Acute Rhinitis

The main aim for POS-ARI-PC is to provide a platform for continuous data capture for patients with ARI presenting to primary care settings across Europe, covering cases caused by known and emerging respiratory pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, in order to generate observational evidence to inform care and maintain study- readiness for RCT evaluations. The POS-ARI-PC platform will thereby support the efficient set-up of new clinical studies and trials, which will be embedded into the platform. We have developed two overarching protocols for the POS-ARI-PC. The POS-ARI-PC AUDIT protocol allows for a flexible annual anonymous prospective audit-type registration to describe the presentation and management of patients presenting in primary care with ARI. This provides the infrastructure for patient sampling and follow-up, and in which randomisation can be activated for platform trials to evaluate a range of interventions that can be added and replaced over time. This has resulted in the POS-ARI-PC CORE protocol. POS-ARI-PC AUDIT: This is a flexible annual anonymous prospective audit-type registration to describe the presentation and management of patients presenting in primary care with ARI. POS-ARI-PC AUDIT will be delivered through a prospective, multi-country, audit-type anonymous registration of presentation and management of approximately 2,000 patients presenting to PC annually across Europe. This audit will benchmark the case mix and care of patients consulting in PC. These can include general practice, urgent care centres, accident and emergency and other acute services in hospitals, for adult and paediatric patients, both in and out of office hours. POS-ARI-PC CORE: This is a non-randomised, prospective, observational study of the presentation, management, microbiology and outcome of acute respiratory tract infection in primary care. POS-ARI-PC CORE has the following three objectives: Objective 1. A prospective, observational study of ARI patients in primary care to undergo study-specific sampling upon inclusion and be followed up for 28 days to capture the aetiology of their ARI and describe clinical outcomes. Objective 2. A qualitative study with research professionals, clinicians, and patients to a) gain a deep understanding of the research process, and the meaning of results and to identify barriers and opportunities for implementation of changes considering findings, and b) explore the views and experiences of patients who consult European primary care services for ARI symptoms since the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives 3. To ensure research readiness for including embedded observational and randomised evaluations to answer questions about the effectiveness of diagnostic, behavioural or therapeutic management strategies for ARI in PC. When a new embedded observational study or RCT is added to the POS-ARI-PC a study-specific appendix (SSA) or an intervention-specific appendix (ISA) will be developed which details the (changes in) the study population, the research question, objectives, outcomes, study-specific processes and analysis. This will be appended to the POS-ARI-PC CORE Protocol and all appropriate approvals will be gained for each SSA or ISA. Participation in the study will last for 28 days. Once consented to the study, a member of the study team will complete a short questionnaire collecting the participants' names and contact information, some details about them, and the symptoms they have been experiencing. A combined throat/nose swab will be collected from the patient for study purposes. Participants will also be asked to tell us about how they are feeling today and for the next 14 days via an online or paper daily diary. They might be telephoned to ask some questions if they are unable to complete the daily diary. Their GP will be contacted after day 28 to collect information about their consultations and hospital referrals in the 28-day period. A small number of enrolled participants who consented (optional) to be contacted by the research team about the nested qualitative study will be invited for a process evaluation interview. POS-ARI-PC-001: The first embedded study, POS-ARI-PC-001, will be conducted as a prospective observational study to estimate the incidence of medically-attended RSV, HMPV, HPIV and RV infections in an elderly population. This embedded study is appended to the POS-ARI-PC CORE Protocol as a study specific appendix (SSA).

To further evaluate the efficacy and safety of Antiwei granule in the treatment of common cold (wind-cold syndrome)

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of co-morbidities, history, and allergen tests on the outcome of allergen provocation tests. Subjects are children aged 0-18 years old investigated for allergy to foods or antibiotics. Data entered in the database are demographics, co-morbidities, symptoms, SPT, specific IgE and details of the allergen provocations.

