Active clinical trials for "Coronary Artery Disease"

Statement of Problem According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 43.7% of all firefighters that died on the job experienced sudden cardiac death. The job also affords an incredible amount of stress. Cholesterol therapy has been well demonstrated to reduce coronary plaque progression. However is certainly not the only factor in evaluating for progression of coronary artery disease (CAD), and other factors must play a role. Garlic therapy has been shown to retard atherosclerosis independently. Hypothesis and Specific Aims The hypothesis of this proposal is: In comparison to the placebo group, Aged Garlic Extract (AGE) therapy + Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) will be effective in slowing progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC) in firefighters with established atherosclerosis, independent of baseline blood pressure, statin use or other cardiovascular risk factors. Specific Aims: Compare the effects of cholesterol lowering effects in a firefighter population of patients under the influence of Aged Garlic Extract + CoQ10 or placebo. Compare whether degree of change in atherosclerotic coronary artery plaque burden will change at a different rate under the influence of Aged Garlic Extract + CoQ10 compared to placebo treatment. Compare whether Aged Garlic Extract + CoQ10 therapy induces changes in baseline values including biological and biochemical parameters, such as LDL cholesterol, homocysteine, C-reactive protein (CRP), and endothelial function.

Patients with diabetes have worse outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures, compared to those patients without diabetes. They are at increased risk of death, heart attack, or needing further procedures due to renarrowing of their coronary narrowings after implantation of a coronary stent. Studies have suggested that poor control of diabetes may be partly responsible for these poor outcomes. Thiazolidinedione drugs, such as pioglitazone, can improve the diabetes control and make the patient more sensitive to the effects of insulin. Preliminary studies suggest that pioglitazone may also help prevent renarrowing after PCI. This study was a pilot study designed to determine whether more aggressive treatment of the diabetes with the routine use of the drug pioglitazone (30mg/day for 6 months), in addition to the patient's usual diabetic medications adjusted to optimize their diabetic control (get glycated hemoglobin < 7%), could reduce the amount of tissue buildup within the stent after 6 months, compared to a group less aggressively treated without pioglitazone and their usual medications for diabetes. An intravascular ultrasound probe was used to assess the extent of tissue buildup within the stent and this was performed immediately after the PCI as a baseline and repeated after 6 months of therapy. The investigators hypothesize that the more aggressive diabetic treatment with pioglitazone would reduce the extent of tissue growth within the stent after 6 months of therapy.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether acarbose therapy can reduce cardiovascular-related morbidity and mortality in patients with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) who have established coronary heart disease (CHD) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS). A secondary objective of the study is to determine if acarbose therapy can prevent or delay transition to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in this patient population.

Major sporting events may have adverse cardiovascular effects in subjects with coronary heart disease. We also hypothesized that the adverse cardiovascular effects of sporting events are a result of psychobiological processes including stress-induced hemodynamic changes, autonomic dysfunction and parasympathetic withdrawal, and inflammatory and prothrombotic responses, all of which may in turn promote myocardial ischemia.

The purpose of this study is to better define the role of a comprehensive stress MRI (which includes myocardial perfusion imaging, optimized coronary imaging, and myocardial scar imaging) in medical practice and in patient health management. Information gathered from the healthy volunteers that participate in this study will be compared to information from the coronary artery disease patients in this study in order to help further our understanding.

The use of coronary angiography to investigate patients at risk of coronary artery narrowings has become universal. In most cases, this investigation leads to a successful treatment plan with revascularisation recommended where appropriate. However in a substantial number of patients, the images taken of the coronary arteries can lead to diagnostic uncertainty. Increasingly, doctors are using devices called pressure wires to clarify the significance of coronary artery narrowings in order to tailor patient treatment on an individual basis. The Radi pressure wire is well recognised as a reliable tool in assessing whether a narrowing is significant in functional terms, that is, does it significantly restrict blood flow to the heart muscle.It consists of a fine wire that is fed into individual major coronary arteries to measure pressure within the vessel itself. In conjunction with the images taken of the arteries, it is very useful in deciding how best to treat patients. This study enrolls volunteers who are being investigated for stable cardiac-sounding chest pain and are undergoing a coronary angiogram. It will investigate whether the extra information gained from pressure wire assessment will change patients' treatment plan.

The investigators goals are: to develop software for quantitative volumetric analysis of myocardial perfusion from MDCT images to test its ability to accurately determine the presence, location, extend and severity of perfusion abnormalities in agreement with conventional diagnostic techniques (ICA and MPI) in patients with normal and abnormal coronary arteries and/or perfusion patterns to test this approach in patients undergoing vasodilator stress tests with MDCT imaging in combination with the new vasodilator stress agent Regadenoson.

Our research aims to improve the use of medicines known to prevent recurrent heart attacks. In particular, we know that statin treatment is useful after heart attacks, but many patients do not use it. There are a few possible reasons for this. Patients cannot find affordable medicine. Their doctor may not prescribe the medicine after they leave the hospital. Some people may culturally mistrust using the medicine. So they may decide not to take it even if it is prescribed. We are developing a hospital based culturally attuned program to target this problem. In this program, a community health worker counsels and helps patients in accessing pharmacy assistance programs. We will test whether this program can improve appropriate statin use. We will enroll patients who have heart attacks. We will compare patients who are counseled by the community health worker with those who get the usual care at baseline and at 6 and 12 months (participants enrolled during the early phase of the recruitment will have an additional study visit at 24 months). We will test if their "bad" cholesterol levels are controlled. We will find out how regularly they have filled their questionnaire and taken the medicine. Finally, we will test if they are getting benefit from the statin treatment. We will do this using blood tests and imaging the patients' arteries with ultrasound. We will also measure how cost-effective it is for a hospital to run the program. It is our goal to develop a community health worker model that is culturally sensitive for people with cultural, educational or educational barriers. Statin use is known to benefit patients in theory; such a culturally competent program will improve health outcomes in practice. After we test it, a cost-effective program such as this can be implemented in other hospitals.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the combination of clopidogrel with aspirin prevents the development of blockages (atherosclerosis) in vein grafts one year after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) compared to aspirin alone.

Assesses physician compliance with paper-based and electronic guidelines, reminders, and alerts for outpatient settings. Target areas for the reminders and alerts are disease management, medication management, and interpretation of abnormal test results.