Articles: disease.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Effect of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring vs Standard Therapy During Maintenance Infliximab Therapy on Disease Control in Patients With Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Proactive therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), consisting of individualized treatment based on scheduled assessments of serum drug levels, has been proposed as an alternative to standard therapy to optimize efficacy and safety of infliximab and other biologic drugs. However, it remains unclear whether proactive TDM improves clinical outcomes during maintenance therapy. ⋯ Among patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases undergoing maintenance therapy with infliximab, proactive TDM was more effective than treatment without TDM in sustaining disease control without disease worsening. Further research is needed to compare proactive TDM with reactive TDM, to assess the effects on long-term disease complications, and to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of this approach.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Behavioral interventions to reduce particulate matter exposure in patients with COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is commonly affected by particulate matter (PM) exposure. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether behavioral interventions to reduce PM exposure improve clinical outcomes in patients with COPD. ⋯ Given the harmful effect of air pollutants, individual-level interventions to reduce exposure may be significant. However, there is a lack of evidence on how effective such interventions are to date. This study will be able to provide physicians and patients with evidence-based strategies to reduce PM exposure in daily life.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Dupilumab in Children with Uncontrolled Moderate-to-Severe Asthma.
Children with moderate-to-severe asthma continue to have disease complications despite the receipt of standard-of-care therapy. The monoclonal antibody dupilumab has been approved for the treatment of adults and adolescents with asthma as well as with other type 2 inflammatory diseases. ⋯ Among children with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma, those who received add-on dupilumab had fewer asthma exacerbations and better lung function and asthma control than those who received placebo. (Funded by Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Liberty Asthma VOYAGE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02948959.).
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effects of a pharmacist-led medication review in a nursing home: A randomized controlled trial.
In this study, an intensive review of pharmaceutical care for elderly patients was conducted in a Veterans Administration nursing home in Taiwan and its effects were evaluated. ⋯ In this study, the intensive review of the elderly patients' medications revealed that the only significant effect of pharmaceutical care was on "all outcomes." A possible reason for this is the rather advanced ages of some patients who needed a considerable number of medications to treat several chronic diseases. Another reason may be the small sample size. However, participants who received the pharmacist intervention did have higher satisfaction with medication reconciliation and fewer drug-related problems.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Observational Study
APOL1 renal risk variants are associated with obesity and body composition in African ancestry adults: An observational genotype-phenotype association study.
While increased obesity prevalence among persons of African ancestry (AAs) compared to persons of European ancestry (EAs) is linked to social, environmental and behavioral factors, there are no gene variants that are common and significantly associated with obesity in AA populations. We sought to explore the association between ancestry specific renal risk variants in the apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene with obesity related traits in AAs. We conducted a genotype-phenotype association study from 3 electronic medical record linked cohorts (BioMe Biobank, BioVU, nuGENE); randomized controlled trials (genetic testing to understand and address renal disease disparities) and prospective cohort study (Jackson Heart Study). ⋯ APOL1 alleles are not associated with refined body composition traits overall but are significantly associated with fat free mass index in women [0.30 kg/m2 increment per allele; P = .03]. Thus, renal risk variants in the APOL1 gene, found in nearly half of AAs, are associated with BMI and obesity in an additive manner. These variants could, either on their own or interacting with environmental factors, explain a proportion of ethnic disparities in obesity.