The following is a list of therapeutic areas regarding health conditions in which WCCT commonly conducts research trials.
Biologic Trials
Biologics can include many different products like vaccines, blood, proteins (made by biological processes), allergenic, somatic cells, gene therapy, and tissues.
Allergic Rhinitis
Allergic Rhinitis is a common health problem that results from the inflammation of nasal passages. Such inflammation can be triggered by allergens such as pollen, dust, pets, or mold. Allergic rhinitis, more commonly called allergy symptoms, include itchy nose, mouth eyes, or skin, runny nose, swollen eyes, congestion, chronic coughs, headache, sore throat, hives, fatigue and more. Also, allergies are associated with eczema and asthma, and allergy symptoms may vary according to your environment.
There are many possible causes of allergy symptoms; in order specify the triggers of your allergic reactions, it is recommended that you go to an allergy clinic or your local allergist to get an administered skin test or special blood test. There are allergy treatments to relieve allergic reactions such as antihistamines, corticosteroids, decongestants, and allergy shots. Allergies may disappear with age, and there is no easy cure. But with research and clinical trials at centers such as West Coast Clinical Trials, an allergy cure can and will come.
Asthma
Asthma is caused by the chronic inflammation of the lungs, and asthma attacks can be instigated by allergies, rapid temperature changes, or exercise. Acute asthma symptoms include difficulties in breathing, chronic cough, bronchitis, or wheezing. Currently there is no asthma cure or asthma remedy to completely get rid of asthma; however, there are pharmaceutical agents that can relieve asthma symptoms.
COPD
COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a progressive lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe. COPD symptoms include coughing, bronchitis, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, as well as other symptoms. All of the symptoms can greatly affect the quality of life.
There are two primary types of COPD: emphysema and chronic obstructive bronchitis. Emphysema is caused by weakened walls of air sacs in the lung, which can result in less air sacs. Chronic obstructive bronchitis is a result of irritated and inflamed airways, filled with thick mucus, preventing your lungs from functioning properly. COPD is an obstructive pulmonary disease, interfering with the workings of your lungs and impacting millions of people’s quality of life.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic disease that is caused by high levels of glucose or sugar in the blood. There are three main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes. Type 1 diabetes symptoms include fatigue, more frequent urination, nausea, vomiting, and weight loss. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s immune system destroying insulin-producing cells in your pancreas. Type 2 diabetes symptoms include blurred vision, fatigue, increased appetite, increased thirst, and increased urination. This is the more common type of diabetes; people type 2 diabetes produce insulin, but their pancreas cannot produce enough or the insulin cannot get into the body’s cells, resulting in an insulin buildup. Lastly, gestational diabetes usually occurs during pregnancy; due to hormones, all pregnant women have slightly glucose intolerant (so they have more blood sugar) and their pancreas produces more insulin to compensate. However, people with gestational diabetes cannot produce enough insulin, which means they are insulin resistant.
Diabetes treatment includes insulin, exercise, and diabetic diet for type 1 diabetes and weight loss, diabetic diet, and exercise for type 2 diabetes. Oral medication can also be used. All of these diabetic treatments help keep blood sugar levels under control to prevent the adverse effects of the disease.
Sleep Conditions
Sleep disorders include conditions like sleep apnea, insomnia, and narcolepsy. Some people can’t fall asleep or have trouble staying awake. Others have problems sticking to a regular sleep schedule or have disruptive-sleep behaviors. Many of these problems lead to sleep deprivation and a decreased quality of life.
More specifically, insomnia is the difficulty with falling asleep and/or staying asleep. It can be caused by anxiety, stress, depression, physical illness, caffeine, alcohol, drugs, medications, heavy smoking, physical napping, or other factors. Narcolepsy, a type of hypersomnia—the opposite of insomnia—is the disorder of excessive sleepiness. There are other sleep disorders that include sleep terrors, sleepwalking, and REM sleep behavior disorder (related to the inability to fall into REM sleep or deep sleep).
If you have a sleep disorder, participating in a sleep study or going to a sleep clinic or sleep centers can help you figure out the possible causes of sleep problems as well as find a potential sleep treatment.
