63 results match your criteria: "St Vincent's Hospital and The University of Melbourne[Affiliation]"

Article Synopsis
  • Sleep disturbances are common in advanced cancer patients, affecting 30-78% of them, yet there are few rigorous studies on treatment options.
  • This study tested the effectiveness and safety of temazepam and prolonged-release melatonin against a placebo for treating insomnia in advanced cancer patients, with a total of 21 participants.
  • Both temazepam and melatonin resulted in a significant reduction in insomnia severity compared to placebo, but did not improve overall quality of life; further research with more participants is needed to confirm these results.
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  • The study aims to adapt FOCUS for Australia (FOCUSau) and evaluate its effectiveness in improving emotional well-being and self-efficacy compared to standard care.
  • Researchers will use a phased implementation study involving a clinical trial and an observational study, recruiting 346 patient-caregiver dyads to assess the intervention's efficacy and its feasibility for long-term use in the Australian healthcare system.
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  • The study aimed to identify poor prognostic factors related to pharmacokinetics that affect immune responses and disease control in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients treated with infliximab or adalimumab.
  • It found that certain baseline clearance rates and genetic variants (HLA DQA1*05) significantly increase the likelihood of forming antidrug antibodies, which negatively impact remission rates.
  • Proactive therapeutic drug monitoring was shown to effectively mitigate these negative effects, especially when higher drug levels are maintained during treatment.
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Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are more prevalent in people who inject drugs (PWID) who often experience additional health risks. HCV induces inflammation and immune alterations that contribute to hepatic and non-hepatic morbidities. It remains unclear whether curative direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy completely reverses immune alterations in PWID.

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Objectives Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation has now been passed in all Australian states. Although VAD has been operating in many settings worldwide for a considerable time, the specific costs associated with VAD seem unclear. The aim of this study was therefore to outline the common resource implications associated with VAD.

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First-in-human randomized study of RNAi therapeutic RG6346 for chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

J Hepatol

November 2023

Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; State Key Laboratory of Liver Research, School of Clinical Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Electronic address:

Background & Aims: RG6346 is an N-acetyl-D-galactosamine (GalNAc)-conjugated, double-stranded RNA interference agent targeting the HBV genome S-region. We investigated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of RG6346 in healthy volunteers and patients with chronic HBV infection (CHB).

Methods: This first-in-human, adaptive, randomized, double-blinded, phase I study recruited three groups of participants: Group A, 30 healthy volunteers received single-dose RG6346 at 0.

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Purpose: The CAPTIVATE study investigated first-line ibrutinib plus venetoclax for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2 cohorts: minimal residual disease (MRD)-guided randomized discontinuation (MRD cohort) and Fixed Duration (FD cohort). We report outcomes of fixed-duration ibrutinib plus venetoclax in patients with high-risk genomic features [del(17p), TP53 mutation, and/or unmutated immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGHV)] in CAPTIVATE.

Patients And Methods: Patients received three cycles of ibrutinib 420 mg/day then 12 cycles of ibrutinib plus venetoclax (5-week ramp-up to 400 mg/day).

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Background: Digital technologies enable the dissemination of multimedia resources to support adults with serious mental illness in their self-management and personal recovery. However, delivery needs to accommodate engagement and accessibility challenges.

Aims: We examined how a digital resource, designed for mental health workers and consumers to use together in session, would be used in routine practice.

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HBV RNA is used as a marker of cccDNA transcription and is applicable in the setting of nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) treatment, which suppresses HBV DNA. Traditional assays for quantification of HBV RNA rely on labor-intensive 3'RACE assays targeting the polyA tail. In this study, the high-throughput Roche cobas®HBV RNA investigational assay was assessed on the Roche cobas® 6800 automated platform.

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  • The CAPTIVATE study explored the effectiveness of first-line treatment combining ibrutinib and venetoclax for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, focusing on two groups with differing treatment approaches.
  • Patients across both groups began with three cycles of ibrutinib, followed by a combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax, which led to notable decreases in tumor size and overall health risks.
  • Overall, the study found that the initial ibrutinib treatment effectively reduced tumor burden and the risk of tumor lysis syndrome (TLS), minimizing the need for hospitalization due to TLS monitoring.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is being evaluated for its potential to improve colonoscopic assessment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly with computer-aided image classifiers. This review evaluates the clinical application and diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) of AI algorithms in colonoscopy for IBD. A systematic review was performed on studies evaluating AI in colonoscopy of adult patients with IBD.

