Active clinical trials for "Coronary Artery Disease"

This study will test the effectiveness of negative pressure wound therapy (using the VAC Prevena device, KCI Canada Inc.) applied to the saphenous vein harvest site after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG). When initiated immediately after surgery, this intervention may decrease the incidence of wound infection and non-infectious wound complications. It may decrease wound discomfort and improve mobility and functional recovery of the leg.

Although most patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome or acute ischemic stroke in South Asian countries receive these evidence-based treatments, their overall continuation in the outpatient phase of care remains low. Patient from Pakistan are uniquely challenged in this respect because the overall literacy rates remain one of the lowest in Pakistan among South Asian Countries. In addition, a great majority of Pakistani patients often do not understand or follow health prescriptions (which are still written in English). Additionally, due to an unregulated health industry, they frequently take multiple opinions and prescriptions from different physicians. The investigators propose to develop a "talking prescription" for patients with stroke or myocardial infarction for secondary prevention. This will enable them to understand their medications better, improve health literacy and adherence. This is an IT enabled health literacy intervention. Physicians will prescribe statin and/or antiplatelet to the selected patients and enter the necessary details on an Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet.Patients will be assigned to either of the 2 arms--either regular care or talking prescriptions. Follow-up will be done at 3 months post recruitment for behavioral knowledge assessment and adherence assessment.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the strength of agreement between single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging with regadenoson following inadequate exercise stress testing and SPECT imaging with regadenoson alone is not inferior to the strength of agreement between two sequential regadenoson SPECT images without exercise.

Adiponectin and exercise training contribute to the maintenance of a normal vascular tone by influencing vascular NO bioavailability and concentration and function of endothelial progenitor cells. The molecular mechanisms are only partially understood. Therefore, aim of the present study is to elucidate the effects of Adiponectin on endothelial progenitor cell migration and the underlying signaling pathways. Furthermore, the impact of exercise training on adiponectin-mediated endothelial progenitor cell migration will be investigated.

Briefly, after the induction of anesthesia and the placement of TEE, hemodynamic variables (pulmonary and systemic blood pressure, central and pulmonary venous pressure, cardiac output, calculated SVR, etc.) will be collected. In addition, left ventricular performance (including estimates of LVEDV, LVESV, EF, FAC, etc.) will be assessed using TEE. Once these baseline data are recorded, the ITPR will be inserted in the anesthesia circuit and activated to provide -9 mmHg ETP. After the ITPR has been active for at least two minutes, the same hemodynamic and TEE data obtained above will be gathered. After the data is recorded, the ITPR will be disconnected and no further interventions will be made. In addition to the hemodynamic and echocardiographic data described above, an arterial blood gas will be obtained from the pre-existing radial artery catheter during the on- and off- states. Finally, the TEE examination will be recorded on videotape or DVD. A second echocardiographer, blinded to patient and ITPR status will review each echocardiogram and assess left ventricular performance. In addition to the data derived at the time of testing, the second echocardiographer will assess, if possible, changes in EF using Simpson's method of disks is used to calculate the LV volume. This is a proof of concept/feasibility study designed to test the primary hypothesis that use of the ITPR will result in increased systemic blood pressure and cardiac output in patients undergoing CABG surgery. The effect of the ITPR on other secondary indicators of cardiac performance will also be examined. These include but are not limited to left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV), ejection fraction (EF), left ventricular end systolic volume (LVESV), and fractional area change (FAC) as assessed by echocardiography, pulmonary artery pressure, and calculated systemic vascular resistance (SVR).

Seventy patients in cardiac rehabilitation with maximal exercise capacity less than 1.4 watt per kilogram bodyweight will be randomized 1:1 into either an intervention training (IN) group or usual care (UC). The IN patients will perform supervised endurance and resistance exercise for approximately 90 minutes once a week and traditional cardiac rehabilitation (TCR) once a week; the UC patients will perform TCR twice a week. The intervention is planned for six months with a follow-up of a further six months. The primary investigation is differences between IN and UC with regard to changes in exercise capacity (max watt/kgBW).

The purpose of this study is to determine whether garlic in adjunct to conventional medical treatment is effective in improving carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), Flow mediated dilation (FMD) and plasma lipid profile or c-reactive protein of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients.

Coronary artery disease and the benefit of bypasses: Despite considerable advances in medicine, cardiovascular diseases remain the number one cause of death globally, primarily consequence of myocardial infarction (MI). Coronary collaterals exert a protective effect by providing an alternative source of blood flow to a myocardial territory potentially affected by an acute coronary occlusion. Coronary collaterals represent pre-existing inter-arterial anastomoses and as such are the natural counter-part of surgically created bypasses. Sufficient coronary collaterals have been shown to confer a significant benefit in terms of overall mortality and cardiovascular events. In this regard, the concept of augmenting coronary collateral function as an alternative treatment strategy to alter the course of CAD, as well as to control symptoms, is attractive. Durable promotion of coronary collateral circulation: Before the advent of coronary artery bypass grafting, permanent augmentation of coronary collateral supply by a single structural modification has already been attempted. Bilateral ligation of the internal mammary arteries (IMA) was performed in CAD patients to alleviate angina pectoris and electrocardiographic (ECG) signs of ischemia. The prevalent in vivo function of natural IMA-to-coronary artery bypasses and their anti-ischemic effect has - for the first time - been recently demonstrated by our research group. The acute functional changes observed in response to temporary distal IMA balloon occlusion are expected to result in larger chronic structural adaptations of the IMA-to-coronary-artery connections when the distal IMA is permanently occluded. In contrast to the previously employed arteriogenic approaches in humans, the attractiveness of such an intervention lies in the potential durability of the effect. In a first step, catheter-based IMA occlusion ought to be conceptually investigated in the setting of the less frequently grafted right IMA among patients with ischemia in the right coronary artery territory.

Recently, researchers have paid attention to the development of new products such as supplements food and nutraceuticals for identify and develop integrative therapies to be used in cardiovascular disease. As suggested by literature, some nutritional components (creatine, ribose) can enhance the fundamental energy levels for the functioning of the heart muscle and can enhance the body's antioxidant capacity through the reduction in free radicals activity, one of the main pathogenic mechanisms of these diseases. In this context, the investigators have developed a research with the principal purpose to establish whether a supplement of creatine and ribose can improve the total work capacity during exercise in a population of patients with known ischemic heart disease.

It is previously reported that the cerebral oxygen desaturation during cardiac surgery is associated with an increased incidence of cognitive impairment. The aim of this study is to determine whether intraoperative monitoring and predetermined interventions protocol to improve cerebral oxygenation during coronary artery bypass surgery provides benefits in neurocognitive functions.