Active clinical trials for "Death"

The PROTECT-ICD trial is a physician-led, multi-centre randomised controlled trial targeting prevention of sudden cardiac death in patients who have poor cardiac function following a myocardial infarct (MI). The trial aims to assess the role of electrophysiology study (EPS) in guiding implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation, in patients early following MI (first 40 days). The secondary aim is to assess the utility of cardiac MRI (CMR) in analysing cardiac function and viability as well as predicting inducible and spontaneous ventricular tachyarrhythmia when performed early post MI. Following a MI patients are at high risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). The risk is highest in the first 40 days; however, current guidelines exclude patients from receiving an ICD during this time. This limitation is based largely on a single study, The Defibrillator in Acute Myocardial Infarction Trial (DINAMIT), which failed to demonstrate a benefit of early ICD implantation. However, this study was underpowered and used non-invasive tests to identify patients at high risk. EPS identifies patients with the substrate for re-entrant tachyarrhythmia, and has been found in multiple studies to predict patients at risk of SCD. Contrast-enhanced CMR is a non-invasive test without radiation exposure which can be used to assess left ventricular function. In addition, it provides information on myocardial viability, scar size and tissue heterogeneity. It has an emerging role as a predictor of mortality and spontaneous ventricular arrhythmia in patients with a previous MI. A total of 1,058 patients who are at high risk of SCD based on poor cardiac function (left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤40%) following a ST-elevation or non-STE myocardial infarct will be enrolled in the trial. Patients will be randomised 1:1 to either the intervention or control arm. In the intervention arm all patients undergo early EPS. Patients with a positive study (inducible ventricular tachycardia cycle length ≥200ms) receive an ICD, while patients with a negative study (inducible ventricular fibrillation or no inducible VT) are discharged without an ICD, regardless of the LVEF. In the control arm patients are treated according to standard local practice. This involves early discharge and repeat assessment of cardiac function after 40 days or after 90 days following revascularisation (PCI or CABG). ICD implantation after 40 days according to current guidelines (LVEF≤30%, or ≤35% with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II/III symptoms) could be considered, if part of local standard practice, however the ICD is not funded by the trial. A proportion of trial patients from both the intervention and control arms at >48 hours following MI will undergo CMR to enable correlation with (1) inducible VT at EPS and (2) SCD and non-fatal arrhythmia on follow up. It will be used to simultaneously assess left ventricular function, ventricular strain, myocardial infarction size, and peri-infarction injury. The size of the infarct core, infarct gray zone (as a measure of tissue heterogeneity) and total infarct size will be quantified for each patient. All patients will be followed for 2 years with a combined primary endpoint of non-fatal arrhythmia and SCD. Non-fatal arrhythmia includes resuscitated cardiac arrest, sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) in participants without an ICD. Secondary endpoints will include all-cause mortality, non-sudden cardiovascular death, non-fatal repeat MI, heart failure and inappropriate ICD denial. Secondary endpoints for CMR correlation will include (1) the presence or absence of inducible VT at EP study, and (2) combined endpoint of appropriate ICD activation or SCD at follow up. It is anticipated that the intervention arm will reduce the primary endpoint as a result of prevention of a) early sudden cardiac deaths/cardiac arrest, and b) sudden cardiac death/cardiac arrest in patients with a LVEF of 31-40%. It is expected that the 2-year primary endpoint rate will be reduced from 6.7% in the control arm to 2.8% in the intervention arm with a relative risk reduction (RRR) of 68%. A two-group chi-squared test with a 0.05 two-sided significance level will have 80% power to detect the difference between a Group 1 proportion of 0.028 experiencing the primary endpoint and a Group 2 proportion of 0.067 experiencing the primary endpoint when the sample size in each group is 470. Assuming 1% crossover and 10% loss to follow up the required sample size is 1,058 (n=529 patients per arm). To test the hypothesis that tissue heterogeneity at CMR predicts both inducible and spontaneous ventricular tachyarrhythmias will require a sample size of 400 patients to undergo CMR. It is anticipated that the use of EPS will select a group of patients who will benefit from an ICD soon after a MI. This has the potential to change clinical guidelines and save a large number of lives.

Individuals with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) remain at risk for sudden cardiac death from ventricular tachycardia (VT). Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TPVR) indications continue to broaden, yet its capability to reduce the risk of VT and sudden cardiac death remains unknown. Thus, in a cohort of participants with rTOF who are presenting for TPVR the investigators intend to: (1) quantify and localize right ventricular (RV) isthmuses with abnormal voltage and/or conduction velocity; (2) identify which RV isthmuses are at risk of being "jailed" by TPV prostheses; and (3) explore the feasibility of omnipolar technology to characterize wavefront directionality and differentiate slow conduction from conduction block.

A number of large randomized studies have demonstrated the importance of left ventricle ejection fraction (LV EF) for ventrucular tachyarhrythmia's (VT) prediction. The use of this indicator as the sole predictor of high arrhythmic risk requiring ICD implantation is enshrined in the current clinical recommendations. At the same time, many experts consider LV EF as too generalized indicator, which can be an integral indicator of total cardiovascular mortality, but lacks specificity in determining the risk of VT. It is known that only about 20% of patients with ICD implanted for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) receive appropriate life-saving therapy. Purpose of the study: to develop additional criteria for selection of patients with heart failure for implantation of cardioverter-defibrillator for the purpose of primary SCD prevention on the basis of stratification of the risk of occurrence of stable ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

The purpose of this study is to test the effect of the "Best Case/Worse Case" (BC/WC) communication tool on receipt of palliative care and intensity of treatment at the end of life, quality of life, and quality of communication for older patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) receiving outpatient care at ten nephrology clinics. The intervention was developed and tested with acute care surgical patients at the University of Wisconsin (UW) and is now being testing to see if the intervention will work in a different setting. The intervention will be tested with 320 older adults who have end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and are receiving care from a nephrologist enrolled in the study. Randomly assigned nephrologists within each site will receive the intervention (training to use the BC/WC tool) or to be in the waitlist control, meaning that they will not be offered BC/WC training until the end of the study, when all participants have been enrolled. Participants will be on follow up with surveys and chart review for up to two years after study enrollment. Caregivers will also be invited to participate and complete surveys.

