Active clinical trials for "Coronary Disease"

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease and stroke, is the leading cause of death in the US. Every year, more than one million Americans have a heart attack, and nearly 800,000 have a stroke. In 2010, heart disease alone is expected to cost the country more than $316 billion in health care and lost productivity. Both lifestyle changes and medication can reduce the risk of CVD, and this project combines these approaches in the hopes of identifying a practical intervention for use in primary care medical offices. The project combines two previously tested interventions and updates them to meet current guidelines for diet and use of aspirin and cholesterol-controlling drugs (statins). The research team is delivering the combined intervention in two formats: web-based and counselor-based. Each format has the same content, but the web-based advice is accessed through the Internet by clients at home, a community site, or a primary care office. The other format involves sessions delivered to clients by a counselor either in person at a primary care office or over the telephone. The researchers will compare how effective each format is in reducing participants' risk of coronary heart disease. They will also determine the interventions' effect on participants' diet, physical activity, smoking status, medication adherence, and other health indicators. In addition, the team will compare the two formats' cost-effectiveness and how well the patients, office staff, and clinicians accept the interventions. Recruited from five family practices, 600 patients representing the geographic and ethnic diversity of North Carolina are taking part in this study. Half the participants are randomly assigned to the web-based intervention; the other half to the counselor-based version. Both groups will also get information on local resources, such as gyms and farmers markets, that can help participants maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The use of coronary computed tomographic angiography(CTA)is rapidly increasing, but there is lack of data which supports their use in the initial evaluation of patients who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. The hypothesis underlying this proposal is that the use of stress-rest myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) as an initial test for the evaluation of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients who are at intermediate risk of coronary events will result in less further non-invasive and invasive testing and result in reduced costs, without adversely affecting clinical outcomes in the short term.

Survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) are known to have an increased risk of developing late treatment sequelae such as cardiovascular events due to coronary artery disease. At present no active screening is performed in these patients since it is not known whether screening and subsequent treatment by means of revascularization is effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in symptomatic individuals. In the trial the efficacy and therapeutic consequences of screening for coronary artery diasease by multi-slice CT (MSCT) among asymptomatic HL survivors will be evaluated.

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether intravenous glutamate infusion given in association with surgery for unstable coronary artery disease can protect the heart from myocardial injury, postoperative heart failure and death.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, but fewer than half of all individuals at risk for CHD take advantage of proven strategies to lower their chances of developing this disease. This study will assess the effectiveness of Heart to Heart, a Web-based program, at educating people on ways to incorporate CHD risk-reduction strategies into their lives.

Despite immediate symptomatic success after coronary bypass surgery in patients with coronary artery disease, this effect is not sustained over time since risk factors for coronary artery disease are still in place. The role of secondary prevention becomes increasingly important as it can potentially decrease or eliminate the need for another intervention in these high risk subjects. This project seeks to evaluate the effect of emphasizing secondary prevention measures in this patient population during hospital admission and through six months post-discharge.

Background: Family members (spouses, siblings, offspring) of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) may themselves be at increased risk for developing CHD for genetic, biochemical and/or behavioural reasons. Targeted approaches aimed at family members of those with established CHD may be a cost-effective way to identify high-risk persons and link them to effective risk factor modification. During pilot testing we found 29% of family members of patients recently hospitalized at our institution had ≥ 3 CHD risk factors. Encouragingly, they indicated high levels of "readiness" to change underlying risk behaviours such as cigarette smoking and physical inactivity. We have developed a 12-week family heart health program featuring a personal plan for achieving risk factor goals and weekly contact with a heart health educator. This intervention needs to be fully tested. Research Aims: In this study, we will: Compare the effects of a targeted family heart health (FHH) screening, counselling and follow-up program versus usual care (UC) for reducing participants total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein (TC/HDL) ratio 52 weeks after program entry, in family members of patients recently hospitalized with CHD; Compare the effects of the FHH program versus UC on modifiable components comprising the Framingham score, including: smoking status; systolic blood pressure; total cholesterol; and high density lipoprotein cholesterol; Compare the effects of the FHH program versus UC on: lifestyle-related factors (dietary patterns, leisure time exercise, body composition); medication use (anti-lipemic medications, anti-hypertensive medications, pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation); and use of healthcare resources (physician visits, hospitalization days, number of laboratory and diagnostic tests and procedures).

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of orally given paracetamol on the vascular function and on 24-hour blood pressure in patients with coronary artery disease

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of nesiritide compared to placebo when given with standard of care therapies, on kidney function, heart function and the need of other treatments in heart failure patients undergoing heart bypass graft surgery that requires the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass machine (CPB pump or heart-lung machine).

Since diabetic platelets are characterized by an enhanced turnover rate, it may be hypothesized that an increase in the frequency, rather than the dose, of drug administration may be a more effective strategy to inhibit platelet reactivity in diabetic patients as this may enable COX-1 blockade of newly generated platelets. However, how different dosing regimens impact the pharmacodynamic effects of aspirin selectively in diabetes mellitus has been poorly explored. Therefore, the aim of the present pilot investigation was to evaluate how increasing the frequency of aspirin administration, remaining within the daily recommended therapeutic doses, affects antiplatelet responsiveness in diabetic patients with coronary artery disease.