Active clinical trials for "Coronary Artery Disease"

If intimal growth is such that the initial lumen is narrowed significantly, distal blood flow is restricted and chronic tissue ischemia results. This occurs in native coronary arteries and during restenosis after coronary angioplasty or failure of some coronary vein grafts. Stent implantation has become the principal revascularization technique for coronary artery disease. But, in-stent restenosis (ISR) by neointimal hyperplasia persists as a significant limitation of this procedure in the era of drug eluting stent (DES). Coronary intervention might induce an inflammatory response by arterial wall damage, release of inflammatory and chemoattractant factors resulting in leukocyte and platelet activation. Then, Migration and proliferation of neointimal smooth muscle cells together with the deposition of extracellular matrix might lead to the development of ISR. It is known that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a key role in the pathogenesis of restenosis by controlling extracellular matrix degradation and the release of matrix-degrading MMPs, including MMP -2 and MMP-9, which facilitate intimal remodeling after angioplasty. Previous studies showed that increased levels of MMPs in coronary arteries undergoing percutaneous intervention may be associated with vascular remodeling and restenosis by promoting migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. Recently, Gregory et al. demonstrated that elevated serum activities of MMP-2 and -9 are associated with dramatically increased restenosis rates after PCI with implantation of DES. In patients with DESs, determination of MMP levels might be useful for identification of patients who are at high risk for ISR. However, not much is known about the relationship between MMPs and neointimal hyperplasia in patients with DES. In this study, the serum activity of MMP-2 and 9 were investigated in patients who had undergone follow-up coronary angiography with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), which performed at 9 months post-DES implantation. Our aim was to evaluate if individual or combined levels of MMPs were associated with increased neointimal hyperplasia volume, that is, to evaluate the relationship, correlation between the levels of MMPs and neointimal hyperplasia volume.

This study was a multicenter retrospective study that included intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with delayed stent insertion based on fractional flow reserve (FFR) in moderately narrowed coronary lesions. We would like to see the effect of lesion characteristics on clinical course.

The aim of this project is to study the safety and efficacy of anthocyanins in improving key dementia-related mechanisms and cognitive functioning in older people at risk for dementia. Secondary analyses will include a variety of biological measures, including biochemistry, imaging and cardiovascular measures.

Background: Despite preoperative screening, technical improvements and increased patient monitoring, perioperative myocardial infarction (PMI) remains the first cause of morbidity and mortality within 30 days after surgery. Moreover, the available evidence indicates worrying rise of risk in postoperative patients with only elevated troponins reflecting cardiac injury, but without a conventional clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction according to current definition. Worldwide, annually approximately 300 million adults undergo major non cardiac surgery and 10 million of them are estimated to suffer a myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS), defined as a prognostically relevant increase of a troponin T peak of 0.03 ng/ml or greater. Many of the patients with MINS does not fulfill the universal definition of myocardial infarction, rarely experience ischemic symptoms and their prognosis is very poor (1 out of 10 die at 30 days).Troponin levels needed to be monitored in order to MINS diagnose and high sensitive cardiac troponin T assays are currently the most frequently used. Methods: Patients with high cardiovascular risk undergoing major non-cardiac surgery will be selected from the daily surgical program during a two years period Three determinations of hs-cTnT for each patient will be obtained. The proportion of patients with MINS and pre- and post-operative thresholds of hs-cTnT that would be prognostically relevant will be determined. The cost-effectiveness analysis of hs-cTnT monitoring compared with usual care will be undertaken. Finally using computed tomography angiography (CTA) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pathophysiology of MINS will be determined, whether is due to plaque rupture, supply-demand mismatch, non-ischemic cardiac cause or non-cardiac cause. Discussion: The study will evaluate the feasibility and impact of implementing the hs-cTnT monitoring program in the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau of Barcelona, as well as its cost-effectiveness. Moreover, this is the first study which will determine pre and postoperative thresholds of hs-cTnT and with minimally invasive diagnostic tools will evaluate potential mechanisms involved in perioperative ischemic events.

This is a prospective, observational, single-center, single-arm, clinical trial designed to assess the efficacy of FFRangio in measuring FFR obtained from angiography compared to Invasive FFR for diagnosing hemodynamically significant coronary stenosis in Multi-Vessel Disease.

