Active clinical trials for "Atrial Fibrillation"

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects over 1 million individuals in the UK and results in costs of over £450 million per year to the National Health Service (NHS). Current rhythm control strategies are limited by high recurrences of AF. New strategies tackling more upstream pathophysiological mechanisms are most needed. The incidence and prevalence of AF markedly increase with age, whilst obesity is the strongest modifiable risk factor for AF. Preliminary data in relatively young patients suggest that weight loss programmes may reduce AF burden and improve AF-related symptoms. Such programmes could be a widely-applicable and cost-effective option in AF management if they are also effective in elderly patients with AF, particularly if they also improve physical performance. Aim The aim of this study is to investigate whether, in older overweight/obese AF patients, referral to a weight loss programme with meal replacement & behavioral support can reduce AF-recurrences and improve physical performance compared to usual care. Study design Parallel-group, open-label, multi-centre randomised controlled trial. Elderly individuals (60-85 years) with persistent AF and elevated body mass index (BMI; ≥ 27 kg/m2) will be recruited. Participants will be randomly allocated (1:1) to (a) referral to a meal replacement programme with behavioral support (intervention) or (b) usual care (control) for 32-to-36 weeks. The primary endpoints are AF recurrence and physical performance test (PPT) score. Participants randomised to the study intervention will be referred to a commercial provider (CP) providing the intervention. The co-primary endpoints of AF recurrence & PPT score will be analysed irrespective of compliance during the scheduled treatment period following an intention-to-treat principle.

The electrical isolation of the pulmonary veins (PVI) is the cornerstone of current ablation techniques for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) because the PV is the most common trigger of AF. Wide bi-antral circumferential ablation (WACA) is more effective than segmental PV isolation in achieving freedom from total atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence at long-term follow-up. Therefore, it is widely accepted as initial ablation strategy. However, the WACA technique requires a much larger number of ablation and higher energy to achieve complete isolation because of thick atrial myocardial sleeves with multiple muscle layers present in most of the PV antrum, which is less likely to achieve homogenous transmural lesions in the entire circumference with the currently available ablation technologies. Meanwhile, muscular discontinuities and abrupt changes of the fiber orientation in human PV-Left atrium (LA) junction are previously reported, and electrical PV isolation can usually be achieved without complete circumferential ablation. However, the current electroanatomical mapping (EAM) system has a limitation to understand the complex relationship of PV-LA junction mainly due to relatively low resolution. The Rhythmia mapping system (BostonScientific, Inc, Cambridge, MA) is a new system provides ultra-high-resolution EAM using a small basket array of 64 electrodes (IntellaMap Orion, Boston Scientific). Owing to better resolution, this new system capable of rapidly and accurately identify critical isthmuses and low-voltage regions of interest and also allows automatic acquisition and accurate annotation of the electrograms, without the need for manual correction. In this context, we hypothesized that rapid and precise identification of activation pattern of PV-LA junction by Rhythmia system could allow complete, durable electrical isolation of PVs without circumferential antral ablation.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia but can be treated by a catheter procedure where specialized wires (so-called catheters) are inserted in the left upper heart chamber. This requires crossing the wall between the right and left atrium with a long needle (a so-called transseptal puncture or TSP). This is typically done using x-ray guidance or echo to check if the needle is in the right position. The investigators developed a method to do the TSP without x-rays using a specialized needle that can be also shown as a little icon on the 3D electroanatomical mapping system (CARTO).3D mapping systems are routinely used to track the location of the catheters in cath labs worldwide, but the position of the needle was not tracked yet. The investigators seek to demonstrate that these procedures can be carried out safely, successfully and in a reproducible fashion without any radiation by taking advantage of "faking" the isolated tip of the needle as a catheter on the 3D mapping system. The results will be compared with historic procedures done by the same operator in the years 2012-2017.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular heart rhythm associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Catheter ablation is an established treatment where catheters are inserted through a vein in the leg into the left atrium of the heart to deliver lines of scar to disrupt the tissue causing and maintaining AF. The ECG-I is a system which involves wearing a jacket with many ECG electrodes to record electrical activity from the surface of the body. A CT scan then shows where these electrodes are relative to the atria, and computer modelling is used to reconstruct the movements of electricity on the surface of the heart and therefore identifying where the drivers (tissue causing and maintaining AF) are located. Success rates for persistent atrial fibrillation lie in the region of 30-60% due to the location of drivers (tissue causing and maintaining AF) varying per patient. Locating and treating these drivers is very challenging. We intend to enrol 40 patients with persistent AF and perform atrial mapping using the ECG-I system. We will perform pulmonary vein isolation and perform atrial mapping to identify the location of these drivers and then to ablate them. We will study the effects of performing ablation upon these drivers using the ECG-I.

A real world registry to compare dual therapy with Dabigatran/Ticagrelor to dual therapie with Dabigatran/Clopidogrel in patients with an indication for NOAC undergoing PCI in the setting of ACS. Hypothesis: Dual therapy with Dabigatran/Ticagrelor will be non-inferior in reducing the risk of bleeding compared to Dual therapy with Dabigatran/Clopidogrel (RE-DUAL PCI trial based) in patients with an indication for NOAC undergoing PCI in the setting of ACS. Thromboembolic events, stent thrombosis and death will be evaluated for estimation of events between both groups. Data will be pooled for this secondary endpoint with data from the upcoming WOEST-3 trial to compare both treatments.

The objective of this clinical trial is to collect safety and effectiveness data for the TactiCath™ Contact Force Ablation Catheter, Sensor Enabled™ (TactiCath SE) in the APAC patient population for the treatment of drug refractory, symptomatic persistent atrial fibrillation when following standard electrophysiology mapping and radiofrequency (RF) ablation procedures.

It is an attempt to see the reliability of the Wearable Smart Watch in identifying atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias compared to the data detected from ILRs.

A prospective, single-arm, multi-center study to evaluate the safety, performance, and effectiveness of the Affera SpherePVI™ Multi-Ablation System for treating paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.

A small pilot study comparing different blood thinners (non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants [NOACs] and warfarin) will be conducted in people at risk for blood clots after open-heart surgery. This study will help us design a much bigger study to test the effectiveness and safety of different blood thinners in people after open-heart surgery. The study will test the following hypotheses: (1) Our standardized use of different blood thinners is feasible in patients early after cardiac surgery. (2) NOACs are safe to use early after cardiac surgery.

The aim of the present study is to compare the LA reconstruction obtained with CartoSound-FAM software and The M-FAM software to the Carto Merge 3D reconstruction and FAM in consecutive patients referred for AF ablation.