Active clinical trials for "Coronary Artery Disease"

SPECT is currently the dominant clinical test for diagnostic and prognostic purposes as well as therapeutic decision-making. Given the shortage of nuclear reactor-produced Tc, advancing the use of non-isotope based imaging modalities has the potential to change the standard of care for patients with CAD as each one of these technics (CMR, CT, Stress echocardiography) has its own distinct potential advantages over SPECT.

To treat patients with acute myocardial infarction, primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) will be performed with the use of an everolimus-eluting cobalt- chromium stent (everolimus-eluting stent: EES, Xience Prime, Xpedition), which is the current standard drug-eluting stent (DES). Vascular responses at the site of stent placement will be evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) at 2 weeks or 3 months and at 12 months after stent placement, along with observation of changes over time in the target vessel. The relationships between OCT findings and the time course of platelet aggregation and between OCT findings and the occurrence of major cardio- cerebrovascular events will also be elucidated.

The purpose of this study is to enhance medical knowledge of the causes of future coronary problems. Many studies in patients who have already experienced a coronary problem point to the danger associated with plaques that are rich in cholesterol. This study determines if the near-infrared method of detection of these fatty plaques can predict future events. If dangerous plaques can be identified, there are many treatments already available that could be tested for their ability to prevent coronary events.

The purpose of this study is to understand the use of Corus CAD also known as Age/Sex/Gene Expression score (ASGES) in the clinical decision making process of patients who underwent the evaluation of chest pain or anginal equivalent symptoms. Specifically, to better understand whether the use of the assay in clinical decision making resulted in changes in noninvasive diagnostic test ordering or diagnostic yield of additional tests ordered and/or invasive angiography.

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is an important diagnostic procedure in medicine mainly to detect circulation disorders and problems of the spread of the electrical heart impulse. It is frequently the first measure in clinical practice when angina pectoris, acute myocardial infarction or an arrhythmia are suspected. The ECG is easy to perform, safe and cheap. Posture changes are known to cause alterations of the ECG [1]. Deviation of the electrical heart axis (EHA) [2], temporary changes of the QRS morphology and ST-segment alterations are of particular importance in view of diagnostic accuracy [3], [4]. In ambulatory ECG recordings ST-segment alterations for instance might mistakenly be interpreted as cardiac ischemia [5]. Artifacts could be minimized by the concurrent determination of the deviation of the electrical heart axis [6] [7]or by using posture detectors [8] helping to correlate ECG changes to posture changes. Due to the emergence of new computer based opportunities ambulatory ECG in the sense of home monitoring is an emerging market. Together with the superiority compared to the scalar ECG in detecting certain pathologies, like myocardial infarction and right ventricular hypertrophy, the VCG gained new interest in recent years [9]. Four ECG leads are sufficient to synthesize a standard 12-lead ECG from a VCG and vice versa with a transformation matrix [10] [11].The redirection of the spatial VCG after posture changes has been determined for the QRS loop with the Frank leads, which is the reference method for constructing the VCG [12][13]. 4 leads of an ambulatory ECG are sufficient to construct the VCG if arranged approximately in the position of three rectangular axes. Doctors are best trained to interpret standard 12 lead ECGs. With optimization of the leads of ambulatory (Holter) ECG towards the three rectangular axes, this might allow mathematical transformation into the standard 12 lead ECG. A precondition would be that the transformation matrix is independent of posture. To date, transformation matrix between Frank VCG and standard 12 lead ECG has only been calculated in resting ECGs [5]. This is the first study which investigates the transformation matrix in different postures. Additionally, the investigators will investigate for the first time prospectively for known artefacts of stress testing and ambulatory ECGs. Aim: Simultaneous prospective recording of the standard 12 lead ECG and the Frank-lead VCG in different postures is expected to add information on potential causes of artifacts of the ECG caused by posture changes. During continuous recording, the investigators will investigate the accuracy of the linear affine transformation with posture, the occurrence (dimension and duration) of ECG/ VCG morphology changes and ST-segment alterations, and VCG angle changes in dependence of posture changes in healthy young men. Hypothesis The investigators hypothesis is that the transformation matrix between Frank-Lead VCG and standard 12-lead ECG is posture dependent. Artefacts of the ECG due to posture changes are systematic. The knowledge of the systematics improves the diagnostic accuracy of ambulatory ECG and stress testing.

The UNICORN consists of two collaborating biobanks, one in Utrecht and one in Singapore. From these two sites we include all patients who undergo a coronary catheterization for any reason. At the moment of catheterization we draw blood, which will be stored in a biobank and we collect clinical characteristics. Patients are followed-up for 5 years for the occurrence of major cardiovascular events. By including from two sites in the world we include 4 major ethnic groups: Caucasians, Chinese, Indians and Malays. We aim at including at least 2000 patients per ethnic group. Our hypothesis is that there are differences in the risk factor burden, clinical presentation of CAD, and biochemical patterns in the blood among the ethnic groups. Furthermore, this biobank offers a platform for multi-ethnic biomarker discovery.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine that promote the inflammatory response.In animal studies, it has been found that MIF is released in the ischaemic heart, promoting glucose uptake and protecting the heart from ischaemia-reperfusion injury.The MIF concentration, influenced by age and myocardial ischemia, have different impact on myocardial functional recovery after ischemia.Therefore, the purpose of this experiment is to study the clinical significance of MIF in patients with coronary heart disease.

The iFRCT study is a prospective, multicenter study to evaluate the diagnostic performance of iFRCT with the use of ≥64-detector row CT scanners for the detection and exclusion of significant obstructive coronary artery disease, defined by invasive fractiona flow reserve (FFR) as the reference standard.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the clinical and morphological characteristics of chronic subclinical inflammation in the myocardium in patients with decompensated heart failure with ischemic systolic dysfunction.

The SYNTAX III Revolution trial is a randomized diagnostic research study that investigates the use of CT scan and angiogram of the heart to help doctors decide which method is the best to improve blood supply to the heart in patients with complex coronary artery disease. Each patient will undergo an angiogram and CT scan per standard of care. The randomization strategy in this study is not between patients but between two teams of doctors, the so-called "Heart Teams", will be randomized: in the first round, team 1 assesses the angiogram, and team 2 assesses the CT scan. Then they make a decision about which treatment would be the best to treat complex coronary artery disease. In the second round, both teams see the imaging method that they did not see in the first round, and make the decision again. The final decision on the clinical treatment strategy is at the sole discretion of the Heart Team and there are no criteria described in SYNTAXIII Revolution protocol leading influencing this final decision. Hypothesis: Determination of the best treatment strategy for coronary artery disease based on a CT scan will result in similar decisions as based on invasive coronary angiography.