Active clinical trials for "Ischemia"

This is a randomized, placebo-controlled, single-center clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of administrating intravenous Cerebrolysin™ (EVER NEURO Pharma, Austria), a preparation of low-molecular weight neurotrophic peptides and free amino acids, in improving the functional outcome of patients suffering from aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage ( SAH). Cerebrolysin™ is a porcine-derived intravenous formulation composed of multiple lipid-soluble active agents that can cross the blood-brain barrier. It is a registered medication in several countries indicated for stroke and Alzheimer's disease. It contains several low molecular weight neuropeptides and free amino acids that possess neuroprotective and neurotrophic properties. It has been proven to arrest or mitigate several crucial steps along the ischemic cascade in preclinical studies. Cerebrolysin™ has been extensively investigated in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, brain trauma and ischemic stroke with promising clinical results. It's use in SAH patients has never been investigated and it is believed that it may play a role in improving clinical outcomes. Consecutive patients aged 18 to 70 years-old diagnosed to have spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to a ruptured intracranial aneurysm will be randomly allocated into one of two study arms: (1) to receive intravenous Cerebrolysin™ in additional to standard of care (intervention group) or (2) to receive usual standard of care alone (control group). Permuted-block randomization will be carried out once the eligibility criteria have been fulfilled using a computer system with an allocation list of random order. Instructions on study arm allocation will be contained in sealed envelopes labeled with sequential study numbers. Patients presenting beyond 96 hours after onset of symptoms or if recruitment and randomization cannot be performed within this time period will be excluded. The reason being that post-SAH arterial vasospasm and delayed cerebral ischemia usually occurs four days after aneurysm rupture and lasts for two weeks i.e. 14 days. Should this complication arise before Cerebrolysin™ is administered there would be significant confounding of trial outcome measures . The timing of intervention is in keeping with several landmark clinical studies that have dealt with neuroprotective agents in subarachnoid hemorrhage. Patients in the intervention group will receive in a daily total dose of 30ml of intravenous Cerebrolysin™. The study medication will be administered in three separate 10ml doses (every eight hours) diluted in 0.9% NaCl saline to a total volume of 100 ml as an intravenous infusion over a time period of 15 minutes. An identical amount of 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl) saline (100 ml) will be used as placebo for patients allocated to the control study group. The total duration of study medication or placebo administration will be 14 days. Cerebrolysin™ is a clear yellow solution. Since it is susceptible to photo-degeneration the preparation after dilution with 0.9% NaCl saline requires masking with a opaque plastic wrap as well as special photo-protective infusion sets. The dilution of the Cerebrolysin™ solution will be performed by ward nursing staff . Subjects in both trial groups will receive identically wrapped preparations so that both the functional outcomes assessor and patient are blind to the study arm allocation. In addition to general demographic data, clinical data including the admission Glasgow Coma Score, severity grading of SAH, hospital stay as well as the extended Glasgow Outcome Score and modified Rankin Score upon discharge, at three months and six months will be prospectively collected. The functional outcomes assessor will be an occupational therapist unaware of the subject's trial group allocation. Hypothesis: compared to patients receiving standard care for the management of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage alone (control), the additional administration of intravenous Cerebrolysin™ (intervention) within the acute phase of stroke is safe and improves functional outcome at six months after stroke.

Objective: Demonstrate the safety of early use of dabigatran following TIA/minor stroke. Background: Although aggressive antithrombotic therapy has been shown to reduce the number of new ischemic events following stroke/TIA, this has always been offset by an increase in the risk of hemorrhagic transformation. Dabigatran is much safer than previously tested antithrombotic agents, with respect to intracranial bleeding and therefore offers a unique treatment opportunity in these high-risk patients. TIA/minor stroke represent the largest group of cerebrovascular disease patients. A short-term intervention such as 30 days of dabigatran treatment has the potential for a very large impact from the population health perspective, given the number of patients who may be treated if a benefit can be demonstrated. Study design: This is an open label, single arm study. Patients with TIA/minor stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score </=3) who can be treated within 24 hours of symptom onset will be eligible. All patients will be treated with dabigatran for 30 days. The dose of dabigatran will be determined by age and renal function (patients >80 years old and/or with GFR 30-50 ml/min will received 110 mg bid, and all other patients will receive 150 mg BID).The primary endpoint is symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation. Patients (n=50) with TIA/minor stroke, defined as having a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Score of </=3, will undergo an MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), as well as gradient recall echo (GRE) sequences, which will be used to assess for hemorrhagic transformation. Patients will have a repeat MRI examination at 7 and 30 days to assess for hemorrhagic transformation and new lesion development. The primary endpoint of of phase I is symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation, defined as a parenchymal hematoma on the day 7 MRI scan (GRE sequence), associated with clinical worsening (>/=4 point increase in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score). If dabigatran can be used safely in this population, a second phase aimed at demonstrating the rate of new ischemic lesion development following TIA can be reduced with aggressive antithrombotic therapy. A randomized open-label, blinded endpoint evaluation design will be employed. The investigators hypothesize that dabigatran therapy administered within 24 hours of symptom onset will reduce the rate of new ischemic lesions, relative to standard care, one week and 30 days after onset.

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and efficacy of G-CSF-mobilized autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cell injection to ischemic limbs of patients with critical limb ischemia.

