Active clinical trials for "Heart Valve Diseases"

Sleep disordered breathing, especially central sleep apnea, is common in patients with chronic heart failure. Heart valve replacement could have some effect on central sleep apnea. The aim of the study is to investigate effect of heart valve replacement on Cheyne-Stokes respiration in patients with rheumatic heart disease.

Pulmonary dysfunction after cardiac surgery with CPB remains to be a problem complicating the postoperative course of the patients. The investigators hypothesized that RIPCcom, combined intervention of remote ischemic preconditioning and remote ischemic postconditioning, would confer beneficial influence on inflammatory response and resultant postoperative pulmonary dysfunction after CPB in patients undergoing complex valvular heart surgery who are at increased risk of postoperative pulmonary dysfunction.The aim of this study was to evaluate the lung-protective effect of combined remote ischemic pre- and post-conditioning in patients undergoing complex valvular heart surgery.

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) has been used successfully for cardiac surgery for over half a century. Hypothermia became a ubiquitous practice for adult patients undergoing CPB. To date, most studies have been conducted in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients with conflicting results. Current evidence does not support one temperature management strategy for all patients. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficiency and safety of normothermic versus hypothermic CPB in valvular surgery patients.

Patients requiring long term anticoagulation often undergo transition of their warfarin to heparin in anticipation of invasive surgical procedures such as pacemaker or ICD implantation. This may require inpatient hospitalization several days prior to and after the procedure, potentially increasing medical costs and patient inconvenience. Patients undergoing such a process are initiated on heparin while their INRs drift to normal levels. Immediately prior to surgery, heparin is discontinued and restarted several hours after the procedure. Unfortunately, this process has resulted in a high incidence of surgical wound hematomas and other bleeding complications often requiring longer periods of discontinued anticoagulation or repeat surgical exploration. Previous investigators have tried to reduce the incidence of wound hematomas by prolonging the time from surgical wound closure to the reinitiation of heparin. A small randomized trial demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the incidence of wound hematomas whether heparin was started 6 hours or 24 hours after surgery (J Am Coll Cardiology 2000;35:1915-8). This has led many investigators to perform pacemaker and ICD implantation without reversal of warfarin therapy. A recent retrospective observational study demonstrated that the incidence of wound hematomas in patients with an INR of 2.6 was no different than patients with an INR of 1.5 (PACE 2004;27:358-60). Furthermore, a more recent, larger retrospective observational study reported in abstract form at the recent Heart Rhythm Society Annual 2007 Scientific Meeting demonstrated that not only is performing pacemaker and ICD implantations safe without reversing warfarin anticoagulation, but the incidence of wound hematomas is significantly smaller as compared to the strategy of reversing warfarin and initiating periprocedural heparin. Given these findings, the hypothesis of this randomized study is that pacemaker and ICD implantation while fully anticoagulated on warfarin therapy is safe. Findings from this study will have significant implications on the clinical practice of pacemaker or ICD implantation in this patient population given that no randomized study on this subject has been performed to date.

We aim to investigate the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to attenuate acute renal dysfunction in patients with rheumatic valvular heart disease undergoing single valve replacement.

Over 500,000 patients undergo cardiac surgery with CPB in the United States annually. Although mortality rates have decreased with advances in perioperative care, many patients are affected by postoperative organ dysfunction. The incidence of complications may exceed 30%. It has been speculated that an exaggerated inflammatory response to surgical trauma and the CPB machine are likely causes for this morbidity. Factors predisposing organ dysfunction include tissue injury, endotoxemia, and oxidative stress. High risk patients can be identified preoperatively through the validated Parsonnet Additive Risk Score. CTI-01 has demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory and tissue protection activity in multiple animal models of disease including pancreatitis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, sepsis, renal injury, and endotoxemia. These findings support its clinical use in critical care medicine including cardiac surgery. Patients will receive a total of six doses, administered intravenously just prior to and after surgery.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in right ventricular strain before and after milrinone administration in order to find out whether milrinone improves RV systolic performance in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

To collect information about the management of symptomatic severe Aortic Stenosis (AS) and Aortic Regurgitation (AR) using transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVI).

To validate the dosing algorithm for dabigatran etexilate in patients receiving a mechanical heart valve.

Minimally-invasive operative techniques have been introduced in cardiac surgery. These techniques may have several advantages such as a decrease in post operative pain, lower morbidity and mortality, faster recovery, and a shorter hospital stay. However, these advantages have rarely been documented in the setting of a formal randomized controlled trial.