Reasons for Variations in Health Related Quality of Life and Symptom Burden in Patients With Atrial...
ArrhythmiasCardiac3 moreAtrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. There is a large variation in symptoms; from almost none to severe but the reason for this is unclear. The investigators aim to find correlations between symptom burden and intracardiac pressure, biomarkers and findings with echocardiography in order to find alternative means of treatment. It is even intended to study the neurohormonal activation directly after the atrial fibrillation (AF) initiation in patients eligible for AF radiofrequency ablation.
Development and Prevention of Severe Heart Disease in Systemic Sclerosis
Systemic SclerosisCardiac Diseases3 moreSystemic sclerosis is an orphan, multiorgan disease affecting the connective tissue of the skin and all internal organs. Cardiac involvement, mainly characterised by small intramyocardial coronary artery involvement and myocardial fibrosis, can cause the development of impaired diastolic ventricular filling, cardiac blocks and ventricular arrhythmias, and can ensue in congestive heart failure and sudden death. Until now, no drug has been proven to have a therapeutic effect on SSc myocardial disease on an evidence-based level. Short-term trials and retrospective studies have suggested a favourable and protective effect of calcium channel blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in patients with myocardial involvement. However, no data are presently available on the prevention and treatment of severe heart disease. This observational trial is part of the collaborative project "DeSScipher", one out of five observational trials to decipher the optimal management of systemic sclerosis. Aim of this observational trial is to assess the efficacy and safety of calcium channel blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in asymptomatic SSc patients with cardiac involvement.
Sub-project: Use of Small Implantable ECG Recorder in Pregnant Women With Arrhythmia
Arrhythmias in PregnancyStudy will recruit pregnant or postpartum women presenting to Groote Schuur Hospital with cardiovascular disease in 20 consecutive patients and will insert an implantable ECG monitoring device. The patient will then be followed up over a duration of two year and will be monitored for arrhythmia and mortality.
SmartTouch Catheter in Ablation of Ventricular Tachycardia
ArrhythmiasCardiac4 moreThe pressure exerted by the ablation catheter on the tissue has been shown to play an important role on determining the size and the potential efficacy of the ablation lesions. A direct information on the force exerted by the catheter tip obtained from the SmartTouch technology might improve the assessment of the scar areas during electroanatomical mapping in patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) due to ischemic disease or cardiomyopathy. The objectives of the study are to compare the areas of scar (defined as a low-voltage threshold) obtained from the conventional voltage map with those obtained after the contact map information is available to the operator and to determine if the availability of the contact information allows an improvement of the electroanatomic map by correcting the points taken in no-contact areas. Twenty to 30 consecutive patients with ventricular arrhythmias due to ischemic heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy undergoing VT ablation will be included in a prospective, one-center, non-randomized study. A voltage map of the left ventricle will be obtained using the CARTO-3 navigation system and the scar areas as well as the areas of potential interest for ablation will be delineated in the standard way and saved as the control map. The force information will be recorded by the system but will not be available to the operator until the control map is saved. Following this step the contact map will be available to the operator to be compared with the control map and further mapping and point acquisition will be allowed to correct the areas previously acquired with poor or no contact. The final map after corrections have been made will be saved as the corrected map. The ablation procedure will then be performed as usual. Both maps will be compared in a deferred way to know how are classified the areas without contact when no pressure information is available, and how many non-contact points are falsely assumed to be low-voltage or dense scar points. These comparisons will give information on how much the standard electroanatomic map can be improved when the force information is added.
P-wave Duration and Dispersion in Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy
Intrahepatic Cholestasis of PregnancyArrhythmiaThe bile acids has been demonstrated to cause arrhythmia and abnormal calcium dynamics in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Bile acids may alter maternal cardiomyocyte function like fetus.Increased P-wave duration and P-wave dispersion have been reported in various clinical settings. The investigators hypothesized that PWD and p wave duration may affect in pregnancy with ICP.
Assessment Of MRI In Patients With Implanted Cardiac Devices
ArrhythmiasCardiacThe research goal is to continue to add to the extensive body of peer-reviewed evidence that demonstrates MRI may be safely performed in patients with cIEDs, after they have been evaluated and cleared by cardiology. This study will allow the researchers to collect data from the facilities ongoing clinical practice regarding the number and types of any adverse clinical reactions, and also to document any changes in the implanted cardiac device that may have occurred during the MRI scan. The researchers will also be assessing the results of the MRI and how the imaging findings impact patient care and the clinical outcome of the patient. This data will then be presented to the FDA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to further influence federal guidelines and payment structures.
Iron Intravenous Therapy in Reducing the Burden of Severe Arrhythmias in Heart Failure With Reduced...
Ferric CarboxymaltoseHeart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction2 moreAn open label,single-center, non-interventional prospective study with the aim on investigating the effect of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose in restoring iron status and reducing the risk of severe arrhythmic events in participants with iron deficiency and a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Electrophysiological Phenotyping Of Patients at Risk of Ventricular Arrhythmia and Sudden Cardiac...
ArrhythmiaSudden Cardiac Death4 moreObesity, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and gene-specific dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are common medical conditions. Small-scale studies have shown that these are associated with proarrhythmic changes on 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and a higher risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). However, these studies lack the deep electrophysiological phenotyping required to explain their observations. Electrocardiographic imaging (ECGi) is a non-invasive alternative to 12-lead ECG, by which epicardial potentials, electrograms and activation sequences can be recorded to study adverse electrophysiological modelling in greater depth and on a more focussed, subject-specific scale. Therefore, this study proposes to better define the risk of arrhythmia and understand the underlying adverse electrophysiological remodelling conferring this risk in three groups (obesity, RA and DCM). Firstly, data from two large, national repositories will be analysed to identify associations between routine clinical biomarkers and proarrhythmic 12-lead ECG parameters, to confirm adverse electrophysiological remodelling and a higher risk of arrhythmia. Secondly,ECGi will be performed before and after planned clinical intervention in obese and RA patients, and at baseline in titin-truncating variant (TTNtv)-positive and -negative DCM patients, to characterise the specific and potentially reversible conduction and repolarisation abnormalities that may underlie increased arrhythmic risk.
Multicentre Investigation of Novel Electrocardiogram Risk Markers in Ventricular Arrhythmia Prediction...
Ventricular ArrythmiaIschemic CardiomyopathyThis is a prospective open label single blinded multi-centre observational study involving a study group of patients already undergoing implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)(including Cardiac resynchronisation therapy device (CRT-D)) implant. A standard 30-minute electrophysiological (EP) cardiac stimulation protocol will be performed at the end of the ICD implant at baseline. This EP test will be performed whilst measuring a 12-lead ECG and will be correlated with event rates to establish their effectiveness in predicting arrhythmia risk. The minimum follow up period should be 18 months and maximum of 3 years, which is how long the study is funded for. This study is not randomised as all study patients will be receiving the EP study performed at baseline. A minimum of 440 patients will be recruited to document event data at standard clinical ICD follow up intervals - equating to a maximum of 6 visits. Blinding will be maintained at the core lab were the ECG analysis will be performed by a nominated researcher who will not have details of patient health status.
Safety of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Non-MRI Conditional Pacemakers and ICD Devices
ArrhythmiasCardiacThe primary objective of the study is to determine the safety of MRI in patients with non-MRI conditional pacemakers. The secondary objective is to determine if there are clinically relevant parameter changes in the devices.