Rationale The only proven therapy for acute stroke is tPA within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. This is the standard of care for patients presenting to our hospital within that time frame. Thrombolysis outside the 4.5 hour window is considered only on experimental or compassionate grounds. Tenecteplase (TNK) is a genetically modified variant of tPA that has many theoretical advantages in acute stroke. Studies show that systemic plasminogen activation is higher after tPA administration, relative to TNK and this is associated with an increased risk of bleeding events. Imaging cerebral blood flow (CBF) with MRI (perfusion weighted imaging-PWI) and CT perfusion (CTP) can be performed routinely with standard clinical scanners. Patients with evidence of large volumes of tissue with low CBF, that is also structurally intact, as demonstrated by either normal signal on Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) or normal cerebral blood volume (CBV) are considered to have penumbral patterns. Patients with penumbral patterns appear to be the ideal candidates for thrombolytic therapy, regardless of time from onset. Study Hypotheses The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility and safety of TNK based thrombolysis in ischemic stroke patients presenting 4.5-24 hours after symptom onset. It is hypothesized that treatment with TNK in patients with penumbral patterns will be associated with reperfusion, early neurological improvement and penumbral tissue salvage. Study Design The study is planned as an open label feasibility and safety study of acute treatment with TNK in ischemic stroke patients with penumbral patterns evident on advanced MRI or CT perfusion sequences. Study Outcomes The primary outcome of this study is a safety endpoint, specifically the frequency of symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation evident on MRI or CT images on 24 h or day 5 scans. The ECASS II system for rating hemorrhagic transformation will be applied to all GRE/SWI images Significance Current treatment paradigms have not permitted success of tPA to be extended beyond narrow and limiting therapeutic window of 4.5 hours. Clearly, more effective patient selection criteria are required. Penumbral imaging is biologically plausible, practical and has been shown to be predictive of outcome. Application of these imaging techniques to the acute stroke population is the most promising strategy for extending the therapeutic window and for introducing superior thrombolytic agents.

Around 7500 neonates born yearly in the United States have complex congenital heart disease that require surgical repair in the first few days of life. The complexity of the surgical repair requires long periods of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and the use of intermittent periods of low flow or complete circulatory arrest. The immature neonatal vital organs are more prone to the complications of the cardiopulmonary bypass circulation, namely ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury and systemic inflammatory response. Inhaled nitric oxide (NO) is used frequently in neonates for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, Additionally, many studies have shown that NO has an anti-inflammatory effect by reducing I/R injury and endothelial dysfunction. The purpose of this pilot study is to assess the efficacy of NO administration via the CPB circuit in attenuating the CPB induced I/R injury and systemic inflammatory reaction in neonates undergoing repair of complex congenital heart defects. Specific goals will be to demonstrate that NO use via CPB will: Decrease markers of I/R injury and systemic inflammatory response. Decrease platelet activation leading to reduced postoperative bleeding and transfusion requirements. Decrease postoperative organ dysfunction, and hence decrease operative mortality and postoperative morbidity. Twelve neonates undergoing repair of complex congenital heart defects will receive NO via the CPB circuit, for the duration of surgery. They will be compared to a control group of 12 similar patients. Serum levels of different ischemic reperfusion injury and inflammatory markers will be measured at different time points after surgery and will be correlated with different end organ function tests and clinical course in the postoperative period. The results will be compared between the two groups to try to determine the clinical benefit of NO administration through CPB circuit.

The purpose of this study is to assess safety and efficacy of Ticagrelor versus Clopidogrel in Asian/KOREAn patients with acute coronary syndromes intended for invasive management.

The purpose of the study is to confirm the feasibility of study procedures and the tolerability of a new dose regimen of AMG0001 in subjects with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI)

Rationale Acute ischemic stroke due to atrial fibrillation (AF) carries a high risk for early recurrence. In acute stage, guidelines recommend aspirin, but do not recommend anticoagulation due to the increased risk of intracranial bleeding. Since, aspirin has a limited efficacy of preventing recurrent stroke in AF, expert consensus suggests early anticoagulation in non-severe stroke with AF. The current practice for acute ischemic stroke patients with AF is delayed warfarin administration with aspirin use for non-minor stroke or immediate warfarin administration (sometimes with heparin bridging) for minor stroke. However, conventional anticoagulation with warfarin in acute ischemic stroke with AF has the following limitations: 1) risk of intracranial bleeding particularly in acute stage, 2) delayed action and transient paradoxical thrombogenic tendency due to the inhibition of protein C, resulting in the risk of early recurrent embolic stroke, and 3) prolongation of hospitalization waiting for full anticoagulation. In contrast, as compared to warfarin, rivaroxaban is advantageous for reduced risk of intracranial bleeding and immediate anticoagulation efficacy. Goal The current trial will examine whether early initiation (within 5 days from stroke onset) of rivaroxaban as compared to conventional warfarin would reduce intracranial bleeding, recurrent embolic stroke, and hospital stay in patients with acute ischemic stroke due to AF.

This study is intended to collect safety and effectiveness data on the Cook Micronized Small Intestinal Submucosa (SIS)

The purpose of the study is to examine if bio feedback guided stress management by daily measurement of pressure pain sensitivity followed by acupressure reduces signs of depression and number clinical stress signs and increases quality of life in patients with stable, ischemic heart disease