The University of Calgary, Division of Rheumatology is developing a Registry of patients with Vasculitis in the Southern Alberta Region. What will the registry be used for? • Collect information on your specific disease course, treatments and outcomes. • To establish a blood bank to examine the profiles of patients with vasculitis to determine their clinical features and response to therapy. • Notification of opportunities to participate in rheumatology research studies in the Calgary region. • Notification of educational activities (seminars, patient newsletters) in the Calgary region. Taking part in this study involves? For this study, you will meet with Dr. Fifi-Mah or Dr Garner, rheumatologists at South health Campus, once a year. At your annual visit, your medical history will be reviewed and you will have a physical exam performed. You will be asked to complete a questionnaire about your symptoms and quality of life. You will also have a blood test done. We expect each of these study visits to last up to 30 minutes in duration. We would arrange the study visits when you are due to attend the hospital for your scheduled clinical appointments so you will not have any additional hospital visits. What about the Confidentiality Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. Please note that your non-participation will not affect the quality of care you’ll receive from your health care provider. All communications will remain confidential between you and the research team.

This study aims to measure the best ankle-foot-orthoses to be used with the Bionic Power Agilik knee exoskeleton to maximize benefits of the device to the wearer. This study will evaluate 3-5 different AFOs during walking in a lab that allows us to measure joint angles and forces while you walk. This research will help us determine the most effective use cases for the Agilik exoskeleton.

Arthritis is more common in individuals with CP, but we do not understand why. This study answers this question by looking at how foot and ankle bones move in individuals with CP and foot impairment. Additionally, we will begin to look at whether AFOs may change these foot and ankle bone movements. Our research uses a special imaging system to look at how the foot and ankle move in healthy adults versus adults with CP and foot impairments. This will give us a better understanding of how OA might be linked to changes in joint movements in people with CP. We will also use this technology to see if AFOs can improve mobility and foot function. This information will help us design better AFOs that can improve the lives of people with CP by reducing the effects of OA.

We are looking at how foot joints (Metatarsophalangeal joint) and the surrounding bones rotate and move when running in the Nike Vapourfly 3 running shoe, a carbon plated high performance "super-shoe". Participants will visit the University's Foothill campus once for a CT scan, followed by video Xray (dual fluoroscopy) imaging.

Bone marrow adipose tissue, often called "yellow marrow" plays a significant role in bone health. However, its role in children's bone growth and development is less understood. The purpose of this study is to establish a magnetic resonance imaging protocol to measure bone adipose tissue in children. This could help us understand the role of bone marrow adipose tissue on bone health in children.

Among all of the many complex functions and uses of our hands, they are often the first point of contact when we fall or crash. We use our hands and wrists to absorb energy after falls or motor vehicle crashes, in an effort to prevent injuries to the head, chest, and abdomen. Although hand and wrist injuries are common, acute carpal dislocations such as perilunate injuries are frequently underestimated, falsely diagnosed and/or underreported. Little is known about the frequency of these devastating injuries. Perilunate spectrum injuries lead to poor wrist function and pain which can jeopardize a person’s ability to accomplish activities of daily living, and reduces their productivity. This is a uniquely designed study that will be comprehensively monitoring clinically diagnosed perilunate injuries across Canada. A consortium of hand surgeons across the country with research infrastructure has united to support this ambitious trial. Patients can enroll in one of two studies in this project: 1. National injury registry 2. A prospective observational cohort study examining clinical and functional long-term outcomes To date, there is not a single thread of prospectively collected data for this common injury pattern. Our team’s goal is to collect all relevant demographic information, injury information, surgical information, and track the healing progress, and recovery for these injuries over a 10 year period.

