Clinical trials

This study will adopt a 2-arm, pretest-posttest, and assessor-blind RCT design to examine the effectiveness of a theory-based health behaviour change intervention on WC (primary outcome), kidney function (eGFR, primary outcome), dietary behaviour, PA, exercise capacity, and self-efficacy of dietary behaviour and PA among Chinese adults with metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease. A total of 160 adults with metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease will be recruited, with 80 participants in each group. Data will be collected at 4 time points (baseline, immediate post-intervention, 1-month post-intervention, and 6-month post-intervention) via an online questionnaire survey platform (Qualtrics) by researchers blinded to the group allocation to reduce the detection bias.

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicenter clinical study to investigates the efficacy of fezolinetant in men undergoing ADT for prostate cancer in alleviating Vasomotor syndromes.

Prostate cancer is characterised by its slow progression nature, and even for metastatic disease, the 5-year survival is up to 30%. While ADT can effectively control disease, there is increasing evidence suggesting that it can also result in many adverse cardiovascular side effects on the patients, and these effects are particularly important due to the prolonged survival of these patients. There are suggestions that close cardiovascular (CV) monitoring will help to reduce cardiovascular risk and related morbidities. However, there is limited data to show the positive impact of these monitoring could reducing CV risk and morbidities. Moreover, information regarding the optimal follow-up approach and schedule is also lacking. Therefore, there is a need to have more information on the approach to monitoring the CV risk and the real-life impact of this monitoring on our patients. Patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and plan to receive ADT are invited to participate in this study to assess the potential benefit of multidisciplinary care approach to CV risk modification.

This study will assess whether methylene blue fluorescence imaging can help surgeons identify the ureters during colorectal surgery. Methylene blue, given through a vein during the operation, is taken up and excreted by the kidneys, allowing the ureters to appear under a special fluorescence camera system. The study will include adults undergoing open, laparoscopic, or robotic colorectal surgery at Prince of Wales Hospital. The surgeons will compare ureter visibility using standard white light with visibility using fluorescence imaging at different stages of the operation. The study will also assess the best dose of methylene blue, the additional time required, the ease of using the imaging system, and whether the imaging findings affect the surgical plan. The study's hypothesis is that methylene blue fluorescence imaging will make it easier or faster to identify the ureters than white light alone. The technique will be considered feasible if it is helpful in at least 20% of operations-for example, by identifying a ureter earlier or identifying it when it cannot be seen under white light. The findings will help determine whether a larger future study should be conducted.

A retrospective evaluation of routinely collected clinical, embryological, laboratory, and pregnancy outcome data provides an efficient approach to examine the association between serum progesterone on the day of FET and clinical pregnancy in an Asian population.

This study aims to investigate the effects of Ignatian Examen Meditation on students' psychological well-being, gratitude, hope, and spirituality. Specifically, it examines whether participation in Examen Meditation improves emotional well-being by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, enhancing students' sense of gratitude and hope, and strengthening spiritual development. The study also explores the lived experiences of students and teachers who participate in the programme. Regarding significance, this study addresses the lack of empirical studies examining Examen Meditation in Asian educational settings. The findings will provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of a Catholic contemplative practice in supporting students' mental health and spiritual formation. It may contribute to the development of school-based well-being programmes in Catholic schools by demonstrating the potential benefits of Examen Meditation for psychological well-being, the sense of gratitude and hope and spiritual growth.

The goal of this Phase 2 clinical trial is to learn if adding romiplostim to standard erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) therapy is safe and tolerated in adults with chronic kidney disease who are on hemodialysis and have anemia that has not responded well to ESAs. The study will mainly check platelet counts and side effects. The main questions it aims to answer are: How many participants keep platelet counts within a normal range during and after treatment? How many participants have platelet counts that rise above the normal range? What medical problems or side effects occur after romiplostim is added to ESA therapy? Researchers will study three dose levels of romiplostim (0.2, 0.5, and 1 mg/kg) in small groups of participants. There is no placebo group. All participants will receive romiplostim plus their usual ESA and iron supplement. The study will also measure changes in hemoglobin and iron-related blood markers. Participants will: Receive romiplostim as an injection under the skin once weekly for 3 weeks. Each participant will be assigned to one of three dose groups. Continue their usual ESA therapy (darbepoetin or Mircera) and iron supplement. Have blood tests to check platelet counts, hemoglobin, and other blood and iron measures. Blood tests will be frequent at first and then less often. Visit the clinic regularly for up to 24 weeks, with a follow-up visit about 4 weeks after the end-of-treatment visit. Have other safety checks, such as vital signs, physical exams, and electrocardiograms (ECGs).

