Active clinical trials for "Aortic Valve Stenosis"

Aortic valve stenosis is the most common valve disease leading to surgical or percutaneous intervention in Europe and North America. Percutaneous aortic valve replacement (TAVI) is currently recommended for the management of patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis and with high; very high operative risk of aortic valve replacement surgery or intermediate operative risk of aortic valve replacement surgery after a benefit-risk assessment by a heart team and operative contraindication to conventional aortic valve replacement surgery. These indications are supported by the 2017 European Cardiology guidelines. This technique of percutaneous arterial valve implantation is most often performed via the femoral route, under local anesthesia, with placement of a prosthetic biological valve in the aortic position, impacting it into the patient's native aortic valve. TAVI has been shown to be superior to medical treatment in patients with a aortic valve stenosis at very high operative risk of conventional aortic valve replacement surgery. However, the occurrence of atrioventricular conduction disorders (de novo left bundle branch block (LBBB) or complete AVB) remains the most frequent complication after TAVI. Therefore, the rate of pacemaker (PM) implantation after TAVI remains high, ranging from 2% to 51%, with an average rate of 13%. Pacemaker implantation has several deleterious effects (increased hospitalization time, desynchronization of the left ventricle by permanent right ventricular pacing, exposure of the patient to procedural complications of pacemaker placement, and possible increase in the final cost to society of the initial hospitalization. Not all patients who received a pacemaker post TAVI implantation use their PM. The rate of Pacemaker dependency and therefore of patients who actually use their pacemaker is approximately 33-36% at 1 year after percutaneous valve implantation. In view of all the potentially deleterious consequences of post TAVI pacemaker implantation, it is therefore necessary to know which patients really justify pacemaker implantation after percutaneous valve implantation. The purpose of this study is to investigate diagnostic imaging criteria that may be predictive of the occurrence of intramyocardial conduction disorders post TAVI implantation. Although some patients present only transient conductive disturbances, the impact of tissue inflammation of the intramyocardial conduction pathways after TAVI remains to be understood.

This is a prospective, observational, single-arm, multi-center registry of patients undergoing bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement with the Avalus valve. This prospective registry aims to examine the outcome and performance of surgical aortic valve replacement with the Avalus pericardial bioprosthesis.

The objective of the present study is to investigate to hemodynamic profile at rest and during peak exercise of patients with suspected severe aortic stenosis and to compare flow- and pressure changes between high gradient patients and low gradient patients.

The aorta distributes cardiac stroke volume into the whole body through its finetuned conductance function, that is propagation and modulation of flow pattern. Physicomechanic properties of the aortic wall assure continuous and homogenous blood flow distribution to organs. The physicomechanic properties of the aortic wall are heterotopic: The collagen/elastin ratio doubles in the abdominal aorta as compared to the thoracic aorta. Malfunction of aortic conduction due to large artery stiffening (LAS) leads to premature wave reflection and excess pulsatility which translate into organ damage in low-resistance beds. The regional heterogeneity of aortic physicomechanic properties and their histomorphological substrate leading to altered regional hemodynamics are not well investigated. Within the PHaRAo population, there is a spectrum of higher and lower risk patients. The aim of this cohort study is to collect prospectively and systematically clinical research data from PHaRAo patients. This cohort study is an open-end observational study to identify master switches in aortic disease

Whereas PCI before TAVR was previously recommended despite its uncertain prognostic role, recent data underline the possibility of a postponed coronary intervention using a commissural alignment technique. This approach allows easy coronary re-engagement through the valve stent frame with a trade off paid of procedure complexity. Considering the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and the increasing percentage of younger patients treated with TAVI, investigate whether a simpler procedure with random implantation of Navitor valve is not inferior in terms of coronary re-access, is required The key point of the project will be the evaluation of the feasibility of coronary re-engagement after a Navitor valve randomly implanted.

Currently catheters used in heart catheterization procedures are guided throughout the heart chambers and blood vessels by pictures taken by x-rays. This technology exposes patients to radiation. With this study protocol the investigators will use MRI technology to take real-time pictures to navigate catheters throughout heart chambers. MRI uses electromagnetic energy; therefore, it does not expose participants to radiation energy.

Discrepancies exist among aortic stenosis severity classification, patient symptom burden, and - in some cases - even survival. The new Stress Aortic Valve Index (SAVI) metric correlates better with transvalvular flow and might be a better predictor of symptoms and prognosis. The current study will demonstrate the value of SAVI (both non-invasive and invasive) in patients with moderate aortic stenosis. The population will consist of subjects at least 50 years old with moderate aortic stenosis (defined as aortic valve area >1.0 cm2 plus either maximal velocity 2.5-3.9 m/s or mean gradient 15-39 mmHg). Subjects with severe concomitant valve disease or severe unrevascularized coronary artery disease will be excluded, so that the isolated prognosis of aortic stenosis can be investigated. All subjects will undergo invasive SAVI measurements during catheterization. Furthermore patients will receive non-invasive testing with an exercise echocardiogram and computed tomography (CT) scan for non-invasive SAVI measurements. The short-term objective will compare SAVI with standard resting indexes for symptom burden, functional capacity, and biomarkers. The long-term objective will associate SAVI and standard resting indexes with clinical outcomes related to valvular disease. The investigators hypothesize that low SAVI (more marked AS during stress) will track with more symptoms and a worse prognosis. Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: The patients will have several study visits. The index visit will be planned to obtain informed consent and baseline parameters. The measurement visit(s) will consist of the invasive SAVI measurement, echocardiogram, stress echo imaging, 6-minute walk test, quality of life questionnaire, and the cardiac CT. During the final visit after 12 months, subjects will undergo a CT valvular calcium scan, quality of life questionnaire, and 6-minute walk test. Every subject will have an echocardiogram yearly as suggested by guideline criteria and could possibly be contacted until five years after enrollment. Blood samples will be drawn at baseline and the 1-year follow-up. Potentially the new SAVI metric could identify patients at higher risk among those with moderate gradient AS. However, since no outcome data currently exists regarding SAVI and prognosis, no conclusions could be derived from these measurements until study completion.

Common barriers to receiving appropriate guideline-driven care for patients with severe aortic stenosis include referral biases by primary care providers (lack of provider education), patient comorbidities (degree of fragility), as well as psychosocial issues and cultural barriers. Additionally, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES) and education level are shown to be persistent barriers to accessing healthcare services and healthcare systems, creating a significant practice gap between various patient populations. The most recent transcatheter valve therapies (TVT) registry data show that >94% of TAVR recipients are Caucasian, followed by less than 4% of African-Americans and Hispanics, respectively. There is a critical need to understand the barriers to treatment and care among severe aortic valve disease patients of disparate groups. This study is a multi-center, retrospective and prospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. Additionally, we will be surveying referring primary care providers, cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons to assess their current referral practices for patients with severe aortic stenosis.

This study is aimed to investigate the global transcriptome in order to determine the expression profile of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), as well as long noncoding- (lncRNAs) and micro noncoding-RNAs (miRNAs) in heart failure (HF) and in aortic stenosis (AS). The aim is to clarify their role in cardiac disease pathogenesis, as well as their potential as biomarkers. To this purpose, both tissue and blood specimens will be collected and patients will be compared to individuals not affected by cardiovascular diseases.

In this study the investigators aim to examine the role that fibrosis plays in heart conditions such as aortic stenosis , chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity and carcinoid syndrome . Fibrosis is a common final result following any injury to the heart muscle and the investigators aim to identify this process early and in its active state. This will be examined by using a radiotracer 68Ga-FAPI or 18F-AlF-FAPI and PET-MRI or PET-CT.