Active clinical trials for "Heart Failure"

Palliative care is of great importance because of poor quality of life and high mortality risk in advanced heart failure. This study was planned as a randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of palliative care training on symptom management, rehospitalization, and quality of life among patients with heart failure.

In the US, racial and ethnic disparities persist, even when income, health insurance and care access are addressed. For example, there is a greater prevalence of chronic heart failure (CHF), higher rates of hospital use and higher death rates in blacks as compared to whites. This is due to many factors including: reduced healthcare access, higher prevalence of hypertension,coronary artery disease, systolic dysfunction, myocardial infarction and obesity. Given the magnitude of this chronic health issue, the growth of the elderly population, and increases in ethnic diversity, providers need to develop new ways of caring for those with chronic conditions living in health disparity communities. The investigators propose to implement a randomized study with health disparity community-dwelling patients. A bilingual clinician will follow patients for 3 months after hospitalization for CHF to test this approach for the proposed health disparity population. The investigators will obtain patient/caregiver input at multiple points during the research to make necessary adjustments to the intervention to ensure that disparity patients accept/use the system, and are satisfied. To ensure that proposed outcomes have relevance for patients, a Community Advisory Board (CAB) of stakeholders will advise the study team throughout the study process. The investigators believe that studying patient use of TSM over a 3 month period will: 1) identify cost-effective care approaches for patients living with chronic disease; 2) involve the patient in identifying and testing approaches that work for them; 3) enhance provider-patient communication; 4) teach the patient how to self-monitor and explore his/her role in self-care; 5) improve patient education about treatment options and 6) explore how "usable" the patients feel the program is. If our goals are achieved, these strategies will result in patient-led improvements in health, satisfaction and quality of life. Knowledge gained will further understanding of the use of telehealth programs as effective self-management tools.

The sympathetic nervous system, a part of the nervous system that stimulates the heart via release of substances, noradrenaline and adrenaline (combined called catecholamines), becomes activated in people with heart failure. As these people become sicker, the nervous system becomes more active, causing further damage to the heart. Large trials have shown that Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with heart failure. Higher doses of these drugs are more effective than lower doses. Studies show that ACE-inhibitors decrease catecholamine levels. This could be why congestive heart failure (CHF) patients taking this class of drugs show improvement in heart function. There are several ways of measuring the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. The most common measurement is to test the blood for catecholamine levels. This is not very reliable or reproducible. Microneurography is a new technique used to measure sympathetic nerve activity. A small electrode (comparable to an acupuncture needle) is placed in a muscle nerve and hooked up to a stimulator and a recorder. It produces direct recordings of skeletal muscle nerve traffic. Both the rate and amplitude of the burst can be measured. The results in this technique are highly reproducible. By using this technique we get a more accurate picture of how the nervous system responds to medications given to treat heart failure. Losartan (Cozaar) is an angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blocker. It blocks the binding of angiotensin II, a hormone that constricts blood vessels. As a result the blood vessels remain relaxed, leading to a reduction in the workload of the heart. Minor decreases in blood catecholamine levels have been reported with a low dose of this drug. The purpose of this study is to see whether a high dose of losartan (200 mg) has a greater effect on the sympathetic nervous system than a low dose of losartan (50 mg) does. A total of 30 participants will be recruited. Participants will be assigned to one of two groups: high-dose, in which subjects will receive treatment of 200 mg/day of losartan, and low-dose, in which subjects will receive treatment of 50 mg/day of losartan. Via microneurography the investigators will measure the difference in sympathetic activity in subjects in high-dose vs low-dose losartan. The investigators expect to see further decrease in sympathetic activity in high-dose group than in low-dose group.

A Study on the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Perhexiline maleate in Subjects with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Moderate-To-Severe Heart Failure

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a major public health problem that has no proven effective treatment. This study will assess the effects of nebulized inhaled nitrite administration on resting and exercise hemodynamics in patients with HFpEF referred to the catheterization lab.

The objective of this study, is to assess the safety and performance of an interatrial shunt when implanted in patients with severe chronic heart failure.

This study will examine whether an intervention with vitamin D or fish oil supplements can reduce the risk of heart failure among adult men and women during a follow up period of up to five years (starting from the time of randomization into the parent VITAL trial). The investigators hypotheses are that both vitamin D and fish oil supplements will each reduce the risk of heart failure.

This study is being done with a radioisotope, 123I-mIBG (Adreview), to develop a nuclear diagnostic imaging test for patients with decreased heart function which can be used to predict the progression of the heart disease and provide the appropriate clinical treatment. The types of patients to be studied include patients who have had a heart attack where heart muscle may be damaged and patients diagnosed with heart failure who have enlarged hearts. Both conditions may cause poor muscle contraction and disturbances in electrical signal conduction. There will also be a control group of participants with no evidence of heart disease. 123I-mIBG has been shown to be effective in assessing the areas of the heart being activated involuntarily by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). 123I-mIBG is an iodine based radioisotope that is chemically similar to norepinephrine (NE) in the heart. NE is responsible for the way the SNS regulates heart functions such as heart rate and the force of heart contractions. NE acts automatically to maintain a homeostasis or balance within the SNS. The amount of 123I-mIBG, mimicking NE, that appears on the nuclear image using the heart-to-mediastinum ratio (H/M ratio), was predictive of the progression of heart failure, arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats) and cardiac death. Two different types of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging will be used: standard SPECT and cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) SPECT. The investigators hypothesize that CZT SPECT will have greater H/M ratios than standard SPECT imaging.

Continuous-flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are an important tool in the treatment of end-stage heart failure, affording patients significantly improved quantity and quality of life. In recent years, tens of thousands of LVADs have been implanted worldwide, with nearly 1,000 at the Texas Heart Institute (THI). Despite the benefits from LVAD therapy, one major weakness is the high frequency of late strokes, reported up to 19%. CF LVADs minimize or remove the pulsatility within the blood system, introducing a new and incompletely understood physiology. Increased sympathetic ("fight or flight" nervous system) tone secondary to lack of pulse in the blood system can cause high blood pressure, with subsequent hemorrhaging strokes (bleeding into the brain) are one possible explanation for this high adverse event rate in CF LVAD patients. A simple intervention to decrease the increased sympathetic tone is called "ischemic conditioning"; a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) is placed on the patient's arm to compress a major artery (ischemia) with subsequent release of the cuff (reperfusion) for set periods of time. This has been shown to reduce blood pressure and major adverse cardiovascular events in other patient populations. We plan to conduct a trial to evaluate this intervention, ischemic conditioning, in patients with CF LVADs. We hypothesize that IC will cause a reduction in blood pressure and strokes in this patient population.

The main objective of the CRICKET study is demonstrate that AV and VV optimization using SonR improves LV reverse remodeling response to CRT, compared with 'Fixed Settings' (FS) after 6 months of treatment. In this investigator-initiated, multi-centre, 2:2 factorial design, randomized, two-arm, double-blinded, cross-over, prospective trial, CRT recipients will be randomized to 'SonR' atrioventricular (AV) and ventricular-ventricular (VV) optimization or 'fixed settings'. The primary endpoint is an absolute reduction in left ventricular end-systolic volume.