Active clinical trials for "Atherosclerosis"

Blood sample is prospectively taken from consecutive patients underwent coronary angiogram in our center, after getting informed consent from the patients. Serum level of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) was measured and the clinical features of patients (including angiographic results) were entered into our database. Clinical follow-up was performed for all patients, and the relationship between AGEs and paitents' outcome were analyzed. Further intervention will be adjusted according to the results,including clinical and basic research in lab.

Childhood obesity is increasing at a fast pace, together with its complications. The aim of the present study is to assess several candidate triggering agents, mechanisms and intermediate phenotypes of atherosclerosis during the post-prandial phase in the obese insulin-resistant child/adolescent.

The aim of this study is to investigate the association of sonographic and histological features of the plaque among each other and with biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. The predictive value of these factors concerning the long-term clinical outcome after carotid endarterectomy will also be assessed. This may help to improve the identification of patients with carotid artery stenosis who will benefit most from carotid endarterectomy. The investigators major hypothesis is that the morphology of carotid plaques is associated with objectifiable sonographic parameters, in particular with the greyscale median. Second, the investigators hypothesize that sonographic and histological plaque morphology are associated with certain biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. Identification of 'vulnerable plaques' on the basis of a peripheral blood draw and a sonographic investigation may enable the treating physician to focus resources on patients who will benefit most form therapeutic interventions for primary prevention of ischemic stroke.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Dyslipidemia has long been recognized to be the most important risk factor in the development of atherosclerosis in human beings. In Taiwan, the rates for hypercholesterolemia (≧250mg/dl) were 4.3% and 5.5% in 1970; 12.99% in 1980; and 17.1% in 1990. Those for hypertriglyceridemia (≧200 mg/dl) were 6.5% and 11.1% in 1970 and 13.0% in 1990. Low serum HDL-C was an isolated and independent coronary risk factor among a good number of Taiwanese people. Lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with statins has in the last decade become part of the standard treatment regimen in patients with dyslipidemia. However, most embarrassing, is the insufficient data for clinical use in Taiwan. It is necessary to have rationalized and balanced guideline for the management of dyslipidemia in Taiwan, based on our local epidemiological, clinical and basic research data. Because all these trials were conducted in Caucasians and no large-scaled end-point research about the lipid lowering therapy (LLT) was published in Asians before, this registry study attempts to define the status of lipid lowering therapy in Taiwan and the effect of LLT on CVD morbidity and mortality in a large population of patients receiving primary or secondary prevention therapy. The medications will only depend on the decision made by the primary care physicians. The patient or physician can decide to be withdrawn from this registry at any time because of any reason. The lipid profile change, myopathy, or liver enzyme change after the LLT will also be recorded.

Hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) is a common disorder that causes heart attacks and strokes. PET CT and contrast-enhanced MRI scans are two new ways of assessing atherosclerosis. The investigators propose to perform PET CT and MRI scans on patients with hardening of the neck arteries due to undergo surgery to remove the hardened areas. The investigators will then be able to compare the hot spots found on these scans with what the investigators can see in the removed specimens under the microscope in the laboratory. This will give investigators insight into the value of PET CT and MRI as tools for assessing atherosclerosis. It will also provide the investigators with new information relating to the underlying processes that give rise to atherosclerosis and will pave the way for the future development of new treatments.

The purpose of the study is to identify a sub-group of diabetic patients at higher risk of progression of coronary disease and also more likely to suffer from heart attack/angina and heart failure. The total number of patients to be recruited in this study will be 250 with type-2 diabetes but no known heart disease. These patients will have an objective measure of the function of the lining of the arteries, CT scan of the arteries of the heart and an ultrasound scan of the heart and arteries of the neck done at baseline along with blood tests for identification new markers of malfunction of the lining and inflammation of the arteries. Patients will be followed up at 18 months. During the follow-up visit, in addition to the blood tests, the CT scan of the heart arteries and ultrasound of the heart and arteries of the neck will be repeated to assess progression of the non-calcified, calcified and mixed plaques in the coronary arteries.

