Clinical Trials

Are you a healthy adult or an adult who has been diagnosed with an interstitial lung disease (ILD)? This study will test whether administering an inhaled gas called hyperpolarized 129Xe before magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) better detects changing disease activity. To participate in the study, you must be age 18 or older and have no history of smoking for the past 5 years. This study will take place in Iowa City, Iowa; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Durham, North Carolina.

Are you a woman 18 years old or older who has been diagnosed with LAM? This study is examining whether long-term treatment with medicine called sirolimus can stop lung damage in women who have LAM. This study takes place at multiple locations in the United States.

Are you between 14 and 22 weeks pregnant, and think that you might have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) ? This study is testing whether using CPAP to treat obstructive sleep apnea in pregnant women can help lower the risk of hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years old. This study takes place in multiple locations in the United States.

Do you have a child with Down syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea who is treated with positive airway pressure (PAP)? This study is testing a new intervention that was informed by the families to help children with Down syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea stick to their PAP treatment. The study will test the effectiveness of a new treatment plan that involves regular telephone and in-person check-ins with a PAP specialist. This study is for 6 -18 year old and is located in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate whether a voice-based platform is better for delivering an electronic health intervention to older adults than a text/typing-based platform. We have an evidence-based electronic health intervention (Elder Tree, ET) that has been shown to improve quality of life, physical and socio-emotional health outcomes for older adults with multiple chronic conditions when delivered via a text/typing-based system. The current project would test whether such patients would benefit even more if ET were delivered via a voice-based system (vs. the text-based system) because they would use it more consistently. ET is an existing intervention providing tools, motivation, and support on a computer platform to help older adults manage their health.

The purpose of the research is to understand structural plaque abnormalities that make a carotid plaque unstable and brake off (embolize) which would help to predict and treat individuals who are likely to suffer not only classic episodic major strokes but also cognitive impairment.

The main goal of this study is to determine whether the treatment will lead to a complete absence of severe vaso-occlusive events (VOEs) in patients with severe SCD.

This study will pilot test a just-in-time (JIT) adaptive intervention to reduce severe respiratory illness, for children with severe cerebral palsy (CP). The intervention program, called RE-PACT, delivers timely, customized action planning and health coaching when mobile text messaging with families predicts hospitalization risk is elevated. A total of n=90 caregivers of children with severe CP will be enrolled from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and can expect to be on study for up to 6 months.

The purpose of this research is assess imaging and identification of soft plaque that undergoes large deformations or strain will identify plaque vulnerable to rupture which could lead to 'silent strokes'. Validation of current study results with MRI will foster use of real-time ultrasound (US) strain imaging and strain indices as a screening tool for identifying normal human participants susceptible to increased vascular aging and developing plaque prone to rupture or micro-embolization.

Current research will evaluate Lagrangian carotid strain imaging (LCSI) for prediction of vascular health on volunteers. In this study, investigators will evaluate age-related strain variations (due to plaque deposition) in the carotid artery, establishing groundwork that will help identify typical and atypical values for these indices. Investigator's hypothesis is that plaques with higher strain indices (softer plaques) are more prone to rupture than plaques with lower strain indices (stiffer) plaques, thus requiring intervention. Clinical criteria for treatment has focused primarily on the degree of stenosis. Long-term objectives are to provide non-invasive methods for screening participants at risk for vascular aging or plaque rupture in asymptomatic participants, expanding upon current criteria for risk assessments based on focal transient ischemic attack (TIA) or strokes. Variations in vessel strain have been associated with, or are precursors to, plaque deposition, vascular aging, or cerebrovascular diseases. Increased arterial strain and pressure changes have been linked to brain aging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based vascular indices, and memory deficits commonly linked to Alzheimer dementia. Stiffening and thickening of the arterial walls have also been associated with cerebrovascular disease. Investigators hypothesize that strain indices as vascular biomarkers can be utilized for screening possible 'vulnerable participants' validated with MRI, with the potential ability to improve endothelial function and reverse vascular aging. Strain indices may enable differentiating study participants with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) from other dementias. Cognitive testing is unable to make this differentiation.

The investigators' central hypothesis is that early combination therapy with two PAH-specific oral therapies that have been shown to be well tolerated in the pediatric population, sildenafil and bosentan, will result in better World Health Organization (WHO) functional class at 12 months after initiation of PAH treatment than therapy with sildenafil alone.