Active clinical trials for "Heart Diseases"

The purpose of this study is to define the natural history of untreated cardiac tumors, study the pathology of primary cardiac tumors, review the surgical treatment and results of primary cardiac tumors and to determine the prognosis for these tumors.

The relation between obesity and ischemic heart disease (IHD) is under considerable debate. The reduction in all-cause mortality and, more specifically, the reduction in cardiac-related mortality seen after weight-loss surgery, may be due to regression or slowing developement of subclinical IHD. Function of cells lining the arteries (endothelium) is closely related to the state of IHD and its measurement can serve as a surrogate marker for the existence and severity of IHD. The investigators hypothesize that the prevalence of undiagnosed IHD in the morbidly obese population is high and that following surgery for weight reduction there is a halt in the progression, or even a regression in its severity. The study includes measurement of endothelial function before and after weight-reducing surgery.

This study will evaluate volunteers 18 years of age and older to see if they qualify for one of NHLBI s research studies. Tests include the following: General medical evaluation, which may include blood tests, chest x-ray, electrocardiogram (ECG) and echocardiogram (heart ultrasound). Other tests as appropriate, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cardiac computed tomography (CT scan of the heart), nuclear stress test and echocardiography stress test. X-ray contrast studies of the heart and blood vessels. (These may be excluded in patients with kidney risk factors.)

This is a retrospective chart review. We hypothesize that patients who have undergone congenital heart surgery, prior to screening of blood products have a significant risk of hepatitis C infection and all such patients would benefit from screening for hepatitis C.

The primary objective is to demonstrate a better degree of healing at the incision site and a decrease in erosion with CanGaroo compared to control patients (no envelope, CIED alone).

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of three methods for measuring right ventricular size and function including the Philips Novel RV quantification technologies (RV Heart Model volumetric analysis and Philips 2D strain) and the Upper Valley Right Ventricle Algorithm (UVRV) algorithm as compared to the gold standard of volumetric analysis via cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in a broad patient population.

This program is a comprehensive evaluation of rheumatic valvular heart disease (RVHD), Atrial fibrillation (AF)/flutter and stroke. A prospective, randomized, open-label superiority trial comparing rivaroxaban to aspirin in high risk patients either with AF and unsuitable for VKA or without AF and with high risk factors.

Diabetes causing serious complications is well known. In this study the aim is to follow 950 patients with diabetes for 15 years to study when, in who and how the diabetes complications occurs.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the utility of Ischemia Modified Albumin (IMA) for risk stratification in patients presenting with chest discomfort and possible ischemic heart disease, and to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic implication for IMA for major adverse cardiac events.

Because of its availability, non-invasiveness, and high diagnostic performance, myocardial perfusion tomoscintigraphy has become a standard tool for the detection, characterization and monitoring of coronary artery disease. Standard analysis, based on the reversibility of regional myocardial hypoperfusion between stress (physiological or pharmacological) and rest, has good sensitivity and negative predictive value in the search for myocardial ischemia. However, two major obstacles persist. First, because of the relative nature of the normalization of cardiac activity, this approach may underestimate the extent of the damage, especially when the territory with the most activity is itself pathological. Thus myocardial perfusion scintigraphy can only detect 40 to 50% of tri-truncal patients. To overcome these disadvantages, several indexes have been proposed to improve the diagnostic performance of perfusion scintigraphy in multi-truncal patients based in particular on kinetic analysis. Secondly, the review does not provide any guarantee as to the quality and reproducibility of use of the coronal reserve during stress, in particular during submaximal stress tests and pharmacological stress, the latter being easily antagonized by xanthine derivatives contained in tea and coffee in particular (abstinence of at least 12 to 24 hours being recommended). In recent years and thanks to the advent of CZT semiconductor cameras dedicated to cardiology - to perform a dynamic tomographic acquisition - a study of the coronal reserve is feasible by perfusion tomoscintigraphy in current practice. This study of the coronary reserve mainly consists of a computer post-processing of the myocardial perfusion scintigraphy data and does not therefore require any additional irradiation (the only difference with respect to the old protocols is the start of the images at the time of publication. injection of the radiotracer). However, the diagnostic benefit gained from the coronary reserve study compared to conventional stress / rest perfusion scintigraphy has not been clearly studied, particularly in the multi-truncal patients.