This study will look at the effects of standardised balloon inflation times, pressure and balloon types and atherosclerotic plaque morphology on the procedural results of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is one of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA) - associated vasculitis. Inflammation-induced thrombosis is considered to be a feature of systemic autoimmune diseases. GPA usually involves the upper and lower respiratory tract and renal systems, where necrotizing glomerulonephritis and pulmonary capillaritis are often detected. However, it may also affect other organ systems. Cardiac involvement in GPA occurs in approximately 6% to 44% of cases and is secondary to necrotizing vasculitis with granulomatous infiltrates. Cardiac involvement is an independent predictor of mortality in GPA patients. In this prospective cohort study, consecutive GPA patients who were hospitalized in the Department of Family Medicine, Internal and Metabolic Diseases at the Medical University of Warsaw in Poland are included. In all patients echocardiography and laboratory tests are perform.

Stroke is a common clinical disease with high disability and mortality, which seriously threatens human life and health.Carotid atherosclerotic plaque rupture is an important pathogenic basis of ischemic stroke, so judging the stability of plaque has important clinical significance in preventing ischemic stroke.Ultrasound, as a convenient, rapid, noninvasive, radiation-free auxiliary examination technology, is widely used in carotid plaque stability examination.At present, there are many methods to judge the stability of carotid plaque based on ultrasound, including two-dimensional ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, ultrasound elastography and so on. However, the results of plaque stability judgment by various technologies deviate greatly, which is not conducive to the development of standardized diagnosis and treatment strategies by clinicians.Studies have shown that because the neovascular epidermal cells in atherosclerotic plaques are imperfect, they are easy to rupture after stress, and the ruptured neovasculature will lead to intraplaque hemorrhage, thus causing plaque shedding, and eventually obstructing the cerebrovascular cause stroke.Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can sensitively detect the distribution and course of blood vessels.The plaque's softness and hardness determine its stability, while the difference of lipids, fibers and calcium in the plaque determines its softness and hardness.Real-time ultrasound elastography can provide tissue mechanical parameters, express the soft and hard of tissue with strain value, and provide important reference information for judging plaque stability.At present, elastography technology is used to reflect the hardness of plaque, so as to further judge its stability.However, the elastography parameters are prone to deviations due to the influence of the selected section and the selected region of interest.Deep learning is the hottest research method in AI at present. [Deep learning is essentially to construct machine learning models with multiple hidden layers, and use large-scale data to train to obtain a large number of more representative feature information, so as to use these features to classify and predict samples. At present, it is widely used in the field of image analysis and plays an important role in medicine.Such as pathological image detection, regulatory genomics research, diagnosis of retinopathy and quantitative analysis of liver fibrosis, etc.Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a new discipline developed by the combination of numerical calculation and classical fluid mechanics theory. It can make it convenient for researchers to build a geometric model of cardiovascular system, simulate the real structure of vascular wall and blood, and display the results of "numerical experiments" using visualization technology.More intuitive Comprehensive response to changes in hemodynamic parameters In recent years, its application in cardiovascular hemodynamic research has become increasingly widespread, with a large number of relevant literature reports However, no report has been reported on the study of carotid plaque stability and fluid dynamics using this technology Based on the above reasons,This study attempts to use AI technology to automatically identify and quantitatively evaluate the gray scale differences of plaques, elastic image characteristics of plaques, microvessel density division of plaque contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and velocity vector imaging (VVI) to determine plaque surface stress.To study the effect of hemodynamic parameters on carotid plaque using CFD technology, and to establish a systematic comprehensive evaluation system for carotid plaque stability, which integrates two-dimensional plaque information, texture information, microcirculation perfusion information, biomechanical information and blood flow field information, and combines the results of clinical follow-up and collagen fiber content of surgical specimens, MMP9/CD34 and other examinations.

Low vitamin D levels were found to be associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Low zinc levels are associated with an increased atherosclerotic burden. Therefore we hypothesized that patients with pathological stress test would have low levels of Vitamin D and zinc compared to patients with a normal stress test.