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Background And Aims: Guidelines on quality of upper GI (UGI) endoscopy have been proposed by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) and European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE). However, these guidelines have not been evaluated in clinical practice. We aimed to measure the impact of endoscopist education on the quality of gastroscopy based on these guidelines and the association between compliance with guidelines and the detection of clinically significant premalignant pathology such as Barrett's esophagus (BE), esophageal squamous dysplasia, gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM), and Helicobacter pylori.

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Introduction: Accurate subtyping of NSCLC into lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is the cornerstone of NSCLC diagnosis. Cytology samples reveal higher rates of classification failures, that is, subtyping as non-small cell carcinoma-not otherwise specified (NSCC-NOS), as compared with histology specimens. This study aims to identify specific algorithms on the basis of known cytomorphologic features that aid accurate and successful subtyping of NSCLC on cytology.

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Family carers research: What progress has been made?

Palliat Med

March 2022

Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.

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Purpose: CAPTIVATE (NCT02910583), a randomized phase II study, evaluates minimal residual disease (MRD)-guided treatment discontinuation following completion of first-line ibrutinib plus venetoclax treatment in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Methods: Previously untreated CLL patients age < 70 years received three cycles of ibrutinib and then 12 cycles of combined ibrutinib plus venetoclax. Patients in the MRD cohort who met the stringent random assignment criteria for confirmed undetectable MRD (Confirmed uMRD) were randomly assigned 1:1 to double-blind placebo or ibrutinib; patients without Confirmed uMRD (uMRD Not Confirmed) were randomly assigned 1:1 to open-label ibrutinib or ibrutinib plus venetoclax.

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Purpose: The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase III iNNOVATE study showed sustained efficacy of ibrutinib-rituximab in Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM). Here, we present the final analysis from iNNOVATE.

Methods: Patients had confirmed symptomatic WM, either previously untreated or previously treated; patients with prior rituximab had at least a minor response to their last rituximab-based regimen.

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Background And Objectives: Pre-donation screening of potential blood donors is critical for ensuring the safety of the donor blood supply, and donor deferral as a result of risk factors is practised worldwide. This systematic review was conducted in the context of an expert review convened by the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood in 2013 to consider Lifeblood's injecting drug use (IDU)-related policies and aimed to identify studies assessing interventions to improve compliance with deferral criteria in blood donation settings.

Materials And Methods: MEDLINE/PubMed, OVID Medline, OVID Embase, LILACS, and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL and DARE) databases were searched for studies conducted within blood donation settings that examined interventions to increase blood donor compliance with deferral criteria.

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Article Synopsis
  • Low treatment rates for Hepatitis C (HCV) in prisons are due to barriers like the need for testing methods to determine cirrhosis.
  • A study analyzed two scoring systems, APRI and FIB-4, in a large group of prisoners to see how effectively they could indicate the absence of cirrhosis compared to the standard transient elastography.
  • Results showed that both scores had high negative predictive values, suggesting they could reduce the need for more invasive tests by about 71%, thus streamlining care for incarcerated individuals with HCV.
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Objectives: People with intellectual disabilities are living longer, and many require palliative care. There is a lack of evidence regarding information needs which may exist for their family caregivers. This study aimed to determine the informational needs of family caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities who require palliative care.

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Background And Objectives: Until recently, people in Australia with a history of injection drug use (IDU) were deferred indefinitely from donating blood. Knowledge gaps regarding policy non-compliance and the prevalence of blood donation practices amongst people who inject drugs (PWID) precluded changes to this policy. We sought to address these gaps and to estimate the additional risk to Australia's blood supply associated with changing the indefinite deferral policy to 1 or 5 years since last injecting episode.

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Background: Direct-acting antivirals (DAA) have revolutionised hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, and most regimens include an NS5A inhibitor. Certain amino-acid substitutions confer resistance to NS5A inhibitors, termed resistance-associated substitutions (RAS). If present at baseline, they can reduce virological response rates.

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Medical Marijuana: The Australian Experience.

Mo Med

April 2020

David J. Castle, MD, FRANZCP, Professor of Psychiatry, St. Vincent's Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Australia. Nigel Strauss, FRANZCP, Medical Director, Millswyn Clinic, South Yarra, Australia. Amanda Norman, BA, Department of Addiction Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Yvonne Bonomo, MD, PhD, Department of Addiction Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Melbourne, Australia.

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Objectives: Methotrimeprazine is commonly used for the management of nausea but never tested formally against other drugs used in this setting. The aim was to demonstrate superior antiemetic efficacy.

Design: Double-blind, randomised, controlled trial of methotrimeprazine versus haloperidol.

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