We are looking to test a new type of treatment for patients with early knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis occurs due to inflammation in the knee. This inflammation can lead to areas of swollen bone called bone marrow lesions. These bone marrow lesions cause pain and are often associated with osteoarthritis. There is a new treatment for these bone marrow lesions called subchondroplasty. Subchondroplasty involves injecting a flowable calcium substance into the bone marrow lesion. This injection would occur during minimally-invasive knee surgery. The injected calcium substance will strengthen the swollen bone and help it heal. We want to determine if subchondroplasty can reduce knee pain and improve knee function. This would involve completing questionnaires and having x-rays, MRI, and CT images taken of your knee before surgery and then at different timepoints up to 2 years after surgery.

Injured joints, especially the elbow, are at risk for permanent motion loss, also known as joint contractures. Joint contractures limit the function of a person due to the loss of elbow motion. For example, loss of elbow motion makes it difficult to perform activities of daily living such as feeding yourself, personal hygiene and dressing. Joint contractures are a recognized complication that occurs often after a fracture or dislocation of a joint. Current research suggests that mast cells, which are found in the joint, are key in causing the joint contracture. Mast cells are produced by our bone marrow along with other white blood cells and live in our tissues. They participate in healing after injury but in joint contractures they are over active. Research has been performed using a medication called Ketotifen. Ketotifen has been linked to stabilizing the mast cells and preventing the joint contracture. It is hoped that short-term use of this medication (Ketotifen) after a fracture or dislocation will prevent the contracture from occurring. This medication is not new. It is currently used in the treatment of Asthma. This research is continuing from another clinical study on people with elbow fractures or dislocations done in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Impact Statement: Ketotifen is a mast cell stabilizer that prevents the release of growth factors and has been used for the treatment of asthma for over 40 years. It has a wide safety profile; there are no reported deaths from overdose, the side effects are minor with the most common side effects being transient sedation (14% of individuals) and 1 – 2 kg weight gain (0.9% of individuals), it does not impair fracture healing, and there are no known teratogenic events. It has been off patent for several years and is low cost. Ketotifen is an oral medication and easily stored and transported. Based on a review of the literature, and our preclinical and Phase II randomized clinical trial (RCT) comparing ketotifen to a placebo, ketotifen is the only pharmaceutical possibility available in the foreseeable future. Successful results using ketotifen to prevent post-traumatic elbow contractures can be rapidly translated to clinical care since it is Health Canada approved for human use. An application to Health Canada to include joint contracture prevention or treatment as another approved indication for ketotifen treatment is all that would be needed. Post-traumatic joint contractures are a major issue. An analysis of the Calgary Health Region database revealed that approximately 1200 elbow fractures or dislocations occurred in 2002–2005. Most of the affected individuals were in the 20–60 year age group with an equal representation of men and women. Elbow injuries and their complications have a significant on productivity, return to work or duty, and quality of life. Thus, preventing contractures after joint injuries is a worthwhile strategy. In addition to preventing contractures, there are other potential applications of Ketotifen. For people with established elbow contractures, operations can be performed to improve motion. Ketotifen could be used as an adjunct to operative contracture release for established post-traumatic contractures, or contractures that develop following elective procedures for degenerative conditions, such as total knee replacement.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery has unacceptably high failure rates in young active individuals. ACL graft choice and/or augmentation with a lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET) has the potential to reduce failure rates in this patient population. This international, multicentre randomized clinical trial will determine if ACLR using a patient’s own quadriceps tendon or patellar tendon, either with or without a LET, reduces the risk of ACL failure, results in less symptoms, better function and quality of life, and an improved ability to return to sports. It is anticipated that 1,234 people will participate from research sites in Canada, the United States, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden.

This study intends to determine how common idiopathic subglottic stenosis (iSGS) is across Canada, and to determine reasons why people develop the condition. The disease has increased from rare and newly described in the 1970s to a relatively common diagnosis in the last decade. The study investigators want to determine the incidence (number of new diagnoses per year) and prevalence (number of people living with the disease) in every province. This will help understand if there are certain areas with higher rates of disease and lead to new studies looking at factors causing the increased rate of disesae.