5 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Background: Noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) affects 200,000 new cases annually in USA. It is associated with poor quality of life and high health care expenditure of 8 Billion Dollars a year. Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease(GERD), esophageal motility disorders, and psychological issues may cause NCCP. The mechanism(s) for pain continue to be explored and include central and peripheral hypersensitivity, and mechanophysical abnormalities. Treatment of NCCP has focused on relieving visceral hypersensitivity through pain modulators, such as tricyclics, trazodone, or adenosine receptor antagonist, theophylline. Typically, only 40-50 % respond and clearly there is a large unmet therapeutic need. Cannabis is felt to be beneficial for vomiting, diarrhea and intestinal pain. The main component of Cannabis acts through specific receptors, that are located primarily on central and peripheral neurons (including the enteric nervous system) and myenteric plexus where they modulate neurotransmitter release. Activation of these receptors reduces excitatory enteric transmission and may improve esophageal hyperreactivity and hypersensitivity, the hallmarks of NCCP. STUDY PROTOCOL: The investigators will randomize 40 subjects with non-cardiac, non-reflux chest pain to receive dronabinol (5 mg Bid), or placebo for 4 weeks. Chest pain symptoms and esophageal sensorimotor properties will be assessed at baseline and at 4 weeks using symptom diary and impedance planimetry. The primary outcome measure will be the frequency of chest pain episodes. Secondary outcome measures include improvement in esophageal sensory thresholds, reduced reactive contractions, frequency, amplitude, area under the curve, and global improvement of symptoms. HYPOTHESIS: Cannabinoids decrease esophageal hypersensitivity and ameliorate chest pain in NCCP patients, when compared to placebo. AIM: To perform a randomized double blind study to investigate the effects of Dronabinol, a CB1 and CB2 agonist, in the treatment of patients with NCCP and examine its mechanism of action.
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common ailment affecting a significant portion of the US population. With the advent and increased use of esophageal impedance monitoring, both acid and nonacid reflux disease can be better diagnosed and treated. Patients with severe symptoms or symptoms refractory to medical management may be offered anti-reflux surgery for optimal treatment. Though there are a handful of studies evaluating the efficacy of anti-reflux surgery on those patients with acid or non-acid related reflux disease, the comparison between acid and non-acid reflux disease following surgery is lacking. We propose a prospective study comparing clinical outcomes from those patients with acid versus non-acid reflux disease following anti-reflux surgery with the use of validated and disease specific quality of life surveys.
The purpose of the study is to follow the medical course of children with moderate to severe asthma and see how this relates to whether they have acid of non-acid gastroesophageal reflux
This study is being carried out to see whether AZD3355 is an effective treatment as an add-on to PPI therapy in patients with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) with a partial response to PPI and to compare this with Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) treatment alone. Another goal of the study is to examine which of the investigated doses of AZD3355 is optimal for treatment of these patients. This study will also measure levels of drug in the blood and see how well it is tolerated.
This research study is being done to gather information about how to do further clinical studies using AZD3355 as an add-on treatment to proton pump inhibitors (PPI).