Active clinical trials for "Heart Defects, Congenital"

The proposed study includes a newborn developmental intervention to improve neurodevelopmental (ND) and medical outcomes for infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) with improved parent well-being. Literature documents long-term ND disabilities for children with CHD, caused by the negative effects of the hospital environment on the developing newborn brain. The cardiac intensive care unit (CICU), while necessary to save the life of the infant with CHD, exposes infants to overwhelming stress through painful procedures, invasive lines and tubes, toxic sensory stimulation, and separation from family. The combination of these negative experiences disrupts the infant's brain maturation and subsequent neurodevelopment. Individualized developmental care (IDC) is an intervention that minimizes the mismatch between infant neurobiological needs and the harsh hospital environment, thereby diminishing the frequency and severity of adverse effects. Core components of IDC include support for parent engagement, caregiving provided in a way to reduce infant stress, providing a soothing environment and appropriately positioning to enhance musculoskeletal and motor development. Research shows that IDC improves outcomes for preterm infants with enhanced brain structure and function, cognitive skills, executive functioning, behavioral outcomes, and family satisfaction from infancy to school age. Despite all the positive evidence for IDC, my past research showed most CICUs do not implement IDC due to lack of staff education and no evidence supporting IDC in CHD. The investigators propose the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of IDR as an intervention for children with CHD. The investigators hypothesize infants receiving IDC provided in the hospital, compared to those not receiving IDC, will show improved medical outcomes (including shorter hospital stay, improved oral feeding, increased growth), improved developmental competence, and increased parent coping at the time of discharge home and 3 months after discharge. With support from the Children's Heart Foundation, the investigators can demonstrate the feasibility and safety of implementing IDC in the CICU, the potential to improve the ND outcome for infants with CHD and increase parent well-being. This study would serve as the needed pilot study to request funding for a larger multicenter trial which would impact CICU care of infants with CHD and their families around the world.

The main objective of RIGHT-CRT is to assess the impact/efficacy of CRT on functional capacity in ACHD patients with SRV.

Patients with congenital heart disease have long been discouraged from participating in physical exercise which has led to impaired exercise capacity in this population. Since low physical and cardiorespiratory fitness has been shown to be a predictor for hospitalization and mortality in grown-up patients with congenital heart disease (GUCH), aerobic endurance training has been recommended recently to improve exercise capacity. The aim of this study is to compare two types of training, namely high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE), with regard to improving exercise capacity without adverse effects on heart structure, function and rhythm in the setting of a 12-week outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program in GUCH with a remaining pathology involving the right and/or left ventricles. Primary endpoint will be change in exercise capacity (maximal oxygen consumption) over the 12-week CR. Secondary endpoints will be changes of the right or left ventricles as well as vascular function. Patients with GUCH and reduced function of the right ventricle will be recruited and informed about the study within the first two weeks of CR. At the end of week 3 of the CR with supervised MICE, randomization to 9 weeks of twice weekly either HIIT or MICE takes place. MICE training is performed at an intensity of 70-85% of maximum heart rate (HRmax) for 38 min. HIIT consists of four 4 min bouts of high-intensity exercise (90-95% of HRmax), interspersed by 3 min low-intensity intervals (50-60% of HRmax). All patients complete one additional endurance activity per week in their own time with a duration of 30-60 min at moderate intensity monitored by their smart phone. Change in peak oxygen uptake as well as maximal exercise capacity at the end of an incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test will be assessed between week 3 and 12. Vascular function will be assessed at the same time. Volumes and function of the right and left ventricles will be measured by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) upon inclusion into the study and at completion of the intervention. Furthermore, laboratory markers for heart failure as well as occurrence of irregular fast heart beats will be assessed.

Nowadays, biomarkers are broadly used in clinical practice. Blood-derived biomarkers fulfil an important role in the field of cardiology. However, most biomarkers have been investigated for adult left ventricular disease. In congenital heart diseases (CHD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which involves children and mostly the right ventricle, less is known about the clinical and predictive value of blood-derived biomarkers. Since the group of survivors of CHD and PAH is growing because of the improved techniques nowadays, development of better tools to maintain the quality of life for the longer term in these patients is urgently needed. Blood-derived biomarkers are minimally invasive biomarkers, are quantitative and have shown to be able to reveal pathological processes in an early stage. Hence, blood-derived biomarkers may be a good addition to current diagnostic means in CHD and PAH. Objective: The primary objective of this study is to investigate cross-sectionally the association between various emerging blood-derived biomarkers and right ventricular (RV) function:defined as tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) measured with echocardiography, in children with (a history of ) an abnormally loaded, volume and/or pressure loaded, right ventricle associated with CHD and/or PAH.

