Active clinical trials for "Heart and Blood Diseases"

Background: Persistent severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) after mechanical valve replacement is a frequent finding in patients with severe valve-diseases. The reasons to develop PH are multifactorial and the prevalence of severe PH significantly worsens the patients´ outcome. Aims: (i) To define the prevalence of PH in patients after valve replacement and (ii) to identify factors predicting persistent PH. Methods: All patients which underwent valve replacement at our institution between the years 2008 -2010 will be screened retrospectively. Those patients with pre- procedural proven PH by means of right-heart catheterization will receive prospective follow-up with echocardiography. Diagnosis of persistent PH will be confirmed with right heart catheterization.

The purpose of this observational, exploratory study in patients undergoing any cardiac valve replacement or repair is to assess the rate of bacterial colonization over native degenerative calcified cardiac valves.

The investigator will evaluate the clinical outcomes of the patients in whom the treatment strategy for their coronary stenosis were determined by fractional flow reserve measurement.

Previous studies indicate that patients with cardiovascular disease have a variable response to aspirin. Despite treatment with aspirin a large number of patients suffer a myocardial infarction. This has given rise to the phenomenon "aspirin low-responsiveness". Laboratory aspirin low-responsiveness can be defined as the failure of aspirin to inhibit platelet production of thromboxane A2 or inhibit thromboxane-dependent platelet aggregation. Whether a low platelet response to aspirin results in an increased risk of future thrombotic events is of great clinical significance, but is still unknown. The investigators hypothesize that patients with a reduced response to aspirin, determined by platelet aggregation using the apparatus Verify Now Aspirin and Multiplate, have a higher risk of thrombosis. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a higher incidence of cardiovascular events is found in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) having a reduced biochemical response to aspirin compared with CAD patients having a normal biochemical response to aspirin. In addition to CAD, all patients have at least one of the following risc factors: previous myocardial infarction, type 2 diabetes mellitus and/or renal insufficiency.

Hypothesis: the hyponatremia of multiple myeloma (m.m.)is true and not pseudohyponatremia by using the stewart approach to acid - base interpretation, would like to show that the positive charged m- proteins produced in m.m.result in true hyponatremia.

There are several factor that can be related to Neonatal Thrombotic events. Among them hypercoagulability can be the cause of those events. Factor V Leiden (FVL) and Prothrombin mutation are the most common causes of hereditary thrombophilia. The incidence of in the arab population is known to be higher than the incidence in another western populations. The purpose of this study is to review retrospectively the thrombophilic risk factors that were found in a cohort of premature babies and term newborns treated and investigated at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and at the Pediatric Hematology Unit.

Registry to follow patients with sarcoidosis associated pulmonary hypertension

Our main hypothesis on the present study is that new parameters such as risk-taking behavior, patients motivation, health related quality of life, new biomarkers and more precise echocardiography measures in addition to traditional parameters will improve pre-operative risk assessment in patients with AS and better guide patients and doctors in decision whether to operate or not.

Septic shock is a major cause of death in intensive care. Septic shock is often dominated by profound changes in organ functions, of which cardiac failure is one of the most severe. In septic shock, biological markers of cardiac stress are often elevated. It is not known to what extent this indicates structural damage to the heart, or in what way they correlate to echocardiographic signs of heart failure. Here, cardiac failure in ICU patients with septic shock is studied, using biological markers of cardiac stress, inflammatory parameters and echocardiography. Investigators hypothesize that biomarkers of cardiac stress correlate with echocardiographic signs of heart failure, and that they can predict an increased risk of death.

Circulating endothelial progenitor cells CD34+144+CD14- et CD34+VEGF-R2+CD14- have been shown to be inversely correlated to aortic aneurysm size. However reference values have not yet been determined. This study is aimed to determine reference values of CD34+144+CD14- et CD34+VEGF-R2+CD14- in healthy men and women blood donors.