Active clinical trials for "Heart Diseases"

The primary aim of the proposed research is to examine the relationship of lifestyle changes to new dietary, biomedical, and cellular parameters among new enrollees entering the "Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease program" at 5 selected sites. Specifically, the investigators will add assessments of emerging cardiac risk factors (e.g., high sensitivity C-reactive protein [hsCRP], fibrinogen, lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], small, dense LDL, apolipoprotein B [apoB], apolipoprotein A-I [apo A1], the apoB/apoA1 ratio, homocysteine [Hcy], B-type natriuretic peptide [BNP], oxidized LDL, fasting insulin and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]), protective and pathogenic dietary markers (e.g., folate, carotenoids, trans fatty acids), and measures of social support and cognitive functioning to the already existing assessment variables in the Multisite Cardiac Lifestyle Intervention Program (MCLIP). Hypothesis 1: Participation in the lifestyle program will not only be associated with favorable changes in standard coronary risk factors and quality of life, but also with improvements in emerging cardiac risk factors [hsCRP, Hcy, BNP, fibrinogen, Lp(a), small, dense LDL, apoB, apoA1, oxidized LDL, fasting insulin, and abdominal obesity] and psychosocial well-being (i.e., social support, and cognitive functioning). Hypothesis 2: High intake of emerging protective dietary factors and low intake of emerging pathogenic dietary factors will be associated with improvements in both standard and emerging cardiac risk factors (e.g. Hcy, oxidized LDL). Hypothesis 3: Degree of adherence to the lifestyle change program will be associated with differential improvement in standard coronary risk factors, emerging risk factors, cellular aging, and psychosocial variables.

Patients with underlying cardiovascular disease are at high risk of perioperative cardiovascular events and death. Hemodynamic variables are controlled by the autonomic nervous system reflected by Heart Rate Variability. To investigate whether differences of HRV parameters predict perioperative cardiovascular events.

The cardiac output (CO) is an important parameter in the diagnosis and therapy of cardiac diseases. The current standard methods for the determination of the CO, however, are either invasive (e.g. right heart catheterization) or technically expendable and expensive (magnetic resonance tomography, MRT). The traditional non-invasive methods of determining the CO by rebreathing of carbon dioxide are easily carried out but suffer from methodical inaccuracies. Therefore the aim of the study at hand was to evaluate a new method for determining the CO by means of the inert gas rebreathing method.

It is now estimated that the number of adults with congenital heart disease in the U.S is over 800,000. Unfortunately, these patients, in some way, have become a lost population. They have congenital abnormalities familiar to a children's hospital, yet have surpassed the age cutoff for admission. Recently, we have developed a specialized program to care for this unique patient population. Dedicated programs such as ours hope to optimize patient care, consolidate specialized resources, provide sufficient patient numbers for training and maintain expertise and facilitate research in this unique population.

This study will characterize the accuracy of a commercially available artificially-intelligent stethoscope in determining which childhood murmurs suggest underlying congenital structural heart disease and therefore warrant diagnostic echocardiograms.

Heart disease among pregnant women is increasing in incidence. The cardiovascular changes associated with pregnancy may be particularly hazardous for both mother and fetus in a subset of these patients. The period of greatest risk is peripartum while these patients are under the care of the obstetrician and anesthesiologist. We will evaluate the anesthetic management of all women with heart disease whose pregnancies were followed at the University Health Network and/or Mount Sinai Hospital between 1986 and 2001.

One of the most common residual lesions in adult survivors of pediatric cardiac surgery is pulmonary valve disease, particularly regurgitation. Multiple studies have demonstrated that placement of a pulmonary valve in such patients, results in improved ventricular function and resolution of symptoms. However, the optimal prosthetic valve for use in the pulmonary position has not been defined. There are essentially three alternatives available: the stented bioprosthetic valve, stentless bioprosthetic "tube" grafts used to replace the entire right ventricular outflow tract and mechanical valves. All three of these valve options have been used in adults with congenital heart disease at Emory Healthcare and at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. The goal of this study is to evaluate and compare the indications and short and mid-term outcomes for these alternative therapies.

To use existing longitudinal data from the Chicago Heart Association and Western Electric Company studies to examine adiposity in relation to heart failure, multimorbidity and to examine heart rate in relation to incident diabetes.

The purpose of this study is to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in racial and ethnic minorities. Specifically, the study will aim to improve provider and patient approaches to treatment of hypertension and diabetes, respectively.

To characterize the genetic basis of the variable response of triglycerides to two environmental contexts, one that raises triglycerides (dietary fat), and one that lowers triglycerides (fenofibrate treatment.)