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Arthritis clinical trials at UCSF

11 in progress, 5 open to eligible people

Showing trials for
  • Biofeedback Retention in Individuals With AKA

    open to eligible people ages 18-70

    More than two million Americans are currently living with a full or partial limb loss, and an additional 185,000 amputations occur each year. The majority of amputations occur in the lower limbs. There are many potential causes for amputation, but the majority can be attributed to vascular diseases, such as diabetes, traumatic injury, and cancer. For these individuals, prosthetic devices play an important role in restoring mobility and enabling them to participate in everyday activities. However, when learning to use these devices, patients often alter their movement patterns to compensate for pain or discomfort, a decreased ability to feel what their prosthetic limb is doing, and/or a fear of falling. By changing their movement patterns, patients will tend to am their intact leg, which has been shown to lead to long-term joint damage and chronic injury. For perspective, 75% of United States veterans living with amputation are diagnosed with a subsequent disease affecting their muscle, bone, and/or joint health. Therefore, therapy sessions, known as gait retraining, are an integral part of teaching prosthesis users to walk in a safe and efficient manner. With recent advances in wearable technology, researchers and therapists have begun exploring the use of biofeedback systems to assist with this retraining. In these systems, wearable sensors are used to measure how the patient is moving in real-time, and can provide information on how much time they spend on each leg and how much each joint moves during walking. Biofeedback refers to the process of communicating the information from these sensors back to the patients instruct them whether they need to change their movements. Previous research has shown that these systems have excellent potential for helping patients with physical disabilities improve their quality of motion. However, relatively little research has explored how well individuals with above-knee leg amputations respond to biofeedback during gait retraining. Importantly, the question of whether the new movement patterns taught using biofeedback will persist after training has finished remains unanswered. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to determine whether biofeedback is a feasible tool for gait retraining with above-knee prosthesis (including a prosthetic knee, ankle, and foot) users. To answer these questions, forty individuals currently using above-knee prosthetic systems will undergo a single session of biofeedback training. Half of these populations will be from the civilian population, and half will be military veterans. During this training, the biofeedback system will apply short vibrations - similar to those generated by cellphones - to their skin every time that the patient reaches the desired degree of hip rotation during walking. Participants will be instructed to keep increasing their hip motion until they feel a vibration on every step. Before training, they will be instrumented with a wearable motion captures system, pressure sensors embedded in their shoes, and a wearable heart rate monitor. Using these devices, researchers will measure the participants' walking patterns without biofeedback determine their current ability. Once training is complete, their walking patterns will be measured again, first while using the biofeedback system, and then again fifteen minutes and thirty minutes after the biofeedback system has been removed. The data measured during these tests will enable researchers to calculate functional mobility scores that are used to evaluate the quality of a patient's walking, and then compare how these scores change before, during, and after biofeedback training. The knowledge gained through this research constitutes a critical step towards identifying optimal biofeedback strategies for maximizing patient mobility outcomes. The findings will be essential for the development of gait retraining protocols designed to reduce the incidence of chronic injury, and enable patients to achieve their full mobility potential. Building on these results, the next research phase will be to incorporate biofeedback training into a standard six-week gait retraining protocol to evaluate its long-term effectiveness as a rehabilitation tool. Unlike traditional gait retraining, which requires patients to visit clinics in-person for all sessions, the wearable, automated nature of biofeedback training will allow patients to continue gait training from home. This ability will enable patients to continue training activities between sessions, and ultimately may be able to substitute for some in-person visits. This potential for remote therapy has exciting implications for improved access to care for individuals living long distances from their rehabilitation providers, or those suffering from social anxiety, as well as during global health pandemics where in-person visits are difficult.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Defining Stress REsilience And Mindfulness Effects in Rheumatoid Arthritis

    open to eligible people ages 18 years and up

    This clinical trial will test a mindfulness program in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The main goals of this pilot study are to: - Assess patient satisfaction with a mindfulness course - Identify barriers to participation in, or completion of, a mindfulness course - Gather initial information to understand how a mindfulness course impacts RA symptoms Participants will: - Complete online questionnaires - Attend two in-person study visits, involving a brief joint exam and blood draw - Roughly half the participants will have the chance to participate in an 8-week online mindfulness course - Roughly half the participants will be invited to participate in an online focus group following completion of the mindfulness course Researchers will compare those in the mindfulness course with those receiving standard care in preparation for a larger future study to see how mindfulness impacts stress and inflammation in individuals with RA.