Pre-habilitation programs that combine physical training, nutritional support and emotional reinforcement have demonstrated efficacy as presurgical optimization strategies in the context of digestive surgery. The experience in patients at risk for cardiac surgery, one of those associated with higher morbidity and mortality, is anecdotal. Main objective: to evaluate the feasibility, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a pre-habilitation program for the improvement of preoperative functional capacity in high-risk and intermediate risk groups for cardiac surgery and its impact on the reduction of postoperative complications (primary endpoint). Secondary objectives: (i) in-hospital stay; (ii) symptoms, quality of life, (iii) evaluation of information and communication technologies (ICT) as a support for the pre-habilitation, and (iv) design and validation of indicators for a future large-scale implementation of this type of intervention. Design: Subproject: #1: Prospective study of the efficacy of prehabilitation in heart transplant candidates during the study period. The results will be compared with historical records; #2: Randomized controlled trial with a 1:1 ratio to assess the efficacy of prehabilitation in patients undergoing elective coronary revascularization or valve replacement surgery. Subjects: Subproject #1: 40 patients candidates for heart transplantation. Subproject #2: 80 patients in the prehabilitation group and 80 controls in which a conventional treatment will be performed. Intervention: (i) personalized supervised resistance training, and (ii) program to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles. The overall duration of the intervention is estimated to be at least 4-6 weeks (variable in each subproject). The support with ICTs will be a significant aspect of the program in which the adaptation of the personal health folder of Catalonia (Cat@SalutLaMevaSalut) will be fundamental.

The purpose of this study is to explore the facial characteristics associated with the increased risk of coronary artery diseases. The secondary purpose is to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of appearance factors for coronary artery diseases.

Being easy, bedside, non-expensive, noninvasive and radiation free, there has been a growing interest in the implementation of lung ultrasound in critical care management in the last decade, cardiac surgery was not an exception in both adult and pediatric surgeries Many predictors for open heart surgery outcomes have been studied in past years including The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) risk score and the EuroSCORE (ES), preoperative clinical condition, associated chronic diseases, type of surgery, age, duration of cardiopulmonary bypass and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), cystatin-C A recent study described the use of a novel postoperative lung ultrasound score scanning for B lines which denote subpleural interstitial edema in various lung regions for predicting critical care length of stay in pediatric cardiac surgeries. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the role of the new lung ultrasound score in predicting the length of postoperative intensive care stay after adult open heart surgeries.

Most patients presenting to hospital with chest pain are discharged home without further tests once a heart attack has been ruled out. Current strategies to assess patients with a suspected heart attack involve blood tests to measure troponin, a protein released into the bloodstream when the heart muscle is damaged. Despite having had a heart attack ruled-out, some patients have unrecognised coronary heart disease and are at risk of having a heart attack in the future. However, we do not know what is the best approach to identify and treat these patients. This study will use a heart scan known as computed tomography coronary angiogram (CTCA) to look for underlying coronary heart disease in patients who have had a heart attack ruled out. In an earlier study, we performed this scan in patients referred to the outpatient cardiology clinic with stable chest pain and found that this improved the diagnosis of coronary heart disease, leading to improvement in patient care that prevented many future heart attacks. Our research has also demonstrated that troponin levels below the threshold used to diagnose a heart attack identify those who are at greater risk of having a heart attack in the future. The aim of this study is to confirm whether these low levels of troponin can identify patients who have underlying coronary heart disease and may benefit from further testing and preventative treatment.

Background: Diabetes, and especially diabetic kidney disease is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease such as calcification in the coronary arteries and heart failure. Sleep apnea is frequent among patients with diabetes and diabetic kidney disease and sleep apnea itself is a solitary risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. Nonetheless, sleep apnea is underdiagnosed in diabetes patients because of a discrepancy between sleep apnea severity and actual oxygen deficiency symptoms which makes the diagnosis difficult. For that reason, many diabetics have undiagnosed sleep apnea together with cardiovascular disease. Early discovery of sleep apnea among high risk diabetic patients may therefore be considered crucial before cardiovascular complications develop. For this reason, sleep apnea screening of high-risk diabetics can possibly improve early diagnostics of cardiovascular disease. Aim: This study will seek to establish the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and coronary calcification and heart failure in patients with diabetic kidney disease. The basic hypothesis of the study is that patients with diabetic kidney disease and concurrent OSA have a higher prevalence and severity of coronary calcification and heart failure compared to patients without OSA. Methods: Diabetic adult patients with scheduled check-ups at Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, or Department of Renal Medicine on Aarhus University Hospital will be included in the study. Firstly, all included patients are screened for sleep apnea with the devices SomnoTouch® and ApneaLink®. Based on the sleep apnea determination; 40 patients with moderate-severe sleep apnea are compared with 40 patients without sleep apnea. In both groups, the patients are examined for calcification in the coronary vessels using a CT-scan while the function of the heart is examined by ultrasound (echocardiography). The stiffness of aorta is measured and performed using radial artery tonometry (SphygmoCor®). Furthermore, range of blood- and urine samples will be performed The perspectives are that patients with diabetes should be regularly evaluated for sleep apnea and that patients with moderate/severe sleep apnea should undergo further examination for cardiovascular disease even though the patients don't display any symptoms of either cardiovascular disease or sleep apnea.