
Optimizing Gestational Weight Gain, Birth Weight and Other Perinatal Outcomes Among Pregnant Women...
HypertensionPregnancy-Induced4 moreBackground: Burden: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia, complicate up to 10% of pregnancies worldwide, constituting one of the greatest causes of fetal growth restriction, preterm birth, low birth weight, perinatal mortality, and maternal morbidity and mortality. In Bangladesh, 24% of all maternal deaths are directly attributed to hypertensive causes. Conventional antenatal care practice often delays in or misses diagnosing hypertension in pregnancy, which makes the women vulnerable to its adverse consequences. Knowledge gap: Although there are randomised controlled trials (RCT) of efforts directed at preventing development of hypertension in pregnancy or reducing its complications, there have been no published RCTs of the intervention focusing on regular monitoring of weight gain and blood pressure among pregnant women who are at risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy or its complications to ensure early diagnosis, and thereby optimizing the perinatal outcomes through prompt referral and management. Relevance: To undertake an RCT of intervention to optimize adverse consequences in hypertension in pregnancy raises important practical concerns including: commitment of the enrolled women, the need to make a decision regarding participation due to longer duration of intervention and adherence to protocol. Investigators aim to perform this study to address whether an RCT of the intervention in individual patients is an appropriate trial design, and is feasible. Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of Salu Health Gauge device in measuring blood pressure. To test the design, feasibility, acceptability and fidelity of a future definitive randomized controlled trial focusing on regular monitoring of weight gain and continuous self-monitoring of blood pressure among pregnant women who are at risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy. Methods: The study will be completed in two steps: 1) the validation of Salu Health Gauge and 2) the pilot trial. The study will be conducted in Matlab, Bangladesh. Salu Health Gauge device will be validated according to the European Society of Hypertension International Protocol revision 2010 (ESH-IP revision 2010) in general adult population (including men and non-pregnant women) as well as in specific groups such as adolescents and pregnant women. The pilot trial is designed as a prospective, two-arm, parallel, and open-label randomized controlled external pilot trial. Eligible participants (pregnant women at risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy) will be individually randomized 1:1 to the intervention arm who will use a wearable device (Salu Health Gauge) from 20 weeks of gestation up to termination of pregnancy alongside conventional antenatal and postnatal care or the control arm who will receive conventional antenatal and postnatal care only. In Matlab, a woman is diagnosed as pregnant by HDSS field staff by 12-16 weeks of gestation and is enlisted. The investigators will obtain this list from HDSS and conduct baseline interviews to identify pregnant women at risk of developing hypertension in pregnancy. Outcome measures/variables: Feasibility outcomes: Recruitment rate, Retention rate, compliance, Acceptability etc. Clinical outcomes: gestational weight gain, birth weight, adverse consequence of hypertension in pregnancy (episodes or occurrence and when), blood pressure profile of high-risk pregnancies, prevalence of specific risk factors for hypertension in pregnancy Serious adverse events

Dyspnea in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension
Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary HypertensionPulmonary embolism, or clots blocking the blood vessels of the lungs, is a common clinical condition requiring treatment with blood thinners. In most patients, recovery is complete. A small proportion of patients, however, develop complications (high blood pressure in the lung circulation, i.e. pulmonary hypertension). Persisting breathlessness during activity is a common symptom in many of these patients and leads to a reduced ability to engage in daily physical activity. The reason for this activity-related breathlessness remains uncertain and is the main question of the proposed study. Using new sophisticated technology, the investigators will determine the root causes of perceived breathing difficulty. The investigators will test the idea that breathlessness is fundamentally the result of increased drive to breathe from control centers in the brain. The investigators will measure drive to breathe by measuring the electrical activity descending from the brain to the main muscle of breathing - the diaphragm. The investigators will discover if the increased drive to breathe is due to accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood as a result of poor blood perfusion of areas of the lung due to the effects of blockage by clots. The investigators also will investigate whether weakness and fatigue of the muscles of breathing, as a result of the high breathing demands that are present in patients with blood clots in the lungs, contribute to breathlessness. With this information it is hopeful that better treatment options will be developed to relieve this distressing symptom.