The goal of this implementation research project is to determine the feasibility of establishing and implementing an acceptable and robust audit system with community representation at secondary health facilities to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes. The implementation phases follow the standard World Health Organization (WHO) audit system. The initial step includes identifying death cases for review and subsequently collecting the detailed information on the near miss and adverse event history. A mixed methods data analysis will include both quantitative components, such as identification of trends in rates and causes of death and geographic location, and qualitative components, such as analysis of modifiable factors. The use of both types of data will provide a robust analysis of the problems and aid the audit team iin identifying and supporting priorities for action. The three-delay's model categorize the modifiable factors as the first delay (recognition of danger sign and care-seeking decision), second delay (identification and reaching health facility) and third delays (receiving adequate care and treatment at facilities). The audit team will make recommendations in collaboration with community representatives. The findings of the audits will be shared with the health facility authorities, program managers and community representatives to support policy and practice changes. A monthly monitoring cycle will be set up within the implementing facilities to ensure effective implementation of the audit systems.

The goal of this observational study is to create and rigorously evaluate a violence intervention and prevention corps (VIP Corps) training using a randomized controlled trial among undergraduate and professional students; and to develop a novel maternal injury surveillance system (MISS) to complement an existing maternal violent death registry in Kentucky.

WILLEM is a multi-center, prospective and retrospective cohort study. The study will assess the performance of a cloud-based and AI-powered ECG analysis platform, named Willem™, developed to detect arrhythmias and other abnormal cardiac patterns. The main questions it aims to answer are: A new AI-powered ECG analysis platform can automatice the classification and prediction of cardiac arrhythmic episodes at a cardiologist level. This AI-powered ECG analysis can delay or even avoid harmful therapies and severe cardiac adverse events such as sudden death. The prerequisites for inclusion of patients will be the availability of at least one ECG record in raw data, along with patient clinical data and evolution data after more than 1-year follow-up. Cardiac electrical signals from multiple medical devices will be collected by cardiology experts after obtaining the informed consent. Every cardiac electrical signal from every subject will be reviewed by a board-certified cardiologist to label the arrhythmias and patterns recorded in those tracings. In order to obtain tracings of relevant information, >95% of the subjects enrolled will have rhythm disorders or abnormal ECG's patterns at the time of enrollment.

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators have been proven to be effective in the prevention of sudden cardiac death in high-risk patients. However, it is well acknowledged that such a strategy could be optimised, especially through new technologies/devices. Data on the entirely sub-cutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (S-ICD) published so far come from high-volume centers and/or selected populations. The HONEST Cohort -taking the opportunity of a unique scenario with a single manufacturer and remote monitoring system available- aims to collect retrospectively baseline information as well as follow-up of all patients implanted with an S-ICD in France since the first implant in October 13, 2012 until December 31, 2019. An extended prospective yearly follow-up will be carried out since January 1, 2020 until December 31, 2024.

The implantable device therapy for cardiac arrhythmias has been an established therapy, and one of the common standard procedures in cardiac clinical practice. Pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy have been developed since 1960s, and the technologies in this field are still progressively developing. Not only these "traditional" implantable devices, there are multiple new devices for cardiac diseases, such as implantable loop recorder, vagal nerve stimulator and barostimulator. The aim of this registry is to demonstrate the efficacy and the safety of standard device implantation procedures and to evaluate/ identify specific factors, including clinical characteristics, laboratory data and procedural data, which predict the prognosis/complication of the patients. These identification will result in further improvement of patients' care.

Fetal growth restriction during pregnancy represents one of the biggest risk factors for stillbirth (Gardosi et al, 2013), with 'about one in three term, normally formed antepartum stillbirths are related to abnormalities of fetal growth' (MBRRACE, 2015). Therefore, antenatal detection of growth restricted babies is vital in order to be able to monitor and decide the appropriate delivery timing. However, antenatal detection of SGA babies has been poor, varying greatly across trusts in England in those that calculate their rates (NHS England, 2016). Most trusts do not calculate their detection rates and rates are therefore unknown. It is estimated that routine NHS care detects only 1 in 4 growth restricted babies (Smith, 2015). Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the Oxford Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) has introduced a clinical care pathway (the Oxford Growth Restriction Pathway (OxGRIP)) designed to increase the rates of detection of these at risk babies. The pathway is intended to increase the identification of babies who are at risk of stillbirth, in order to try to prevent this outcome, whilst making best usage of resources, and restricting inequitable practice and unnecessary obstetric intervention. It has been developed with reference to a body of research, however, the individual parts of care provided have not been put together in a pathway in this manner before. Therefore it is important to examine whether the pathway meets its goals of improving outcomes for babies in a 'real world' setting. The principles of the pathway are A universal routine scan at 36 weeks gestation. Additional growth scans at 28 and 32 weeks gestation based on a simplified assessment of risk factors and universal uterine artery Doppler at 20 weeks gestation. Assessment of further parameters other than estimated fetal weight associated with adverse perinatal outcome (eg growth velocity, umbilical artery Doppler and CPR). The clinical data routinely collected as a result of the introduction of the pathway offers a valuable and unique resource in identifying and analysing in the effects of the pathway on its intended outcomes and also in investigating and analysing other maternal, fetal and neonatal complications and outcomes, establishing normal / reference ranges for ultrasound values.