Acute DeBakey type I aortic dissection (ATAD) is one of the most lethal surgical emergencies. The conventional operative strategy is hemiarch replacement under cardiopulmonary bypass support to replace the diseased segment of the ascending aorta. However, in patients with dissection involving the whole aortic arch and descending thoracic aorta, the presence of the persistently perfused false lumen can lead to late aneurysm formation and require a second-stage operation, and this reduces long-term survival. In the surgical literature, there is growing evidence that the presence of Distal Anastomosis New Entry (DANE), which is a new intimal defect related to the trauma created by surgical sutures, is associated with persistent perfusion of the false lumen, aortic size growth, and the need of re-operation. The Ascyrus Medical Dissection Stent (AMDS; Artivion, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) is a hybrid prosthesis with a proximal sewing collar and distal nitinol self-expanding un-covered stent system designed to reduce the occurrence of DANE and hopefully depressurize the false lumen and lead to remodeling of the aortic wall. The investigators plan to prospectively recruit consecutive patients with acute ascending thoracic aortic dissection patients (Excluding DeBakey II) and randomized them, after informed consent, into either the conventional hemiarch replacement group (Hemiarch-C) or the hemiarch replacement plus AMDS implantation group (Hemiarch-AMDS). The participating team will collect pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative clinical and radiological parameters for two groups of patients. Written informed consent, specifically allowing the use of clinical records for this randomized study, will be obtained from every patient prior to data collection. Complete DICOM image files of the CT scans will be evaluated by two independent fully qualified Radiologists. Our primary outcome is the radiological detection of DANE in Hemiarch-C and Hemiarch-AMDS groups within the 12-month follow-up period. This study will be the world's first randomized control trial in ATAD to compare the prevalence of DANE in Hemiarch-C and Hemiarch-AMDS. It could be a guideline-changing study for the treatment of ATAD and its impact on the immediate survival, second-stage treatment, and long-term survival of patients suffering from ATAD.

This research aims to investigate the potential impact of a structured mindfulness-based professional development program on hotel employees and to explore why and how these changes occur during and after the mindfulness intervention through a mixed-methods approach. A 6-week mindfulness intervention with 60 hotel staff from a hotel will be implemented in Hong Kong. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected to examine changes in job-related outcomes, wellbeing, and state mindfulness and teachers' lived experiences and perspectives associated with this intervention. Data will be analyzed based on convergent parallel mixed-method approach, such as mixed-effects modeling, mediation analysis, and thematic analysis. This study may provide practical implications for developing evidence-based programs to promote wellbeing and service quality among hotel employees.

This study is a single-center, prospective, single-arm, non-blinded first-in-human (FIH) early feasibility study intended to evaluate the short-term safety and technical feasibility of closure of gastric post-ESD defects using a novel through-the-scope full-thickness endoscopic suturing system in initial human use. The subjects shall be patients scheduled to undergo ESD for gastric epithelial lesions at the study site (Prince of Wales Hospital) in Hong Kong who meet the eligibility criteria for this study and from whom written informed consent has been obtained. For the gastric defects created after completion of ESD, closure will be attempted using the study device, and its safety, technical success, and early postoperative maintenance of closure will be evaluated. The target sample size of this study shall be 5 cases, and no control group shall be established. No comparison with existing defect closure techniques or verification of superiority will be performed. From the viewpoint of patient protection, comparatively controllable gastric post-ESD defects are selected as the entry model, and the safety signal and basic technical success of this device in its initial human use will be evaluated descriptively. The device specifications used in this study shall remain fixed throughout the study period. During the registration period of the initial cohort of 5 cases, no major changes shall be made to the device itself, accessory equipment, procedural concept, or primary evaluation methods. If device improvement or procedural modification becomes necessary during the study, it shall be handled separately from this initial cohort after obtaining approval from the ethics committee and other relevant authorities, as necessary.

