Active clinical trials for "Heart Diseases"

Vegetarian and vegan diets have been shown to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors for chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and have been associated with decreased risk of these chronic diseases. The role of vegetarian and/or vegan dietary patterns and incident cardiovascular outcomes still remains unclear. To address these uncertainties, the investigators propose to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the totality of evidence from prospective cohort studies to distinguish the association of vegetarian and/or vegan dietary patterns on the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases. This proposed knowledge synthesis was commissioned by the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group (DNSG) of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and will be used to inform clinical practice and dietary guidelines, help improve health outcomes, and guide future research design.

The project aims toward clarifying the underlying mechanism and the long-term impact of congenital heart disease on neurodevelopment.

By bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS) association of fluid status in patients with valvular heart disease and cardiovascular outcome will be assessed.

Mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and trauma-related stress (MD\AD\TRS) are common among men, particularly those suffering from heart disease (HD). MD\AD\TRS are significantly related to exacerbation of HD symptoms that often lead to death. Unfortunately, men are significantly less likely than women to seek and receive appropriate treatment for their mental health issues including MD\AD\TRS. Furthermore, there is little literature about the use of the stepped care model in the Canadian setting. The overarching goal of this interventional program is therefore to prevent, early detect and treat MD\AD\TRS in men living with HD. This Participatory Action Research aims to implement a stepped-care model for MD\AD\TRS in men in New Brunswick, Ontario, and quebec. The second phase of the project proposes a quantitative study that will consist of testing the effectiveness and acceptability (by the men and the involved health professionals) of the stepped-care model. It will offer to post ACS-males a mental health related component presently not available in the typical services of the NB health system. Data will be collected at baseline (0 month) and at four follow-up (each 3-months) sessions to manage the progress of each participant throughout their 12-month journey in the study. Typical sociodemographic data will be collected, along with a questionnaire on Masculinity Norms, Couples Satisfaction (when applicable), and four mental health assessment tools.

"Cardiovascular Imaging and Biomarker Analyses (CIBER)" is a single-center, prospective and observational study evaluating the expression of novel biomarkers in patients undergoing cardiacvascular imaging within clinical routine care. It is aimed to evaluate associations with biomarker expressions with ascertained cardiac imaging parameters.

Rationale: Adult patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) with atrial tachyarrhythmias need to be anticoagulated. It is not known whether non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOAC) in this patient group are efficient and safe. Aim: The purpose of the NOTE registry is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of NOACs for thromboembolic prevention in atrial tachyarrhythmias in adult patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods: In this multicenter prospective registry adult CHD patients with atrial tachyarrhythmias on NOACs (switch from VKA or new on anticoagulants) will be followed for a minimum of two years. Primary efficacy endpoints are defined as thromboembolism, i.e. the composite of ischemic stroke, systemic and pulmonary embolism and intracardiac thrombosis, and as the composite of stroke and systemic embolism. Primary safety endpoint is defined as major bleeding according to the ISTH criteria. Secondary endpoints include each thromboembolic or bleeding event analysed separately, all-cause mortality, therapy adherence, quality of life, risk assessment of stroke and evaluation of natural history of atrial tachyarrhythmia in adult CHD patients. Primary endpoint assessment will be performed with a per protocol analysis, and demonstrated as Kaplan Meyer estimates of event free survival and event rates per year.

Heart failure (HF) is the common end-stage of different medical conditions. It is the only growing cardiovascular disease and its prognosis remains worse than that of many malignancies. The lack of evidence-based treatment for patients with diastolic HF (HFpEF) exemplifies that the current "one for all" therapy has to be advanced by an individualized approach. Inherited cardiomyopathies can serve as paradigmatic examples of different HF pathogenesis. Both gain- and loss-of-function mutations of the same gene cause disease, calling for disease-specific agonism or antagonism of this gene´s function. However, mutations alone do not predict the severity of cardiomyopathies nor therapy, because their impact on cardiac myocyte function is modified by numerous factors, including the genetic context. Today, patient-specific cardiac myocytes can be evaluated by the induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology. Yet, unfolding the true potential of this technology requires robust, quantitative, high content assays. The researchers' recently developed method to generate 3D-engineered heart tissue (EHT) from hiPSC provides an automated, high content analysis of heart muscle function and the response to stressors in the dish. The aim of this project is to make the technology a clinically applicable test. Major steps are (i) in depths clinical phenotyping and genotyping of patients with cardiomyopathies or HFpEF, (ii) follow-up of the clinical course, (iii) generation of hiPSC lines (40 patients, 40 healthy controls), and (iv) quantitative assessment of hiPSC-EHT function under basal conditions and in response to pro-arrhythmic or cardio-active drugs and chronic afterload enhancement. The product of this study is an SOP-based assay with standard values for hiPSC-EHT function/stress responses from healthy volunteers and patients with different heart diseases. The project could change clinical practice and be a step towards individualized risk prediction and therapy of HF.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been recently studied for evaluation of coronary stenting. Because of high resolutions, several reports have shown that OCT is appropriate for evaluating neointimal tissue after coronary stent implantation. Also, the strut coverage and the characterization of neointimal tissue can be accurately evaluated. Furthermore, OCT-defined coverage of a stent strut was proposed to be related with clinical safety in drug-eluting stents-treated patients. Therefore, the investigators will evaluate the appropriateness of currently using coronary stents (e.g. Sirolimus eluting stent, Paclitaxel-eluting stent, Zotarolimus-eluting stent, Everolimus-eluting stent, Biolimus eluting stent, EPC(endothelial progenitor cell) Capture stent, etc) based on the findings of OCT. Additionally, the investigators will evaluate neointimal hyperplasia, malposition or strut coverage to decide the differences in the stent characteristics, the duration of antiplatelet use, and the differences according to the clinical presentations.

Plasma donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) is measured as a % of the total plasma cfDNA in association with the measurement of AlloMap, a non-invasive gene expression test to aid in heart transplant management.

Mechanisms that link metabolic syndrome to atherosclerosis are incompletely understood. As a part of Hämeenlinna Metabolic Syndrome Research Program (HMS) surrogate indicators for atherosclerosis are studied in 120 men with metabolic syndrome, 120 men with coronary heart disease and 80 physically active controls and in different settings.