Obesity
Obesity is a prevalent problem in today’s society with fast food, busy schedules, and the lack of physical activity. Thus weight loss—especially healthy weight loss—is a goal for many Americans. People are constantly looking to see how they can burn fat and quickly lose weight through weight loss centers, diets, weight loss programs, and diet pills. Some people just want to lose weight, but obesity is a medical condition. More specifically, obesity is when a person has a large excess of body fat, which causes adverse health effects including decreased life expectancy, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Vaccines
A vaccine will stimulate your immune system to recognize an agent that is usually similar to the harmful microorganism as foreign. Because the agent is weaker and given in very small doses, your body is able to recognize it, destroy it, and build immunization for any future encounters. Vaccines are administered through shots at your local health clinic. A vaccination will make sure that your body stays healthy and safe!
Smoking
Smoking cigarettes negatively impacts one’s health; it causes the majority of lung cancer deaths and can lead to other health problems such as lung disease, strokes, cataracts, heart disease, and blood vessel disease. For pregnant women, smoking or even secondhand smoke can lead to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Hypertension
Hypertension is the chronic medical condition of high blood pressure. It can be termed as essential or secondary. Most cases of hypertension are essential hypertension—over 90% of cases. Secondary hypertension is high blood pressure caused by other conditions such as kidney disease or a tumor. Hypertension can lead to strokes, heart attacks, renal failure, heart failure, shortened life expectancy, or arterial aneurisms. Hypertension treatment includes drug therapy and specialized diets.
Colitis, GERD
Colitis is the inflammation of the colon or the large intestine. Colitis symptoms can consist of abdominal bloating, stomach pain, bloody stool, dehydration, diarrhea, or increased intestinal gas. Treatment is specific to the symptom. The causes of colitis may include acute and/or chronic infections, inflammatory disorders such as Crohn’s colitis or lymphocytic colitis or the lack of blood flow. If bloody diarrhea, fever, or intense pain occur and persist, you should seek medical help by contacting a health care practitioner or going to the hospital emergency center.
Renal Impairment
Renal Impairment or in severe cases, renal failure, results from the inability of the kidney to function properly; this can lead to an increased level of fluids in the body, abnormal acid, potassium, calcium, and phosphates levels, blood in urine (hematuria), and anemia. Renal failure symptoms can include, but are not limited to vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, weight loss, pale urine, dark colored urine, blood in urine, swelling of legs, ankles, feet, face or hands, or back pain. Causes of chronic renal failure may be hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, over usage of common drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofen, or polycystic kidney disease. Renal impairment treatment includes a low potassium diet, medication, vitamins, or dialysis.
Pediatrics
Pediatric medicine is a specialized type of medicine that specifically deals with infants, kids, and adolescents. As children are growing, they are still developing, and they have a different body size and body fat percentage than adults. Thus, maturing children cannot be treated like or take the same dosage of small adults.
Post Menopausal
Menopause is the permanent end of the reproductive fertility in women; a woman’s ovaries produce lower levels of estrogen and progesterone—two sex hormones—and stop producing eggs and menstruation stops. Estrogen leads to the development of a woman’s breasts and uterus, controls a woman’s menstrual cycle and affects a woman’s physical and emotional health. Being postmenopausal is defined as 12 consecutive months without a period. Postmenopausal women have less estrogen and are at risk for osteoporosis and heart disease, and should check in with a doctor regularly for screening tests.
Elderly
In clinical trials, elderly people are defined as people over the age of 55+, depending on the study. The senior citizens require special dosages, because older adults may metabolize drugs differently than younger adults.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease, which results in bone loss, a decrease in bone density, and thinning of bone tissue. This can result in bone pain, fractures from little impact, loss of height, low back pain, neck pain, and slouched posture. Osteoporosis treatments include biphosphonates, hormone replacement therapy, exercise, calcium supplements, and diet. The cause of osteoporosis is the body’s failure to produce new bone, which can occur from menopause, cushing syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, excess corticosteroid levels due to certain medicine, and other factors; as people age, bones absorb less calcium and phosphate which can lead to more fragile bones. Other risk factors include absence of menstrual periods, eating disorders, family history, excessive alcohol consumption, low body weight, smoking, and an unhealthy diet. People can test for osteoporosis through a DEXA scan, which is a bone density test or a spine CT.
Influenza
Influenza, also known as the flu, is caused by a virus that also affects birds and mammals. Flu symptoms include fever, muscle aches, sore throat, chills, fatigue, headache, and coughing. Typically it is transmitted by direct contact or through the air from people who are sick. The flu spreads in seasonal epidemics, and new strains frequently appear. Most recently, the bird flu appeared in the 1990s, but failed to quickly spread, and the swine flu appeared in 2009 that quickly became a world wide epidemic. The flu can be prevented by vaccines and treated by resting, drinking a lot of liquids, avoiding alcohol and tobacco, or taking antiviral medication.