Clinical Trials

Do you have chronic bronchitis and COPD and want to improve treatment? This study will be testing how well a medicine called ivacaftor that is used to treat cystic fibrosis works also to treat symptoms of chronic bronchitis. New research suggests chronic bronchitis may be due to a problem similar to cystic fibrosis. To participate in this study, you must be 40 to 80 years old, have a history of smoking, and have not been diagnosed with asthma or cystic fibrosis. This study will be conducted in Birmingham, Alabama.

Do you have COPD? This study will be looking for genes that may play a role in the development of COPD by looking at the blood from patients who have COPD, as well as the blood from those patients’ family members. To participate in this study, you must be 52 years old or younger and must not be pregnant or have other serious lung diseases such as lung cancer. This study will be conducted in Boston, Massachusetts.

Are you a healthy adult or someone with a history of lung infections such as pneumonia or bronchitis? This study aims to compare fluid and tissue samples from the nose and lungs of healthy adults with people who have a lung disease. Researchers hope to learn why some people are more susceptible to certain infections. This study is located at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Do you have heart disease that requires an ICD to prevent sudden cardiac arrest? This study aims to learn what signs distinguish patients who have a higher risk of an arrhythmia that leads to sudden cardiac arrest. Researchers plan to track patients with a recent ICD replacement for 10 years. To participate in this study, you must be between 18 and 85 years old. This study is located in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; and Richmond, Virginia.

Pneumonia is a major public health problem for the elderly and is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death for this population, particularly for elderly nursing home residents. This planning grants seeks to establish a safe and effective dose of zinc supplementation with the goal to conduct a larger randomized clinical trial to study the effect of zinc supplementation in nursing home elderly with low serum zinc levels on the risk, antibiotic use, and duration of sick days with pneumonia. This project has significant potential to positively impact the health and quality of life in the elderly and to reduce the economic costs associated with their care.

DIVA is a pragmatic randomized clinical trial (RCT) to determine: among (P) preterm infants born 24-27 6/7 weeks gestation undergoing extubation from mechanical ventilation, whether (I) Non-invasive neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NIV-NAVA) (C) compared with Non-synchronized nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NS-NIPPV), will reduce the incidence of (O) extubation failure within (T) 5 days (120 hours) of extubation.

This observational trial studies whether respiratory viruses are the cause of lung disease (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome [BOS] or graft-versus-host disease of the lung) and changes in lung function in patients who have received a donor stem cell transplant. Patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) are at higher risk of developing BOS. Studies have also shown that patients who had a respiratory viral illness early after their transplant are at higher risk of developing lung problems later on. Patients who are at risk and who already have BOS might benefit from being monitored more closely. Spirometry is a way of assessing a patient's lung function and is often used to diagnose lung disease. Spirometry measured at home with a simple handheld device may reduce the burden of performing pulmonary function testing at a facility and potentially help patients get their lung disease diagnosed and treated sooner.

The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of respiratory functional and respiratory motor responses to the scES as an important step toward the long-term goal of developing effective evidence-based rehabilitation strategies for patients with SCI. The central hypothesis is that scES raises the excitability of motor networks for respiration resulting in amplified use-dependent neural plasticity in response to the respiratory training. The rationale for the proposed study is to justify the development of a new direction in respiratory rehabilitation by using respiratory training in combination with electrical spinal cord stimulation.

The purpose of this study is to see if adding a drug called Regadenoson to the EVLP circulation reservoir during perfusion of marginal donor lungs will help increase the likelihood that the donor lungs will become usable for transplantation.

Are you in need of a heart or lung transplant or have you had one in the past 3 months? Have you undergone a lung or heart transplant in the past 3 months or are you a candidate for heart or lung transplant? Some people with advanced heart and lung disease have heart and lung transplants but these new organs are often rejected. When this happens, patients must have repeated biopsies, which are invasive and expensive. Researchers in this clinical study want to see if a blood test can predict organ rejection and take the place of biopsies. To participate, you must be 18 to 80 years old and be a candidate for heart or lung transplant or have had a heart or lung transplant no more than three months ago. The study is taking place in Bethesda, Maryland, at the NIH Clinical Center, as well as in Baltimore, Maryland, and Falls Church, Virginia.