Active clinical trials for "Heart Valve Diseases"

Reiki is an energy-based healing therapy using light touch. Manual therapy is a technique using light effleurage. These complimentary healing services are utilized to promote relaxation, sleep, improve emotions, and decrease pain; however, more research is required since sample sizes in the literature were small, subjects were generally healthy (not hospitalized), and subjects had multiple medical backgrounds. Only 1 study focused on cardiac surgery patients. We aim to learn if Reiki and manual therapy enhances postoperative clinical outcomes for patients after first time coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and/or cardiac valve surgery. A randomized, controlled non-blinded study will enroll a sample of a minimum of 272 patient (136 per group), based on a power analysis using the primary outcome. The intervention group will receive usual care plus Reiki and manual therapy, with Reiki delivered first. Total therapies time is 20 minutes. Reiki and manual therapy will be delivered for 3 consecutive days beginning on the day after endotracheal tube removal. The usual care group will receive 20 minutes of uninterrupted rest, which is part of usual postoperative care. Outcomes are depression, anxiety, pain, night time sleep, new onset atrial fibrillation, hospital length of stay, all-cause 30-day hospital readmissions, narcotic drug burden and post-operative complications.

This is a single-center, open-label, randomized controlled trial. Patients scheduled for aortic valve replacement (AVR) at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden will be eligible. Forty patients will be randomly assigned to either minimally invasive (20 patients) or conventional AVR (20 patients). CE-marked and FDA-approved mechanical and bioprosthetic aortic valves (conventional stented or sutureless bioprostheses) will be implanted. Transthoracic echocardiography will be performed before surgery, and at day 1, 4, and 40. Echocardiographic parameters as well as preoperative clinical characteristics and postoperative clinical outcomes will be registered. Routine blood sampling will be performed pre- and postoperatively. All available data will be collected prospectively. Informed consent will be obtained from patients meeting the inclusion criteria before the initiation of any study-specific procedures.

This study is a single centre pilot for a randomized trial comparing all-blood cardioplegia to more dilute 4:1 blood cardioplegia during cardiac surgery. The hypothesis is that all-blood cardioplegia will be associated with less blood transfusion and better cardiac function.

This is a single-center, open-label, randomized controlled trial. Patients scheduled for aortic valve replacement (AVR) at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden will be eligible. One-hundred patients will be randomly assigned to either partial upper sternotomy (50 patients) or full sternotomy AVR (50 patients). Inclusion criteria is severe aortic stenosis referred for medically indicated isolated aortic valve replacement. Exclusion criteria are inclusion in other trial, left ventricular ejection fraction less than 0.45, previous cardiac surgery, or urgent/emergent surgery. Mechanical and bioprosthetic (stented or sutureless) aortic valves will be implanted. Clinical characteristics will be registered. Clinical postoperative outcomes including bleeding outcomes will be registered. Routine blood sampling will be performed pre- and postoperatively. All available data will be collected prospectively. Informed consent will be obtained from patients meeting the inclusion criteria before the initiation of any study-specific procedures.

The aim of the study is to compare three different regimens for volume replacement during cardiac surgery, e.g. Albumin 5%, Hydroxyethylstarch 130/0.4 (HES) and Ringer-Lactate (RL). Main Outcome parameters: chest tube drainage and coagulation parameters. The investigators hypothesis is that HES is as safe as Albumin, however less expensive. Whether RL is an even less expensive and as safe alternative has to be shown.

Comparative study between Phase Contrast , Modified Simpson Rule and Myocardial Strain Analysis methods of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in assessment of Corrected Estimated Ejection Fraction in Valvular Heart Disease To Evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of different methods of cardiac MRI to assess estimated corrected ejection fraction in valvular heart diseases.

BAVgenetics is a partnership between Investigators at Boston University, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital dedicated to discovering the genetic causes of bicuspid aortic valve disease and associated aortic disease.

The study hypothesizes that rate of thromboembolic complications of the On-X prosthesis is reduced as compared to the SJM prosthesis.

It is not known how to best restart warfarin after temporary withdrawal. Participants will be randomized to two groups. Group 1 will restart warfarin at their usual maintenance dose, group 2 will restart warfarin at double their maintenance dose for two days followed by their usual maintenance dose. The main outcome parameter will be the number of patients who are back in therapeutic INR (international normalized ratio) range 4, and 9 days after restarting anticoagulation with warfarin. Thromboembolic and/or bleeding events will be recorded as additional parameters. These data will be collected by a standardized telephone interview at 1 month. In addition, the investigators will evaluate a possible prothrombotic state by measuring the potential of thrombin generation and D-dimers in the subset of patients visiting HHS-General Hospital for their INR tests.

Recovery after surgery depends on psychological factors such as preoperative information, expectations and surgery-associated anxiety. Prior studies have shown that even short preoperative psychological interventions can improve postoperative outcomes in heart surgery patients. However, what content works best for which patient group and how long an intervention has to be is still largely unknown. The aims of this study are thus to examine if the developed preoperative psychological intervention (i) reduces preoperative anxiety, (ii) increases positive expectations, and (iii) improves the long-term outcome postoperative recovery. Therefore, a brief intervention has been developed. Heart valve patients who undergo a heart surgery will be randomized into two groups (Control vs. intervention group) after baseline assessment. Following this the intervention group will participate in the psychological intervention (30-40 minutes). To increase patients' positive expectations the intervention will focus on treatment outcome expectations and personal control expectations. Furthermore, patients in the intervention group will have two booster-telephone calls (four and eight weeks after the surgery) to check if their developed plans work out. The control group will receive the standard medical procedure. Both groups will fill out questionnaires again at the evening before the surgery, around one week after the surgery and three months after surgery.