Active clinical trials for "Ischemia"

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the additional therapy with low dose urokinase is more effective than only a conventional standard therapy concerning ulcer-healing, rate of major amputation and survival.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) due to leg artery blockages can result in painful leg muscles, skin ulcers and infection due to poor blood flow. In severe forms, the only treatment may be amputation. Adult stem cells injected into affected legs may cause new blood vessel formation and improve blood flow. The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility and safety of injecting adult stem cells into the leg muscles of patients with severe PAD, in an attempt to improve blood flow.

Patients who have stents placed in their coronary arteries require treatment with at least two medications to prevent platelets from sticking to the stainless steel stent and forming a blood clot that can result in a heart attack. The 2 anti-platelet medications used for most patients with stents are aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix). These are usually prescribed for 1-12 months (the length of time depends on the number and types of stents implanted). Although the typical long-term dose of clopidogrel is 75 mg by mouth once daily, a larger dose (known as a loading dose) is usually given at the start of treatment to help the medication take effect more quickly. Prior to January 2006, most patients at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) who were undergoing PCI and who had not already been taking clopidogrel would receive a loading dose of 300-600 mg of clopidogrel in the cardiac catheterization procedure room immediately after the angioplasty and stenting portion of the procedure. However, several recent studies suggest that administering clopidogrel 600 mg at least two hours prior to an angioplasty procedure can reduce the rate of complications afterwards (especially reducing the chances of detectable damage to the heart muscle). The main purpose of this study is to see whether giving a loading dose of clopidogrel 600 mg to outpatients scheduled to undergo cardiac catheterization with coronary angiography can decrease the risk of procedure-related complications during the 14 days following the cardiac catheterization compared to a strategy of giving clopidogrel 600 mg after the procedure only to those who undergo angioplasty. We will focus our attention particularly on detecting damage to heart muscle following angioplasty (which might be expected to improve with a loading dose of clopidogrel before the procedure) and on bleeding and other groin complications (which might worsen with clopidogrel loading before the procedure). The drug clopidogrel has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with a recent or ongoing heart attack, narrowings in major blood vessels outside the heart, or recent stroke with a loading dose of 300 mg followed by 75 mg once daily. It has been used in several large studies with a loading dose of 600 mg without a significant increase in major adverse effects. However, we do not yet know if it is useful or safe when given as a loading dose of 600 mg before cardiac catheterization for outpatients with stable symptoms and who are not thought to be in the midst of a heart attack.

This pilot trial will be the first step toward direct comparison of delivery of endovascular reperfusion therapy to intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) in a time-to-treatment framework shown as most effective by the NINDS rt-PA Stroke Trial. A randomized trial is justified for the following reasons: 1) The high rate of death and disability associated with ischemic stroke despite treatment with intravenous rt-PA mandates critical analysis of alternate therapies with therapeutic potential, 2) endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke is expanding in North America without compelling evidence of safety and efficacy from well-designed clinical trials, 3) critical cost-effectiveness analysis cannot be done without acquiring pertinent outcomes data from controlled studies.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MST-188 in subjects receiving catheter-directed rt-PA for acute lower limb ischemia and to evaluate whether treatment with MST-188 results in more rapid thrombolysis of the occlusion and more rapid tissue perfusion in the effected blood vessel.

Chronic non-healing wounds represent a major source of morbidity, disability, and mortality in diabetic patients. Diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic limb amputations worldwide. Many patients with ischemic or neuroischemic wounds are not candidate to surgical/endovascular revascularization, owing to anatomical vascular reasons or for the underlying conditions and co-morbidities. Therefore, identification of novel medical treatment strategies to improve wound healing in diabetic patients is a major challenge for clinicians, researchers, and health care systems. Defects in bone marrow (BM)-derive stem and progenitor cells, including EPCs (endothelial progenitor cells), contribute to diabetic complications. Stem cell mobilizing agents have been previously studied as an adjunctive therapy for critical limb ischemia and chronic non-healing wounds in diabetic and non-diabetic patients, as well as for the treatment of diabetic wound infections . Meta-analyses of such studies indicate that stem cell mobilization in these clinical conditions is safe and potentially effective in improving surrogate outcome measures and hard endpoints (such as rates of wound healing and amputation). This study plans to evaluate whether a single injection of Plerixafor improves wound healing in diabetic patients with stage III-IV (neuro)ischemic wounds.

The goal of this project is to determine if performing a "chemical sympathectomy" by injecting botulinum toxin A in critically ill patients on vasopressors can treat digital ischemia. This is a prospective, non-randomized pilot study designed to demonstrate proof of concept. We propose to study patients in the intensive care units of Duke Hospital who, secondary to exposure to vasoactive medications used to maintain acceptable blood pressures, have developed signs and symptoms of digital ischemia. A paired T-test will be used to compare pre- and post-injection Laser Doppler measurements for the experimental hand. We will again use a paired t-test to compare the experimental hand against the contralateral control hand. There were no major adverse events reported by the product information sheet or in other related studies of Botox for digital ischemia.

The goal of the trial is to determine whether human albumin, administered within 5 hours of symptom onset, improves the 3-month outcome of subjects with acute ischemic stroke.

The purpose of this study is to determine if stem cell therapy with your own cells (autologous cells) delivered with a catheter to regions of the heart with poor blood flow will be safe and if it will relieve your chest pain, increase the blood flow, and/or improve the cardiac contractility (function) by regenerating blood vessels in your heart.

Study to examine the safety and effectiveness of implanted skeletal muscle cells (cells removed from the thigh muscle) into scarred areas of heart muscle after heart attack.