Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to see if the cytosponge ( a 10 minute, in office procedure that does not require sedation) can be used to replace the 6-10 endoscopies that are routinely performed during the standard of care dietary restriction and food reintroduction trials to manage eosinophilic esophagitis.

The purpose of this study is to develope a rapid lab test for counting total bacteria in human intestinal fluid collected by aspiration from the duodenal section of the small intestine.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the results from a fecal fat test compare to results from the duodenal aspirate culture which was collected during a recent clinical EGD. The goal is to determine whether this less expensive, non-invasive test that can be performed at home can potentially be used in place of an EGD with fluid collection and culture, particularly to monitor response to treatment.

This study aims to elucidate the relationship between the microbiome, inflammation, and the microenvironment in Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), with the end goal of developing a non-endoscopic testing strategy based on pathogenic factors to identify patients at highest risk for EAC. To accomplish this the investigators will enroll 100 patients with known BE (50 with dysplasia or EAC) and 50 subjects without BE undergoing upper endoscopy. Prior to endoscopy each subject will undergo three minimally invasive potential screening and surveillance tests: saliva (oral microbiome), breath test (exhaled volatile organic compounds), and tethered capsule sponge sampling (methylated DNA ...

To determine whether the microbiome, metagenome and metabolome of the tissue of the second portion of duodenum of patients with pancreatic cancer are different from that of patients with benign conditions not affecting the pancreas.

The investigators will study a noninvasive no risk process by which the investigators can quickly screen and assess for fasting and non-fasting states in individuals scheduled for routine endoscopy.

Does the small bowel microbiota in healthy individuals change after consumption of a Western diet?

The purpose of this study is to determine serum, saliva, and tissue levels of nitrates in patients with normal squamous epithelium, erosive esophagitis, non-dysplastic BE (NDBE), and BE with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC); to compare serum and tissue levels of IL-8 with varying levels of BE dysplasia and EAC; and to determine whether there is an association between nitrate levels and IL-8.

The purpose of this study is to examine how IRIS (Intelligent Real-time Image Segmentation) affects biopsy patterns in VLE (Volumetric Laser Endomicroscopy).

The purpose of this study is to see if advanced endoscopic imaging may be helpful to accurately distinguish pathological tissue from normal tissue and guide therapy of endoscopically identified pathology.

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of Colon Capsule Endoscopy versus Computed Tomographic Colonography for the screening of colon polyps in the usual screening population.

Using stem cell derived intestinal epithelial cultures (enteroids) derived from obese (BMI> 30) patients and non-obese and metabolically normal patients (either post-bariatric surgery (BS) or BS-naïve with BMI < 25), dietary glucose absorption was measured. We identified that enteroids from obese patients were characterized by glucose hyper-absorption (~ 5 fold) compared to non-obese patients. Significant upregulation of major intestinal sugar transporters, including SGLT1, GLU2 and GLUT5 was responsible for hyper-absorptive phenotype and their pharmacologic inhibition significantly decreased glucose absorption. Importantly, we observed that enteroids from post-BS non-obese patients exhibited low dietary glucose absorption, indicating that altered glucose absorption ...

The goal of this study is to determine the olfactory outcomes and quality of life outcomes associated with cautery upper limb vs cold knife upper limb nasal septal incision.

The purpose of this study is to identify a predictive model for worsening of preexisting gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or development of de novo GERD after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) by using EndoFLIP, upper endoscopy and esophageal manometry to assess patients preoperatively in a discovery cohort.  This prospective predictive model will then identify sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for prediction of worsening or de novo GERD.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if Hybrid Argon Plasma Coagulation (HAPC) is non-inferior to Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) in the stricture-free eradication of the dysplastic Barrett's Esophagus (BE) epithelium.

The primary aim of this study is to determine if there is any evidence of viral shedding within the gastrointestinal or pulmonary system in patients with a prior recent negative nasopharyngeal PCR test. This will be of critical importance to the practice of endoscopy during this pandemic as it will help:  1) determine if a pre-endoscopy testing strategy is adequate to ramp-up access to semi-urgent and eventually elective procedures, while allowing the decreased utilization of limited or costly personal protective equipment (e.g., N95 respirators) while still keeping the GI endoscopy staff safe; and 2) realize the false negative rate of pre-procedural testing, which is vital to inform procedural practice policy and operations.