Active clinical trials for "Heart and Blood Diseases"

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the ABCD2 score can be used in patients with transient ischemic attack, admitted to Beijing anzhen hospital, to evaluate the prognosis, risk factor of those patients.

The purpose is to evaluate autoantibodies in infective endocarditis patients before, at the beginning of treatment, and after the end of the treatment, and to correlate the autoantibodies in the presence of clinical symptoms.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of acquisition of coronary blood flow velocity signals over the whole length of the LAD with transthoracic pulsed Doppler, and to evaluate the diagnostic power of the transthoracic Doppler analysis package for detecting and estimating the degree of coronary artery stenosis. Finally we hope to optimize the currently available analysis package on the basis of the comparison of the Doppler with the angiographic stenosis results and evaluation.

To compare patients with Slow Coronary Artery Flow to patients with normal flow and to determine whether there is a difference in their future incidence of heart disease.

The prevalence of Anderson - Fabry disease in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy is unclear. The investigators will examine urine - α - Galactosidase activity and globotriaosylceramide isoforms in these patients.

Correlation of(OxyVu) values to to ABI, TBP, and TCOM in patients scheduled for foot level amputation because of critical limb ischemia, infection, or tissue necrosis.

The purpose of this study is to compare Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) Imaging with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in detecting the presence of LAA thrombi in men and women with atrial fibrillation presenting for cardioversion.

A total of 144 stroke patients 6 -24 months post onset who are between 45 and 75 years old will be recruited. A randomized-blocks pretest and posttest control group design will be applied. Four groups will be involved in this project and the subjects will be stratified on two variables: impairment level of the hand and side of lesion. Randomization will be done in blocks of six and each block randomization scheme is within each stratum. Treatment regimens will be designed to ensure that patients in 4 groups receive equivalent intensity of treatment (5 days/week for 1.5 hours/day for 4 consecutive weeks) directly supervised by senior occupational therapists. Brain and movement reorganization will be evaluated with fMRI and kinematic instrument, respectively before and after the 4-week intervention period. Clinical measures on motor impairment, daily function and quality of life will be assessed before, immediately and six months after intervention. Two examiners blind to group allocation will collaborate to provide both fMRI and kinematic evaluations and one of them will administer clinical measures. Before being allowed to work with subjects, the examiner competence will be assessed by principle investigator and co-principle investigators. Multivariate analyses of covariance will be used to examine change in brain activation, kinematic variables and clinical measures as a function of intervention while controlling for pretest data, age and onset post stroke. Multiple regression models will be established to examine the possible predictor(s) for functional outcome of each rehabilitation approach. Canonical correlation analyses will be conducted to quantify the relationship between brain/motor reorganization and clinical measures.

This study is an epidemiological observational cross-sectional study designed to estimate the prevalence of echocardiographically confirmed RHD in school children from 5-14 years of age in Fiji. The study will be conducted in the Central Division of Fiji within a selection of up to16 primary schools located in the Korovou/Tailevu and Rewa/Nausori sub-divisions. School children will be enrolled after informed consent has been obtained. A standard cardiac examination (auscultation) will be performed as part of the routine annual health check by both school nurses, who have attended a training workshop, and by a paediatrician. All children with or without murmur will have a screening echocardiogram performed at a subsequent visit. Children found to have possible, probable or definite RHD or other cardiac pathology on the screening echocardiogram, will have a full echocardiogram performed by the echocardiography technician at the time of the second study visit. They will all also be referred to a paediatric cardiologist for further investigation and management and monitoring . Cases of RHD will be referred to and followed up by the National Fiji RHD register based at CWMH in Suva.

Recent data show that pulmonary hypertension (PH), defined by a tricuspid regurgitation jet (TRJ) velocity > or equal at 2.5m/s on Doppler echocardiography, is present in about 30% of adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) and is associated with poor prognosis. However in SCD the occurrence of PH (defined by mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP)> or equal at 25 mmHg) is related to at least 3 mechanisms: PH due to hyperkinetic state with high cardiac output (CO) but normal pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR <160 dynes), or postcapillary PH (pulmonary capillary wedge pressure PCWP >15 mmHg), or precapillary pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) defined by mPAP > or equal at 25 mmHg, PCWP< or equal at 15 mmHg and PVR > or equal at 160 dynes.The aim of this study is to evaluate in a French population of adults with sickle cell disease the characteristics, prevalence and prognosis of pulmonary hypertension.