    San Francisco, California

  • Rheumatoid Arthritis Shared Decision Making

    open to eligible people ages 18 years and up

    Shared decision making is the first overarching principle for the treat to target guidelines for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and has been proposed as a potential mechanism to reduce health disparities, however there is little evidence to inform effective ways to implement this practice in the care of Veterans with RA. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-component shared decision making intervention on RA disease activity, adherence to RA medications and patient knowledge of RA. The proposed research will contribute to fundamental knowledge about how to effectively foster shared decision making across varied VA rheumatology clinical settings to improve patient disease outcomes and experience; and support clinicians to engage patients in meaningful ways with the ultimate goal to improve health, reduce disability, and eliminate disparities.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Tc 99m Tilmanocept Imaging for Early Prediction of Anti-TNFα Therapy Response in Moderate to Severe Active RA

    open to eligible people ages 18 years and up

    This study will confirm the ability of Tc 99m tilmanocept imaging to predict clinical response in individuals with RA who are beginning anti-TNFα therapy.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tcVNS) in JIA

    open to eligible people ages 5-18

    The study is a multicenter, double-blind, sham-controlled trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of tcVNS on pain and inflammation associated with JIA. tcVNS is administered with a device that gives off mild electrical impulses through the skin to stimulate the vagus nerve. Part of the vagus nerve and its branches are located in the head and neck. For this study, the impulses will be administered in areas overlying the vagus nerve using a small electrode. The electrode helps to conduct the stimulation through the skin. This stimulation triggers a chemical response through the nerves and has been found to be effective in reducing pain and inflammation in several diseases. The primary objective of this study is to determine the effect of tcVNS on JIA ACR 50 in participants with active JIA. The components of the active and sham tcVNS devices, utilizing the Roscoe Medical TENS 7000, have been FDA 510(k)-cleared and have been determined by the IRB to be a nonsignificant risk device.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Zr-89 Cimzia PET Imaging Rheumatoid Arthritis

    Sorry, currently not accepting new patients, but might later

    This is a single center exploratory imaging study investigating the initial application of zirconium-89 Deferoxamine B Certolizumab pegol (89Zr-DFO-CZP) PET in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Patients with active symptoms of RA or signs on physical exam will be invited to participate for PET imaging.

    San Francisco, California

  • Adalimumab in JIA-associated Uveitis Stopping Trial

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    The proposed study is a stratified, block-randomized, double-masked, controlled trial to determine the feasibility of discontinuing adalimumab treatment in patients with quiescent uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or chronic anterior uveitis (CAU).

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • CD40L Antagonism in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    The primary objective is to determine if the addition of a 12-week course of treatment with VIB4920 to TNFi treatment will result in improved clinical disease control in patients with RA who have had an inadequate response to a TNFi.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Pediatric Arthritis Study of Certolizumab Pegol

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    A Multicenter, Open-label Study to Assess the Pharmacokinetics, Safety and Efficacy of Certolizumab Pegol in Children and Adolescents With Moderately to Severely Active Polyarticular-course Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA).

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Preventing Extension of Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis JIA (Limit-JIA)

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    This is a research study to test whether a once-weekly injection of abatacept will prevent the progression of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) to a more severe form. To evaluate the effectiveness of a 24-week course of treatment with abatacept plus usual care versus usual care to prevent polyarthritis (≥5 joints), uveitis, or treatment with other systemic medication within 18 months of randomization in children with recent-onset limited JIA.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

  • Outcomes Study of the Trabecular Metal (TM) Reverse Shoulder System

    Sorry, in progress, not accepting new patients

    The objectives of this study are to obtain survival and outcome data on the Trabecular Metal Reverse Shoulder System when used in primary or revision reverse total shoulder arthroplasty.

    San Francisco, California and other locations

Our lead scientists for Arthritis research studies include .

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