The trial seeks to compare the benefits of adding a diagnostic test that can distinguish the etiology of an acute respiratory illness early in the work-up and management. All adult patients shall be evaluated through the Emergency Department (ED) as an undiagnosed acute reparatory illness (URI). The included patient cohort must present with SIRS criteria and be ill enough to require immediate blood draw and management by the ED. Excluded are any URIs with a predetermined diagnosis or subjects presenting with illness not determined to be a URI as a primary diagnosis. The experimental arm of the study shall have in addition to the standard of care labs and diagnostics, a novel protein array blood test that can distinguish bacterial from viral disease. The control group will not receive these results. The trial seeks to examine the difference in clinical outcomes when a adjunct biomarker than can help the clinician guide more accurate therapy is available early in the diagnostic workup. Benefits are defined in the primary and secondary outcomes as reduced resources expended through reduced laboratory, radiological, blood bank, and pharmaceutical expenditures. Comparative resource utilization costs include changes in hospital and or ED length of stay, lower follow up visits and readmissions, less inpatient and outpatient physician consultants and services called for to manage the patients care, and overall costs. Both primary and secondary outcomes will be used to categorize the costs and resources required to manage the patient. Primary objective is to evaluate overall changes in patient management and longer-term resource utilization between control and test arms, including (but not limited to) additional work-up (including other diagnostic tests and consults), antimicrobial treatments, disposition decisions and hospital length of stay (LOS). The exploratory objective is to evaluate changes between control and test arm in ED LOS, bounce backs (patients returning within 72 hours), work-up costs and the impact of physician seniority.

In patients with positive airway sample for respiratory viruses, the investigators hypothesize that discontinuation of antibiotic therapy is safe and non-inferior to continuation of antibiotic therapy. More specifically, the investigators hypothesize that the early clinical response assessed at 120 hours after randomization, defined as survival with symptom improvement without receipt of rescue antibacterial therapy, will be similar between patients who discontinue and continue antibiotic therapy. Furthermore, the investigators hypothesize that discontinuation of antibiotic therapy is associated with similar mortality rates, duration of hospital admission and reduced number of defined daily doses of antibiotics. The primary aim is to assess whether discontinuation of antibiotic therapy in patients with positive airway sample for respiratory viruses is safe and associated with early clinical response assessed at 120 hours after randomization that is comparable to patients who continue antibiotic therapy. The secondary aims are to assess whether discontinuation of antibiotic therapy in patients with positive airway sample for respiratory viruses is associated comparable (1) mortality rates, (2) duration of hospital admission, (3) defined daily doses of antibiotic therapy. Specific objectives In patients with positive airway sample for respiratory viruses, assess the impact of discontinuing antibiotic therapy on early clinical response quantified as survival with symptom improvement without receipt of rescue antibacterial therapy. Early clinical response is defined as improvement of one or more levels relative to baseline in two or more symptoms of the investigator's assessment of symptoms of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and no worsening of one or more levels in other symptoms.

The purpose of this post-market clinical investigation is to assess in a real-life setting, the effectiveness, usage, tolerance, safety and satisfaction of 4 isotonic and hypertonic seawater-based CE-marked nasal sprays. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Efficacy, * Safety, * Usage, * Satisfaction, in real-life usage among infants, children, adults and pregnant or breastfeeding women suffering from acute and chronic sinonasal pathologies. The 4 medical devices under investigation will be used in accordance with their intended use, target populations and medical indications.

Preoperative nasal decolonisation has been shown to achieve significant reductions in surgical site infections at sites remote from the nasal cavity. It would therefore seem to have great potential in reducing the risk of post-operative infections after sinonasal surgery, and therefore reduce antibiotic usage. If surgeons have confidence in the treatment, those that routinely prescribe prophylactic antibiotics may also be pursued to change their practice. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of photodisinfection therapy versus control with nares swabbed with 'photosensitizer formulation' (0.01% methylene blue with 0.25% chlorhexidine solution) to reduce the antibiotics usage for presumed SSI inpatients undergoing nasal surgery. The investigators hypothesise that preoperative photodisinfection will demonstrate greater efficacy compared to control with nares swabbed with 'photosensitizer formulation' (0.01% methylene blue with 0.25% chlorhexidine solution) in reducing the usage of antibiotics for presumed surgical site infection (SSI) among patients undergoing nasal surgery. The investigators will also further evaluate the effectiveness of nasal decolonisation in eliminating colonization of the anterior nares with S. aureus and other potentially pathogenic microbes. The anterior nares are often considered the primary reservoir of S. aureus and other pathogens on the body (36). Therefore, this product could play an important role in helping to eliminate the anterior nares as a pathogen reservoir in surgical patients. This study is meant to provide further safety, efficacy, and methodological data, but is not intended to establish definitive statistical significance. If required, this study will support a subsequent larger study that would establish statistical significance for the reduction of surgical site infections, but which is currently not the subject of this protocol.

