Active clinical trials for "Heart Diseases"

This study was advocated by Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in October 2011. It was funded by China major scientific and technological specialized project for 'significant new formulation of new drugs'. Kudiezi is kind of Chinese Medicine injection used for treating coronary heart disease and angina pectoris in many Chinese hospitals. The purpose of this study is to determine adverse drug events or adverse drug reaction in large sample size 30,000 patients.

Exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with increases in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this observation are emerging, and exposure to particulate air pollution has been shown to result in increases in blood pressure and arterial tone, impaired vascular function and an increased tendency for blood to clot as well as an increase in atherosclerotic plaque burden. Recent evidence from panel studies and controlled exposure studies have suggested an increase in myocardial ischaemia (a reduction in blood flow to the heart) following exposure. In this study we aim to investigate directly myocardial (heart) blood flow following exposure to diesel exhaust (as a model of urban air pollution) using CT/PET myocardial perfusion imaging in male patients with stable coronary disease and healthy male controls. We hypothesize that following exposure to dilute diesel exhaust: Myocardial blood flow will be reduced Coronary flow reserve will be impaired The magnitude of impairment will be higher in patients with coronary disease as compared to healthy controls

This study is a prospective, observational study to estimate the relationship between dosage of clopidogrel and platelet aggregation in Chinese with different genotype. The investigators suppose both pretreatment dosage of clopidogrel before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and CYP2C19 genotype may effect the platelet aggregation as well as clinical outcome.

The association between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) has mostly been examined using broad endpoints or cause-specific mortality. The purpose of our study is to compare the effect of alcohol consumption in the aetiology of a range of cardiovascular disease phenotypes.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether oral sildenafil citrate reduces the abnormal right ventricular pressure response during exercise in adolescent and adult patients with specific types of congenital heart defects.

Background. Clinical benefits of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) have been clearly demonstrated in heart failure (HF) patients with severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and wide QRS at surface electrocardiogram. However, there is a growing evidence that QRS duration poorly predicts responses to CRT, and that ~30% of patients do not experience any benefit from CRT when pre-implant dyssynchrony is defined according to electrocardiographic criteria. A number of echocardiographic criteria have been proposed to assess mechanical LV dyssynchrony, but at present there is no consensus on their use to predict response to CRT. Study Design. The Italian Multicenter PROject on echo assessment of left VEntricular (IMPROVE) dyssynchrony study is a prospective, multicenter, observational study aimed to assess feasibility and predictive power of mechanical dyssynchrony assessed by echocardiography in consecutive consenting patients candidate to CRT by clinical and electrocardiographic criteria. IMPROVE will enroll 120 healthy subjects and 216 HF patients in 6 sites in Italy. CRT response criteria will be based on improvement in NYHA class and LV reverse remodeling evaluated by 3D-echocardiography. Enrollment is expected to conclude early 2009. Implications. CRT is today part of the therapeutic armamentarium for symptomatic HF patients refractory to medical therapy, with wide QRS complex and severe LV systolic dysfunction. The IMPROVE study has been designed to evaluate reference values of indexes of ultrasound mechanical dyssynchrony that have been proposed in the literature and compare their ability to predict response to CRT in HF patients.

The prevalence of PAH associated with congenital systemic-to-pulmonary shunts in Western countries has been estimated to range between 1.6 and 12.5 cases per million adults, with 25-50% of this population affected by Eisenmenger's syndrome. The rarity of this syndrome, combined with its complex pathophysiology, account for the insufficient understanding of the principles underlying its proper treatment.Recent decades have seen developments in pulmonary hypertension pathophysiology which have led to the introduction of new groups of drugs: prostacycline analogs (Epoprostenol, Treprostinil, Beraprost, Illoprost), phosphodiesterase inhibitors (Sildenafil, Tadalafil), endothelin receptor antagonists (Bosentan, Sitaxantan, Ambrisentan) and nitric oxide. These drugs should be administered to patients in III-IV NYHA class. Despite successful early results, the therapeutic effect on patients with Eisenmenger syndrome has not been conclusively established The treatment strategy for patients with PAH associated with congenital systemic-to-pulmonary shunts and, in particular, those with Eisenmenger's syndrome is based mainly on clinical experience rather than being evidence based. Although Eisenmenger's syndrome is uncurable disease, the survival rate is relatively higher than primary PAH, and the patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome are relatively younger group. So the improvement of exercise tolerance and quality of life is very important. Several randomized controlled trial reported favourable short- and long-term outcomes of treatment with the orally active dual endothelin receptor antagonist bosentan in patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome. However, there was scare data of outcomes of treatment with the inhaled iloprost in patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome. In Korea, most of patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome are treated with conservative therapy instead of administration of PAH-specific drug, because of lack of clinical experience. Moreover, oral agent such as bosentan, sidenafil is preferred than iloprost becase of more evidence and convenience. Our therapeutic efforts should be directed mainly towards preventing complications. As a rule, we should avoid agents with no established therapeutic efficacy and try to alleviate symptoms without any additional risk, so as not to disrupt the existing clinical balance. In this study, we investigate to know the clinical benefit of iloprost on patients with Eisenmenger's syndrome by the use of functional and hemodynamic parameters, which would add the evidence of PAH-specific agents on the Eisenmenger's syndrome

The main purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of personality traits to marital satisfaction and well -being among couples coping with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and couples from the general population, and to health promoting behaviors and physical recovery among the ill partners.

To evaluate short-term and long-term effects by MR imaging at 3T on the technical and functional status of cardiac pacemakers.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not case management by a social worker and nurse can decrease the number of emergency room visits, increase the number of primary care doctor visits, and increase quality of life of people in a Medicaid managed care plan.