The following studies are now accepting patients:
SALT Study (IRB-HSR #11494)
UVA Health System Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism is now enrolling up to 3,000 healthy adults willing to participate in a salt sensitivity study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The purpose of this study is to determine the cause of salt sensitivity of blood pressure, or the significant increase in blood pressure in response to high salt intake.
UVA researchers hypothesize that people with a combination of genetic variations in two genes (regulating the sodium-bicarbonate co-transporter and G-protein coupled kinase in the kidney) are at risk for salt-sensitivity of blood pressure and salt-sensitivity.
The study will consist of a two-week diet for participants — one week is low-salt and the second week is high-salt — that will help determine how the body responds to sodium intake. All food will be provided.
If you have a patient you believe may benefit from the SALT Study, visit saltstudy.com for more information or contact the Clinical Research Coordinator:
Mahabuba Akhter, MBBS, MS
Email: SaltSensitivityStudy@email.virginia.edu
Phone: 434.924.8757
Novel Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping Technique in Early Stage Rectal Cancer (IRB #19120)
A board certified colorectal surgeon, Traci Hedrick, specializesin Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TEM), a minimally invasive surgery performed on patients with small rectal polyps and tumors. She is enrolling patients in a new clinical trial focusing on developing a sentinel lymph node mapping (SLNm) technique in combination with a patient’s standard TEM. The goal is to enable patients with early-stage rectal cancers to undergo transanal excision.
The investigators hope to enroll 22 patients to this trial over two years. Eligible patients include those who have rectal polyps or early cancers. Participants must meet the following criteria:
- Adult patients (18 or older) undergoing elective TEM at UVA for rectal neoplasm (polyp with high grade dysplasia, T1N0 tumors < 3cm in the absence of poor pathologic features, patients that refuse radical resection)
- Must be willing and able to give informed consent
- Cannot be women who are pregnant and/or breastfeeding
- Cannot be a prisoner
- Cannot have any of the following:
o Allergy to technetium, Spot and/or ICG
o Allergy to iodides
o Severe cardiac disease (hospitalization for cardiac disease in the last year, congestive heart failure, abnormal EKG) or renal disease (Creatinine > 2.0 mg/dL)
For more information, visit clinicaltrials.gov or feel free to reach out to the Study Coordinator:
Amy Harrigan
acm6a@virginia.edu
434-982-6532