Hypertension in Long-Term Care Facilities
HypertensionThis study is exploratory in nature and seeks to describe hypertension diagnosis and management among patients in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Specifically, the primary objective is to: • Identify LTC patients who are diagnosed with hypertension and assess the management and different outcomes of proper control of BP regarding to incidence of falls, cognitive decline, kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases and incidence of cerebrovascular accidents The secondary objectives are to: Describe treatment patterns of hypertension in LTC facilities Identify patients who are receiving non-pharmacological treatment and effectiveness of this modality of treatment. Identify different classes of drugs used to treat hypertension in patients staying at LTC facility Identify different drug adverse effects encountered by patients receiving medical treatment. Identify patients who achieved normal blood pressure according to current guidelines

New Biomarkers and Difficult-to-treat Hypertension
HypertensionThe purpose of this study is to determine the concentrations and variabilities of urinary exosomal sodium channels and plasma angiotensins in patients with difficult-to-treat arterial hypertension and to investigate their dependency on clinical parameters and sampling conditions.

Screening of Diastolic Dysfunction With Impedance Cardiography in Hypertensive Patients
HypertensionDiastolic DysfunctionArterial hypertension (AHT) is responsible for important morbidity and mortality. The cardiac repercussion of AHT is usually assessed by electrocardiography and echocardiography, time-consuming, technically demanding examinations that require experienced operators, which limits their use for screening diastolic dysfunction. Alternative tools for the screening of diastolic function in hypertensive patients are needed. Impedance cardiography (IC) is presently used in the study of AHT and in the optimization of antihypertensive therapy. It seems an attractive and economical option to change the clinical approach for screening; however, its validation in well-defined populations is required to sustain its use in clinical practice. The IMPEDDANS study aims to validate IC for screening left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in outclinic patients with AHT, using functional echocardiography as the clinical standard. Descriptive and analytical study with analysis of the agreement between the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction and its degree, as well as the parameters obtained by impedance cardiography and echocardiography in patients with AHT.

Actigraphy in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension
Pediatric Pulmonary HypertensionPhysical activity is an important factor in understanding how diseases can affect a child. Decreases in physical activity are sometimes the first thing that happens before a child is diagnosed with a disease. When a child sees their doctor, that visit reflects a single point in time. It does not capture how a child feels during the days in between visits to their doctor. This study plans to use special monitors called actigraphs to collect information about physical activity in children with a type of disease called pulmonary hypertension. This study will measure how active these children are and compare their activity to clinical information and to actigraphy measurements in children without pulmonary hypertension.

A Randomized Control Trial of Vitamin D Prophylaxis in the Prevention of Hypertensive Disorders...
Gestational HypertensionToxemia3 moreThe investigators aim to determine if Vitamin D prophylaxis in pregnancy reduces the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Right Heart Dysfunction and Pulmonary Hypertension Evaluation in Airway Disease Using Cardiac Magnetic...
AsthmaPulmonary Disease1 morePoor function of the right side of the heart and rise in pressure of the blood vessels leading to the lungs are two main heart-related factors that are associated with worsening of airway disease. A relatively new method which uses magnetic field to create images of the heart called cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging shows immense promise in detailed and accurate assessment of the heart in patients with airway diseases. This project aims to assess the heart in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as healthy participants using CMR to help us determine features on CMR that are different is patients with asthma and COPD compared to healthy participants. This may help with early identification of patients who are at risk of episodes of acute worsening of airway disease, called exacerbation, and potentially halt the progression of the heart dysfunction with currently available or new treatments. Study involves one visit at Glenfiled Hospital, Leicester, lasting approximately 4 hours. The visit will include following assessments: clinical history, health status, physical examination, electrocardiogram (ECG), blood tests, lung function testing, echocardiogram and CMR. Part of the study will involve a participant questionnaire in which the participants will rate their CMR experience. The results will potentially change the way CMR is undertaken. A sub-set of the participants will also be invited back to do a one off focus group discussing the CMR experience further.

To Determine the Effect of Nebivolol on Office Blood Pressure of Blacks Residing in Nigeria
HypertensionAlthough Nebivolol, a highly selective beta-1 agent has been shown to be effective in reducing blood pressure in Blacks, this was in African Americans with no study in Blacks residing in sub Saharan Africa. We therefore decided to study the effectiveness and safety of Nebivolol in Black patients with stage 1 hypertension (systolic BP of 140-149 and/or diastolic BP of 90-99 mmHg) presenting to five primary care centres in Nigeria.

Therapeutic Equivalence Study of Generic Brinzolamide vs Azopt
GlaucomaOpen Angle or Ocular HypertensionThe main purpose of this prospective study is to demonstrate the therapeutic equivalence of topical brinzolamide compared with AzoptTM