To overcome non-neoplastic polyp (NNP) resections, computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) systems have been developed. In a meta-analysis, the performance of CADx systems was superior to endoscopists. The proportion of incorrect predictions could be significantly reduced with CADx assistance. It was reported that autonomous AI prediction could achieve an agreement with the standard pathology-based surveillance intervals. In a prospective study targeting diminutive rectosigmoid polyps, CADx achieved a negative predictive value compared to the histology as gold standard. Lesions were amendable for a leave-in-situ strategy, suggesting a potential to reduce the burden of unnecessary polypectomies. It was estimated that the average colonoscopy cost and annual reimbursement could be reduced under the 'diagnose-and-leave' strategy. Nevertheless, almost all existing literature reporting the efficacy of CADx were simulated studies and focused on the diagnostic accuracy (i.e. all polyps were ultimately resected for histopathology). There is a lack of real-world data with hard clinical endpoints to support its implementation. A recent RCT compared leave-in-situ and resect-all strategy with real-time CADx in both arms. Using ADR as the surrogate marker, it was shown that the leave-in-situ strategy with CADx support was non-inferior. The major limitations of this RCT were that: i) CADx were activated in both arms - the pure CADx effect could not be demonstrated; ii) 'resect-all' strategy was not a real-world practice especially for diminutive rectosigmoid polyps; iii) the interaction and decision making between AI and human was not documented and uncertain. A well-designed RCT is warranted to evaluate the pure CADx effect on reducing NNP resections (enhance treatment efficacy) while maintaining the benchmark of ADR (safe implementation). In addition, AI-measured metrics may objectively validate the procedural quality for performance tracking and auditing purposes. If the above points are proven, AI-assisted colonoscopy would become the 'mainstream' in CRC prevention.

This study aims to establish a multicenter registry platform to capture clinical data from subjects undergoing colorectal EMR and ESD.

The investigators hypothesize that a newly developed CADx system will have a higher diagnostic accuracy in predicting histopathology of colorectal neoplasia than both expert and junior endoscopists.

The investigators aim to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of FIT and the novel panel of four bacterial gene markers collectively named as M3, to detect recurrent advanced adenomas in patients with history of colonic adenomas.

Since much is unknown about factors that lead to progression of the pre-neoplastic lesions and cancer. In addition, there is ongoing debate on the optimal surveillance intervals and techniques. To solve these important clinical questions, the establishment of a registry for a longitudinal study is planned.

The primary objectives of this study are: * To identify clinical or histological factors associated with gastric cancer development in patients with IM and AG * To establish a machine learning algorithm for prediction of future gastric cancer risks and individual risk stratification in patient with IM and AG

The primary objective of this study is to analyze the 15-year cumulative incidence of advanced colorectal neoplasia and CRC-related mortality after the index colonoscopy.

This study will see if a blue dye (methylene blue) given into a vein, together with a special camera light, helps surgeons find the left ureter (the tube from the kidney to the bladder) faster during left-sided bowel surgery. Adults having open, laparoscopic, or robotic left-sided colorectal surgery will be randomly assigned to either the blue dye with special light or standard white light alone. The main question is whether the blue dye method finds the ureter more quickly, which could make the operation safer.

The aim of the program to serve as a prototype for future preventive program for AD in the region. The program will recruit elderly participants. Cognitive assessment and lifestyle questionnaire will be performed with each participant to investigator their risk factor associate with AD. The program will offer medical referral and/or educational program(s) (e.g. tailor-made multidomain preventive measures plan, education talks) for participants who might have possible early AD or with high risk of AD

Alzheimer's disease is a severe neurodegenerative disorder of the brain that is characterized by progressive loss of memory and cognitive decline. With the ageing population, AD is a major public health problem affecting nearly 35 million people worldwide with numbers projected to rise to 115.4 million by 2050. AD is the only cause of death among the top ten causes that has no prevention or cure . It is believed that novel treatment of AD needs to start early or even at the prodromal stage in order to be effective. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find accurate methods of early detection before patients with AD develop clinical dementia. This study aims to identify biomarkers for AD in local Chinese population. this study hypothesizes blood-based proteomics, retinal imaging, ASL-MRP and tau PET can improve the accuracy and staging of AD.

This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of duodenal-jejunal bypass sleeve in patients with obesity

This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of combining ESG and pulsENDO procedure in obese patients with T2DM

This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of pulsENDO procedure in patients with T2DM and its effect on MASLD.

This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of endoscopic duodenal re-cellularization therapy using pulsed electric field in individuals with in patients with a recent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in preschoolers are frequently accompanied by persistent sleep disturbances, such as delayed sleep onset and reduced sleep duration, which exacerbate behavioral problems, impair cognitive development, and increase parental stress. While behavioral parent education effectively improves sleep hygiene, access to in-person clinical programs remains limited by high parent dropout rates. Digital delivery offers a flexible, scalable alternative, yet randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating both face-to-face and self-help mobile app formats specifically for preschoolers across NDDs remain scarce. This study is a three-arm RCT designed to evaluate and compare the efficacy of a parent-based sleep intervention delivered via face-to-face group sessions combined with usual care (UC) versus a digital self-help mobile application combined with UC, against UC alone in Hong Kong preschoolers with NDDs. The study also assesses downstream effects on child daytime behaviors, parental stress, and parent sleep/mood outcomes over a 12-month period.