Active clinical trials for "Heart and Blood Diseases"

Heart failure and stroke are the two major complication of atrial fibrillation. Current treatment for atrial fibrillation is so focused to stroke prevention, but the risk assessment for heart failure is less highlighted. The most of patients with atrial fibrillation have cardiac functional limitation of variable degree. We hypothesize that the exercise test would reveal the subclinical cardiac dysfunction, and might be helpful to classify the patients with atrial fibrillation according to their exercise capacity real cardiac function.

MIND-TIA is primarily an observational diagnostic study that aims to evaluate the role of novel biomarkers in the diagnosis of Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)in primary care. Rapid and adequate diagnosis of TIA is of great importance to enable a rapid start of treatment, and thereby decrease the risk of subsequent ischemic stroke.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the utility of Venus 1000 in predicting 30-day hospital readmissions for acute decompensated heart failure. Secondary outcomes will include correlation with NT-proBNP and weight both at admission and discharge from hospital

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) are the most common forms of dementia. Yet, the cause of these diseases is still unknown. A potentially important initiating factor is a disrupted blood-brain barrier. This can initiate cerebral microangiopathy, which has frequently been associated with VaD. Nevertheless, also in most AD patients a substantial increase of vascular damage has been observed. The present study investigates the correlation between blood-brain-barrier breakdown and cognitive decline in AD and VaD. An innovative dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI scan that has recently been developed and tested at our institute, will be used to measure blood-brain barrier permeability. Objective: We will investigate the relationship between this permeability measure and (i) cognitive performance and (ii) the status of MRI visible cerebrovascular pathology (i.e. white matter hyperintensities, lacunar infarctions, microbleeds) in the most common forms of dementia.

To describe the role of genetic factors and its relationship and interaction with environmental factors in the recurrence of cardiac events in Chinese patients with acute coronary syndrome.

The purpose of this study is to validate the International Warfarin Pharmacogenetics Consortium (IWPC) algorithm in a prospective cohort of elderly people (65 years or older) with heart valves and/or nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF) and at least one comorbid condition, and to assess the algorithm's prognostic relevance.

Liver biopsy for the assessment of fibrosis has multiple limitations. Liver ShearWaveTM Elastography may provide a non-invasive, fast, and reproducible alternative for the quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis.

The purpose of this study is to find the change of blood pressure (BP) control pattern (true controlled, white-coat, masked, and sustained uncontrolled/ dipper, non-dipper, reverse-dipper, and extreme-dipper) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) over 3 years. And Other objective is the relationship between the BP control pattern and the target organ damages such as renal function, proteinuria, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and so on. In addition, we will find clinical factors related to the BP control pattern.

Comparison of two antiplatelet strategies between months 1 and 12 after coronary stenting for ACS. Efficiency and tolerance évaluation

Over the past few decades, a good number of studies with regard to coagulopathy and increased bleeding tendency which is defined as macro- or microscopic hemorrhage, declination of hemoglobin level, thrombocytopenia, and hypoprothrombinemia potentially caused by the use of antibiotics through a variety of suggested mechanisms, including myelosuppression, immune-mediated destruction of thrombocytes and coagulation factors, and suppression of vitamin K epoxide reductase or vitamin K-dependent γ-glutamate carboxylase which may lead to inhibition of biosynthesis of coagulation factor II, VII, IX, and X, have been reported or published. Nevertheless, many of them are case-series studies or case reports with low level of evidence, and there have been no large-scale retrospective cohort studies regarding antibiotic-associated coagulopathy being published. Moreover, in addition to exposure to antibiotics, there are several risk factors, including severity of illness, hepatic or renal function, nutrition status, comorbidities such as cancer and hematologic disease, surgery or other invasive procedure, concomitant use of anticoagulants, NSAIDs, and salicylates, and age, which may exert influence on the function of the coagulation system as well. Therefore, the study aims to clarify the association between the use of antibiotics and the increase of bleeding tendency or the development of bleeding event and to identify possible risk factors of the increase of bleeding tendency or the development of bleeding event in patients receiving antibiotic treatment through the application of nested case-control design and the usage of both the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) and medical records in National Taiwan University Hospital during the time period from January, 1995 to December, 2013.