Newborn babies and children with congenital heart defects who need heart surgery need to be placed on the heart-lung machine for heart surgery. In order to use the heart-lung machine, the investigators have to use blood and other fluids to fill the tubing. During the operation, ultrafiltration is carried out as standard of care to remove extra fluid. Modified ultrafiltration is also performed after surgery. In this study, the investigators are looking to use the filter additionally before surgery. Using the pre bypass filtration before the subject is placed on the heart-lung machine will allow the investigators to better normalize electrolytes in the blood/fluid mixture used in the heart lung machine. This technique is called pre-bypass ultrafiltration, or PBUF (pronounced "P" Buff). The investigators are conducting a study to see if using PBUF to better normalize electrolytes in the blood will make a difference. The investigators have been adding fluids to prime the heart-lung machine in two different ways. The investigators believe both methods are safe and acceptable but hypothesize that there may be subtle differences in electrolytes and fluid status when one technique is used as opposed to the other. The investigators believe that neither technique introduces risk since both are currently used in practice. The standard method adds blood to the heart-lung machine. The alternate method adds blood to the heart-lung machine and then additional fluid is added and removed to more normalize the electrolytes. The investigators plan to randomized subjects undergoing heart surgery to receive the standard priming method versus PBUF to determine if there is any difference in outcomes. Laboratory and clinical data collected as part of clinical care will be used to determine difference sin outcomes. There will be no additional blood taken for this study. There are no known risks to PBUF. The benefits include helping investigators determine if PBUF does or does not make a difference to how subjects recover after surgery. The investigators believe that providing more normal blood values will either improve the subjects' outcome or have no benefit. The investigators do not anticipate increased risks. Given COVID -19 restrictions, the study is on hold.

The staged surgical pathway to treat children with single ventricle heart defects culminates with the Fontan operation. In this procedure, systemic venous return is rerouted directly to the pulmonary arteries, which serves to separate the systemic and pulmonary circulations. Although mortality following the Fontan operation is now uncommon, early postoperative morbidity including prolonged postoperative chest tube drainage and hospitalization remains significant. The efficacy of empiric inotropic, vasodilator and neurohumoral-inhibitory therapies in the perioperative period is unknown and practice varies widely between centers. The investigators will propose a single-center, randomized, double-blind, phase II clinical trial in children undergoing Fontan surgery. The investigators plan to compare the effects of perioperative nesiritide, milrinone and placebo infusions on the early postoperative clinical course and neurohumoral profile. The investigators hypothesize that, when compared to the milrinone and placebo groups, the nesiritide group will have more days alive and out of the hospital within the first 30 days after surgery.

Cardiac surgery is associated with risk of perioperative inflammation and ischemia leading to cerebral and myocardial morbidity and mortality. Ischemic preconditioning by repetitive ischemic episodes at an organ can reduce damage resulting from consecutive prolonged ischemia in that organ. Remote ischemic preconditioning is defined as ischemic preconditioning by repetitive ischemic episodes of an organ remote from the organ to be protected, e.g. ischemic episodes of a limb can reduce ischemic damage of the heart. Animal studies as well as human studies have shown that ischemic preconditioning can protect the heart from intraoperative ischemia. Remote preconditioning by repetitive limb ischemia has been applied in humans in some studies.12-14 However, the published data is not yet sufficient to support evidence based recommendations for clinical practice. In particular, available data regarding the influence of remote preconditioning on inflammatory and ischemic damage of brain and heart in children following surgery of congenital heart disease are limited. Hence, this prospective, controlled and randomized study was designed to perform remote ischemic preconditioning in children after induction of anesthesia for pediatric heart surgery and to investigate the effect on postoperative organ function in comparison to a control group.

The second stage operation towards single ventricle palliation is 'bidirectional cavopulmonary connection' (BCPC). The superior vena cava is connected to the pulmonary artery, diverting 'blue' blood from the upper body (including the brain) to the lungs. A successful BCPC requires sufficient and easy blood flow through the lungs. Alprostadil is the synthetic form of prostaglandin (hormone that causes dilation of blood vessels) and has been shown to increase blood flow in the brain hence increasing blood flow to the lungs after BCPC, potentially useful in managing children post BCPC with low flow to the lungs and thus poor oxygenation. This study propose to investigate acute effects of Alprostadil on different blood vessels after BCPC.

This is a prospective study of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease, in which acetaminophen serum concentrations will be measured following a single intraoperative intravenous dose of acetaminophen. These levels will be used to develop a pharmacokinetic model. Serum concentrations will be compared between two groups of patients: (1) cyanotic patients presenting for the Fontan completion operation and (2) patients with acyanotic congenital heart disease presenting for repair via median sternotomy.

Cyanotic congenital cardiac patients require higher hemoglobin concentrations (red blood cell levels) for optimal oxygen delivery to the body. Prophylactic erythropoietin (EPO) and iron can prevent and/or decrease the amount of blood transfusions needed in this population. We seek to investigate if EPO and iron make a clinically significant difference in the number of transfusions given to these patients and the morbidity associated with it.