Active clinical trials for "Heart Diseases"

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a serious health concern that affects millions of people in the United States. It is usually caused by atherosclerosis-a condition that occurs when fatty material and plaque build up on the walls of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart, causing the arteries to narrow. As the arteries narrow, blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop, which can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, heart attack, or heart failure. Another component of CHD events involves inflammatory changes that result in structural breakdown of atherosclerotic plaques. Adding niacin to statin medications may be an effective way to block inflammation in the atherosclerotic plaques. This study will examine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images and blood samples of participants in the AIM-HIGH study who are taking niacin plus statins or statins alone to determine the effect of these medications on inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques.

The apelin-APJ system is a relatively new discovery. It has generated interest in part due to it's apparent ability to counteract the renin-angiotensin system, which is frequently overactive in many cardiovascular disease. Two of the main actions of apelin are to increase the pumping ability of the heart and cause blood vessels to relax. The investigators wish to assess if these actions are altered in the setting of normal renin-angiotensin activation and increased renin-angiotensin activity.

Heart failure, a chronic illness afflicting 5 million persons in the United States is known to cause shortness of breath and fatigue, yet at least half of persons with heart failure also report the presence of pain. The cause of pain for these persons is not clear. PAIN-HF (Pain Assessment, Incidence & Nature in Heart Failure), conducted through the Palliative Care-Heart Failure Education And Research Trials (PC-HEART) collaborative will identify the prevalence of pain, its location, severity and impact on activities and the possible causes of pain in persons living with heart failure. The study will also try to understand relationships between other problems and pain, as well as what treatments are given to reduce pain. Understanding sources of pain and its characteristics is the first step in helping health care providers better manage pain and related problems in persons with heart failure.

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring has proven beneficial in increasing safety and improving patient care during pediatric cardiac surgery and during Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) stays. NIRS estimates the amount of oxygen in tissues by comparing the tissue's absorption of two wavelengths of light corresponding to hemoglobin carrying oxygen and hemoglobin without oxygen. During cardiac surgery, multi-site NIRS monitoring is used to determine the heart's output by comparing the amount of oxygen available to discrete regions of the body nourished by different parts of the circulatory system. NIRS leads placed on the forehead detect oxygen available to the brain (cerebral), while leads placed over the kidney reflect oxygen available to the internal organs (somatic). NIRS monitoring has been used for studying muscle oxygen usage during exercise in normal and disease states. Cerebral oxygenation at peak exercise at has been studied with NIRS monitoring. The use of multi-site NIRS monitoring during exercise stress testing for studying cardiac output through the patterning of somatic and cerebral oxygenation in combination with exercise stress test data has not been researched. We hypothesize that addition of multi-site NIRS monitoring to the standard data collection already achieved during exercise testing, will enable calculation of anaerobic threshold and cardiac output prediction. This will assist in determining appropriate timing for surgical intervention, predicting the post operative course and testing response to medication.

In an observational multi-centre study (CHALLENGE), the effects were assessed of starting treatment with low doses of rosuvastatin in statin naive patients with a history of coronary heart disease (CHD), peripheral vascular disease (PVD), cerebrovascular accident (CVA), transient ischemic attack (TIA) or diabetes (DM), on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goal achievement. Also proportional changes in LDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and the ratio TC/HDL-C were studied.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether lipoprotein(a), also called Lp(a), is a risk factor for cardiovascular (heart) disease. Lipoproteins are tiny particles that circulate in the blood. They contain cholesterol, fat, and protein in varying amounts depending on the body's need. Higher levels of lipoproteins in the blood can cause an increased risk of heart disease. The investigators believe that by studying the Lp(a) lipoprotein in Caucasians and African Americans, the investigators can assess for genetic variation factors related to cardiovascular (heart) disease. The investigators will be looking at 100 African-American families and 100 Caucasian families to confirm whether a higher Lp(a) level is an indicator of a higher risk for heart disease.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a retrofit particle trap can reduce the adverse vascular responses to diesel exhaust inhalation

This study is an interventional study which was conducted in the field. The investigators intended to develop an efficient and economically valuable method which can decrease the risk factors for prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Effective control of cardiovascular diseases necessitates a salutogenetic approach to develop efficient and cheap methods to decrease risk factors. In this study, the aim of preparing the Group II training material was to enable the individual to see his or her risks as unique, and to proceed with life by adapting personal behaviors. Group II's training material was formatted as a prescription. Because giving a prescription for a doctor is very important in low socioeconomical group person. This study showed that social programs oriented towards individual behavioral changes assume an important role in decreasing cardiovascular risk factors.

To investigate the relationship between dietary fiber and cardiovascular inflammatory markers.

To investigate the role in coronary heart disease (CHD) of intragenic variation in a network of six genes affecting lipoprotein transport and metabolism.