Active clinical trials for "Heart and Blood Diseases"

Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle disorder characterized by systolic dysfunction and dilation of the left or both ventricles.Dilated cardiomyopathy can develop in people of any age or ethnicity, although it is more common in male than female persons occurring at a ratio of about three to one in male to female persons. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the predominant cause of cardiomyopathy in pediatric populations. Annual incidence in pediatric populations has been reported to be much lower than one to one hundred seventy thousand in the United States and one to one hundred forty thousand in Australia. Although pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy has a lower annual incidence than adult dilated cardiomyopathy, the outcome for pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy patients is particularly severe. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most frequent cause of heart transplantation in pediatric patients. Data from international pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy registries indicate that the rates of death or heart transplantation over one and five year periods were thirty one percent and forty six percent, respectively. Onset of dilated cardiomyopathy is usually insidious but may be acute in as many at twenty five percent of patients. Approximately fifty percent of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy have a history of preceding viral illness.

Current prospective cohort study is to evaluate the association between fasting lipid profiles (including total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, apolipoprotein A, apolipoprotein B and lipoprotein(a)) and fasting plasma glucose at admission with cardiovascular disease outcomes (including fatal and non-fatal myocardial infarction, fatal and non-fatal ischemic stroke, re-hospitalization due to heart failure, revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting, or cardiovascular mortality) and all-cause mortality.in patients with ischemic heart failure and left ventricular ejection fraction < 45 % evaluated by echocardiography during 12 months follow-up.

Advances in paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery have enabled the survival of most patients born with congenital heart disease (CHD) into adulthood. Many CHD patients have undergone palliative or reparative surgery earlier in life. As patients survive into adulthood, they may need intervention or surgery for residual haemodynamic lesions. This is because they are at risk of arrhythmias secondary to structure heart disease and are susceptible to acquired heart disease. In these patients, pre-operative and post-operative evaluation of right ventricular (RV) structure (shape and volume) and function is an essential component of clinical management. Advances have been made in cardiac imaging so that accurate assessment of the right heart chamber in terms of its structure, function and physiology is possible. However, this technology has as yet never been applied in an effort to comprehensively assess RV structure, function and physiology. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) will be used in this comprehensive assessment of structure and function. Thus, this research will allow development of a comprehensive integrated biomedical engineering (BME) R&D platform for in-depth study and clinical diagnosis of the RV structure-function relationship and physiology and its association with biomarker, and exercise capacity in CHD.

The investigators have developed an optical system that measures the coagulation status of patients in vivo in a non-invasive manner. The system is based on a small optical sensor that emits coherent light into the skin and collects the reflected light from the red blood cells in the blood vessels in the skin under the sensor. The sensor is placed on the fingertip, and during a brief period of occlusion of blood flow by a small pneumatic cuff, red cell movement becomes Brownian in nature and is thereby affected by the viscosity of the blood. In patients who have a bleeding tendency, red blood cell movement will be faster, while in patients with a hypercoagulable state the red cell movement will be slower. Treatment with anticoagulant medications is expected to affect the movement of the red blood cells and these changes can be detected by the sensor. The investigators plan to test the device in normal subjects and in subjects taking Coumadin, direct oral anticoagulants, antiplatelet drugs and heparin-based medications. The investigators will determine whether anticoagulants affect the noninvasive measurement and compare the results with standard laboratory tests of coagulation.

This is a multi-center, prospective, non-interventional study. Eligible newly diagnosed elderly multiple myeloma (MM) patients will receive comprehensive geriatric assessment (cGA) including ECOG scale, questionaires of ADL（activities of daily living), IADL(instrumental ADL),MNA-SF(mini-nutritional assessment), GDS(geriatric depression scale), MMSE(mini-mental state examination), SF-36 and CCI (charlson comorbidity index). Patients will get standard care for MM and receive the above assessments at baseline and after cycle 1, 4 and 12 for treating MM.Follow-up information and survival data of these MM patients would be collected. We would evaluate the cGA status of these newly diagnosed elderly MM patients and investigate the association of cGA parameters with patient's survival.

In the proposed study the investigators aim to clarify the relative contribution of these different mechanisms to the progression of atrial fibrillation (AF). Also the contribution of the individual genetic background will be investigated. Furthermore, the investigators aim to identify clinical parameters and biomarkers informing on the main mechanisms of AF progression in atrial tissue. For this purpose, in all included patients atrial biopsies will be taken during cardiac surgery.

Social deprivation during pregnancy is associated to adverse perinatal outcomes. However, prenatal screening of social deprivation by reliable measurement is not performed. Prevalence of social deprivation is yet underestimated during pregnancy and vulnerable women are not being provided optimal prenatal care. Our aim is to validate EPICES score during pregnancy.

A total of 300 consecutive cardiac patients will receive preoperative thyroid function profile evaluation, including 150 patients with Standford type A aortic dissection (STAAD) and 150 normal human.For one thing, we will compare the two groups and study the role of thyroid function in the develoment of STAAD. For another, we will collect all the perioperative data of the STAAD group and study the role of thyroid function in the prognosis of STAAD.

This study will use a two-stage random sampling design to create a nationally representative sample of patients with heart failure (HF) in China. The investigators sought to describe the clinical profiles, to assess treatment patterns and in-hospital outcomes for HF, and to identify targets for care quality improvement.

Monogenic hypertension, which follows the rules of Mendel's genetic law, is one of the most important causes of hypertension. Generally, patients occur hypertension in early age, have family history, and often manifest severe hypertension or refractory hypertension. At present, only a few hypertension centers of hospitals in China will help clinically difficult diagnosis hypertensive patients to test some selective genes, while most of other hospitals still perform diagnosis based on biochemical examination and clinical symptoms. Therefore, in order to provide better guidance for the diagnosis and treatment for hypertensive patients, this project aims to develop a single gene detection panel for genetic hypertension, so as to provide new diagnostic technology for early intervention, prevention and treatment of hypertension in clinics.