This study is a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded clinical study. The purpose of the study is to compare the balloon sinuplasty treatment to placebo effect in chronic or recurrent maxillary sinusitis and to find out the efficacy of balloon sinuplasty in different stages of rhinosinusitis (recurrent vs. chronic). The goal is to find out the patients who get the best benefit from balloon sinuplasty. The investigators also want to find out if balloon sinuplasty of maxillary sinuses improves Eustachian tube dysfunction. The study is executed in the Department of Ear and Oral Diseases, Tampere University Hospital. 120 patients who have either recurrent acute or chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyposis and whose sinusitis is limited mainly into maxillary sinuses, are recruited in the study. After the first visit, when the patient has filled the consent form and all the preoperative evaluation has been carried out, the examining doctor sends the patient's study number and all the information needed for the randomization and allocation to a person who carries out the randomization and does not know anything else about the patient and does not participate in the examination or the treatment of the patients. The patients are allocated either into the chronic maxillary sinusitis (60 patients) or the recurrent maxillary sinusitis (60 patients) branch of the study. Then, the patients are consecutively randomized into two treatment groups in the proportion of 1 to 1 by using MINIM, an MS-DOS program that randomizes patients to treatment groups by the method of minimization. The treatment groups are A) Balloon sinuplasty group and B) Placebo group (sham surgery). Sample size calculation was based on comparison of proportions between two independent samples. It was estimated that the balloon sinuplasty could improve the situation of approximately 60% of the chronic rhinosinusitis patients. There is a likely placebo effect in the sham surgery group and therefore it was estimated that the situation in 20% of the patients in that group could significantly be improved. When using alfa = 0.05, power = 0.80 and the proportion difference of 60% vs. 20%, the calculation showed that 27 + 27 observations are needed. This was rounded up to final sample of 30 patients in the balloon sinuplasty group and 30 patients in the placebo group. Similar benefits of balloon sinuplasty were assumed concerning recurrent acute maxillary rhinosinusitis and therefore the final sample size would also be 30 patients in the balloon sinuplasty group and 30 patients in the placebo group. The total sample size will therefore be 120 patients. The treatment is performed in similar circumstances for both the balloon sinuplasty and the placebo group in the day surgery section of the ENT clinic. The staff of the day surgery section is instructed to avoid any kind of communication, before and during the operation as well as during the post-operative care, which might reveal the group of the patient. The operation theatre nurses open the sealed randomization envelope and prepare the room according to it. All the surgical devices to be used in the operation are hidden under a sterile linen when the patient enters the room. Before the operation begins, the patient is set on the operation table and his/her eyes are covered with moist gauze dressing pads. The operating doctor reads the randomization group status information from the envelope, which tells whether the operation is going to be a balloon sinuplasty or a placebo procedure, in the operation theatre just before the operation. The operations are carried out in local anesthesia which is always performed similarly for both groups. Topical anesthesia is performed for each patient. All the procedures are performed under a direct vision of a straight, 4mm diameter, 0-degree endoscope. Operation time and possible bleeding and pain during the operation are documented. Nasal mucosal biopsies are taken from the anterior portions of middle turbinates from all the patients. Then in the Balloon sinuplasty group the balloon sinuplasty operation is performed: the shapeable tip of the balloon dilatation device (Entellus XprESS LoProfile; Stryker Corporation, Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A.), with maxillary bending, is inserted into the maxillary sinus ostium. Then guided with the tip, a flexible balloon (6 mm x 20 mm) is gently inserted into the ostium and inflated up to 12 atm for 15 seconds. The dilatation is repeated one more time. The same procedure is performed for both maxillary sinuses. In the placebo treatment group the middle meatus is gently palpated with a curved suction tip (the tip is not connected to a suction unit). The curved suction tip is placed medial to the uncinate process. In order to create a better placebo effect, the operating doctor says: "Now inflate the balloon up to 12 atm for 15 seconds." After 15 seconds the doctor says: "Deflate the balloon." This is repeated one more time. Similar procedure is carried out on both sides. The operating doctor does not participate in the pre- or postoperative evaluation of the patients. The information, whether the patient had a placebo procedure or the balloon sinuplasty procedure, is not written in the patient's medical record. It is only written that the patient had an operation in accordance with the study protocol. The more detailed information of the operation is written on the Surgery form and the form is sealed in an envelope and the envelope is sent to the study nurse, who stores it inside a locked filing cabinet in her locked office. The envelope is only opened in the end of the 12-month follow-up visit. The examining doctor follows the patients for the next 12 months after the operation. The follow-up visits take place 3 and 12 months postoperatively. At 6 and 9 months postoperatively, there will be a phone interview by the study nurse and the patients will fill a web based electronic follow-up form. In the end of the 12 month follow-up visit, the examining doctor and the patient are informed about the patient's group status and the patients in the placebo group are given the option to receive the balloon sinuplasty treatment outside the study. The effect of balloon sinuplasty treatment in chronic maxillary rhinosinusitis will be measured primarily with the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), which measures the quality of life and also the outcome of a surgical intervention. In recurrent acute maxillary rhinosinusitis, the effect of balloon sinuplasty treatment will be measured primarily with the number of acute rhinosinusitis infections. Besides this, number of antibiotic treatments and sick leaves are inquired, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) is used, rhinomanometry, nasal endoscopy and general evaluation of the patients clinical ORL-status are performed. Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is performed preoperatively and at the 12 month follow-up visit. To measure the Eustachian tube dysfunction, patients are going to fill in the Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7) and tympanometry and tubomanometry are performed. To estimate the histological effectiveness for rhinal inflammation, pre- and postoperative biopsies are taken from the middle turbinates. In chronic maxillary rhinosinusitis, the improvement of the quality of life will be analysed with either paired t-test or Wilcoxon rank sum test depending on the shape of the distribution of the SNOT-22 scores. The comparison between the groups regarding the SNOT-22 score change will be carried out with either independent samples T-test or Mann-Whitney test depending on the distribution. In recurrent acute maxillary rhinosinusitis, the reduction of sinusitis episodes and comparison between two groups will be analysed with Fisher exact test. The results of this study will be submitted for publication to peer reviewed international journals. The Pirkanmaa Hospital District and the research group with its grants bear the expenses of the study. The researchers are not payed for executing the study but they will apply for grants.

