Active clinical trials for "Atherosclerosis"

The purpose of this study is to determine the health benefits of cranberry extract in people who are at risk for diabetes and heart problems.

The purpose of the study is to test higher versus lower doses of aspirin on markers of atherosclerosis in patients at risk of a first heart attack.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Urinary Kallikrein has an additional effect on enhancing collateral circulation in symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic patients under clopidogrel and aspirin dual antiplatelet therapy.

Вackground. Progressive atherosclerosis is accompanied by unfavorable clinical outcomes, study and understanding of this process, creation of risk assessment method is necessary for individualization of approaches to treatment and prevention of this condition. Purpose of the study. Creation of a mathematical model to assess the risk of accelerated atherosclerosis development, using methods of factor and correlation analysis. Patient Characteristics and Study Methods. A retrospective cohort study included 202 patients with coronary heart disease. Group 1 included patients who had had myocardial infarction or unstable angina, emergency arterial stenting, stroke, peripheral artery thrombosis, critical ischemia, and lower extremity amputation within 2 years before study inclusion. Patients in the comparison group did not have these events. The influence of each of the studied parameters on the probability of fast progressing atherosclerosis was determined by factor and correlation analysis. The prospective part of the study will include follow-up of patients from both groups for 12 months. Annual "endpoints": fatal outcome, unscheduled coronary revascularization, nonfatal myocardial infarction and stroke, hospitalization due to unstable angina pectoris, stent thrombosis, stenting/plasty of lower limb arteries.

Introduction. Ischemic cardiomyopathy is one of the death leading causes in industrialized countries. Up-to-date ESC guidelines recommend a surgical approach (coronary by pass graft) in patients with multivessel coronaropathy, with involvement of left main (LM) or proximal left anterior descending (LAD) artery. In any case, is recommended the use of the internal thoracic artery (ITA) as conduct of choice. In consideration of the very strong evidence supporting the use of ITA, the study objective is to analyze and compare some blood markers collected from ITA blood vs. LAD blood, with the purpose of better understanding the technique benefits from a biological point of view, being the hemodynamic one already evident. Methods. Forty patients scheduled for coronary bypass graft (CABG) surgery at the Cardiac Surgery Unit of European Hospital of Rome will be enrolled. Patients which intervention includes off-pump ITA-LAD anastomosis will be included. For each patient blood sample from ITA and LAD will be collected. On those samples, polymorphonuclear leukocytes and platelets activity, endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and inflammatory burden will be analysed. In patients in which a pre-operative coronary CT scan is available, findings will be correlated with atherosclerotic plaque morphology. Expected results. Diseased LAD's blood will have a deranged markers profile compared with ITA's, with augmented inflammatory burden, reduce NO availability and increased platelet activation. In the patients subgroup with available coronary CT scan will be possible to esteem the effective blood mixing and speculate on a possible pharmacological effect of CABG, in terms of dilution of inflammatory burden in the target vessel.

This is a randomized single-blind trial. This study aimed to determine if intensive lipid-lowering therapy (simvastatin-ezetimibe combination therapy) could reduce the progression of atherosclerosis effectively and safely among SLE patients with carotid artery intima thickening. The study results were expected to be helpful for SLE patients in preventing atherosclerosis.

The combination of aspirin and dipyridamole, two antiplatelet drugs, is approved in Italy for the secondary prevention of cerebral embolism in patients with carotid atherosclerosis. Besides antiplatelet activity, Dipyridamole has additional pharmacological action, including vasodilation and antioxidant properties. A role for oxidative stress has been suggested in acute cerebrovascular disease. In this study the investigators want to test the in vivo antioxidant activity of dipyridamole in patients who are candidate to take the drug under approved conditions of the Italian Drug Regulation Agency, i.e. secondary prevention of TIA/Stroke in patinets with carotid stenosis (>= 70%). To test the hypothesis that dipyridamole acts as antioxidant in vivo, oxysterols (products of cholesterol autoxidation) and vitamin E are measured in plasma before and after 6 months therapy after carotid endoarterectomy. Since dipyridamole is approved as combination preparation with aspirin, a control group of patients taking aspirin alone is enrolled. Outcome measures: plasma biomarkers (oxysterols and vitamin E) change at two time points: baseline and 6-months therapy.

Investigators will recruit 250 subjects; Group A will consist of 100 prediabetic patients with an A1c of 5.7%-6.4%. Group B will consist of 100 patients with uncontrolled T2D defined as either a) an A1c of 6.5%-7.9% without diabetes medications or b) an A1c ≥ 8.0% with or without diabetes medications. Group C will include 50 participants without T2D or known cardiovascular disease to serve as control comparisons.

The Incident COronary EveNts Identified by Coronary Tomography (ICONIC) trial is a nested, case-control study derived from the dynamic CONFIRM registry, and is based on propensity scoring methods to match subjects with (cases) or without (controls) acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Our primary objective is to determine CCTA-based atherosclerotic plaque characteristics that would help elucidate precursors of incident ACS, with the secondary objective being an analysis of gender-specific disparities.

Rationale: Amyloid beta (Ab) is mainly known for its role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. However, Ab seems not only to be involved in AD pathology, but also in atherosclerosis, which might explain the remarkable similarities in risk factors between these two pathologies. In vitro studies suggest that a major part of this association is based on the ability of amyloid to lead to macrophage activation and thus inflammation. These data lead to the hypothesis that Ab is associated with plaque vulnerability. 18F-Flutemetamol is a PET tracer with high affinity for Ab. This has been extensively studied in AD patients. Objective: To validate 18F-Flutemetamol PET in the evaluation of plaque vulnerability. Study design: A cross-sectional validation study. Study population: 25 adults, who have recently (<14days) experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke with a carotid artery plaque of ≥30% and without evidence of another etiology than carotid atherosclerosis (i.e. cardiac or small vessel). Of these 25 patients, 10 patients will be included who have been scheduled for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). The other 15 will be selected of patients who are not scheduled to undergo CEA. Intervention: All patients will undergo a PET/MRI scan with 18F-Flutemetamol, either before the scheduled CEA or within the first 30 days following the cerebrovascular event. Imaging will include the carotid and coronary arteries as well as the brain. Main study parameters/endpoints: Tracer uptake in the carotid artery will be correlated to vulnerable plaque characteristics as assessed by MRI. In the 10 CEA patients, tracer uptake and MR imaging of different plaque characteristics will be validated with plaque histology of the surgically removed specimen. Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: There is no additional benefit for study subjects. Study subjects will receive the same treatment as non-participating patients. Patients will be screened for in- and exclusion criteria to minimize risks. For optimal MR imaging patients will be injected with a Gadolinium based contrast agent, which is a common procedure and associated with very low risk of complications. The PET tracer 18F-flutemetamol has been studied extensively and is currently used in patients with AD. Adverse events were not frequent and mainly mild. The radioactivity dose will be around 6.8 mSv.