST II on 19/10/2021 and financed by the Agence de la Biomédecine (AOR 2021) in the RIPH3 category.

The Effect of Intradialytic Parenteral Nutrition on Nutritional Status and Quality of Life in Hemodialysis Patients

Protein-energy wasting (PEW), a hypercatabolic state characterized by loss of muscle mass and fuel reserves, is highly prevalent in hemodialysis patients. Nutritional status and body composition are closely linked to morbidity, mortality and quality of life. Lean tissue mass (LTM) appears to be the best read-out for the association between nutritional status and outcomes. Intradialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) is occasionally used with the aim to reduce loss of LTM, but its efficacy has not been established. The goal of this study is to study the effect of IDPN on changes in LTM in hemodialysis patients.

Rheopheresis as Adjuvant Treatment of Calciphylaxis

The investigators propose to set up a prospective randomized controlled trial to control the security and assess the efficacy of adjuvant treatment by rheopheresis in necrotizing-ulcered calciphylaxis in the hemodialysis population.

Integrated Patient Care Intradialysis Programme in Hemodialysis Through a Virtual Health Platform

There is wide evidence regarding the weak points of end-stage Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in hemodialysis, and they include three intervention aspects: exercise, nutrition and psychological support. Evidence shows that exercise for patients in hemodialysis results in increased survival rate, functional capacity, strength and health-related quality of life. Additionally, different studies have shown the benefits of psychological interventions and the positive effect of educational programs on nutritional care for patients in hemodialysis. Despite the well-known benefits of exercise, this kind of programs are not being implemented in the routine clinical care of hemodialysis patients. Thus, the GoodRENal project aims to promote healthy lifestyles among dialysis patients in a holistic approach that combines exercise, nutrition and psychological wellbeing plus cognitive functioning addressing adult learners. The project will, in phase 1, explore barriers and facilitators of patients, carers and health professionals towards healthy lifestyle (physical activity, nutrition and psychological well being). In phase 2, the project will develop a health virtual platform including these three dimensions of cares. In summary, the project outputs will be: 1. A didactic content in a modular platform to create an educational program for integrated treatments in patients with dialysis 2. A guideline to promote healthy lifestyles among dialysis patients for health care providers 3. A guideline to promote e healthy lifestyles among dialysis patients for patients and formal - nonformal carers