Study Title Beetroot Juice Supplement for Boosting Mucosal Immunity: The NO Cold Study Objectives Aim 1: Demonstrate that a 7-day trial of daily beetroot juice or nitrate depleted placebo beetroot juice is feasible with acceptable retention and adherence during a period of real-life stress, using adherence monitoring of beetroot juice intake by cell phone recorded video; acceptable burdensomeness for participants and success of team coordination and study logistics should also be demonstrated. Aim 2: Generate initial estimates of effect size for a) elevations in exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) and b) the correlation between changes in FENO and both infection reduction and cold symptom reduction (biological signature). Aim 3: a) Examine if 2 daily doses of beetroot juice are more potent than 1 daily dose in elevating FENO, and b) investigate whether each beetroot juice dosage (1 dose and 2 doses) increases FENO more than the placebo. Exploratory aims: Explore sex as a moderator of all the Aims. Also explore effects of competitors/inhibitors of NO (arginase, asymmetric dimethylarginine) in a) reducing FENO under stress, and b) whether beetroot juice buffers any of these potential adverse effects on FENO; c) investigate whether effects of stress cortisol, which negatively impact NO, cold symptoms, and respiratory infections, are also buffered by beetroot juice. Design and Outcomes This is a double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial to test the efficacy of beetroot juice as elevating airway NO, which is associated with reduced cold symptoms and respiratory viral infection rates, in undergraduate students aged 18-30. Interventions and Duration Participants will be receiving 1 active daily dose of beetroot juice and 1 dose of nitrate-depleted placebo beetroot juice, 2 active daily doses of beetroot juice, or 2 daily doses of nitrate-depleted placebo beetroot. Cold symptoms will be explored by questionnaire at baseline (in a low stress period during the semester) and subsequently twice during the final exam period, once at an early stage of the finals (days 1-3 of the final exam period), and once at a later stage (days 4-6). A follow-up online questionnaire packet will be administered 3 days after the last final day. FENO, sampling for viral PCR, salivary cortisol, and exhaled breath condensate will be undertaken at baseline, early finals, and late finals (in-person assessments are not feasible at follow-up, because students leave campus after finals). Sample Size and Population The sample size is 150 students (n=66 at SMU site, n=84 at Baylor site). Female and male students 18-30 years old will be recruited from Baylor and SMU. The investigators will make an extra effort to guarantee equal representation of both genders. Participants can be from any ethnic or cultural background, as long as they can understand and read English adequately. The student population of both universities combined is diverse (28.5-38.5% minorities). The investigators will stratify by sex and by site, to randomize participants to receiving 1 active daily dose of beetroot juice and 1 dose of nitrate-depleted placebo beetroot juice, 2 active daily doses of beetroot juice, or 2 daily doses of nitrate-depleted placebo beetroot juice (n=50 per group).

Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is a common otolaryngologic procedure that aims to remove the partitions that separate the sinus cavities, remove inflamed tissue, and optimize the sinuses for topical medication use. In this procedure, the surgeon will inject a combination of drugs, local anesthetics, and vasoconstrictors, to reduce bleeding and improve visualization. However, previous studies have shown similar results when injected with only saline. In this study, investigators want to determine if the injection of local anesthesic+vasoconstrictor compared to no injection at all makes any difference in improving the surgeon's visualization during an ESS.