Active clinical trials for "Heart Failure"

In congestive heart failure, cardiac output is low, blood pressure is high, and the body becomes congested with fluid. In normal people, when there is high blood pressure, the heart muscle cells secrete a hormone that excretes sodium and water in the urine, reducing blood pressure. The action of this hormone is called the natriuretic response. The purpose of this study is to determine if nesiritide can improve an impaired natriuretic response in subjects with asymptomatic systolic heart failure or asymptomatic diastolic heart failure.

This research study is a randomized trial to evaluate a training program that is designed to improve the communication skills of clinicians. The training program focuses on care for patients with serious illnesses and their family members, and assesses effectiveness using patient and family outcomes. The long term goal of this research is to improve communication skills of doctors and nurses, thereby improving patient and family outcomes.

The main aim of this randomized study was to evaluate the effect of educational intervention on patients with heart failure and their care-giver with regard to patients' prognosis.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of multisite left ventricular (LV) biventricular (BiV) pacing on LV hemodynamics in CRT patients. It is hypothesized that the effect of simultaneous BiV pacing utilizing multisite LV pacing on LV hemodynamics will be superior to conventional BiV pacing.

To determine the effects of estrogen therapy on postmenopausal women with congestive heart failure.

For congestive heart failure (CHF) patients with systolic dysfunction, a randomized controlled trial compared nurse-based disease management to address problems in patient and clinician management with usual care for effects on hospitalization and functioning among ethnically-diverse patients in ambulatory practices.

This study was designed to determine if patients, who have both high blood pressure and heart failure and are currently receiving drug treatment for heart failure, have an improvement in their heart failure signs and symptoms and other indicators of heart failure after being treated with aliskiren on top of their current heart failure treatment. Aliskiren is an investigational drug; its safety will also be evaluated in this trial.

In both ageing and heart failure progressive exercise intolerance is observed. The Leipzig Exercise Intervention in Chronic heart failure and Aging (LEICA) study aims to investigate how aerobic short-term training interventions affect exercise capacity, left ventricular systolic and diastolic function, biomarkers of heart failure, skeletal muscle metabolism, and endothelial function in chronis heart failure patients (CHF-patients) and healthy subjects (HS) in two different age strata: Above 65 years and below 55 years. Aim of the trial is therefore to compare the effects of aerobic exercise training in young and old healthy subjects as well as in young and old heart failure patients. To our knowledge this study is the first to prospectively investigate age differences of training responses in both CHF patients and age-matched healthy controls. Because of the extensive clinical and molecular assessment the results of this trial will be made public in predefined substudies: LEICA-Echo LEICA-Biomarkers LEICA-Endothelium LEICA-Cardiopulmonary Exercise Function LEICA-Muscle

Congestive heart failure is a serious health problem in the United States and is associated with excessive morbidity and mortality. Several classes of medications have been shown to improve mortality in patients with CHF. Despite this these medications are widely under prescribed. Guidelines have been shown to improve patient outcomes and several guidelines on the management of CHF have been published. Implementation of guidelines is challenging and most strategies have focused on changing physician behavior. Patient-based interventions have been shown to be effective in implementing guidelines on CHF but they have been very labor intensive. A computer based intervention to implement CHF guidelines, if effective, would be beneficial.

Despite the availability of evidence-based guidelines for disease management in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), the uptake of these guidelines in clinical practice is sub-optimal and adherence rates are disappointing. Within the HeartMan project, a personal e-health system was developed to help CHF patients manage their disease, with the ultimate goal to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The system uses wrist-band sensors to monitor patients' physical activity and physiological parameters. These data are connected to a decision support system, providing medical advice to patients concerning physical exercise, nutrition, medication intake, clinical measurements, environment management, and mental support. The decision support system is based on predictive models, clinical care guidelines and expert knowledge. The advice will be personalized according to each individual patient's medical and psychological profile, and will be presented to the patient through the user interface of a mobile application on a smartphone. A proof of concept trial with a 1:2 (control:intervention) randomization protocol was designed. The sample size calculation was based on primary outcome data from the previous CHIRON project, showing that 90 patients are needed to show at least -5.8 (± 6 to 8 s.d.) beats/min difference in average daily awake heart rate difference - as a fundamental parameter correlating with patient-reported HRQoL - with 90% power between the two groups. Data collection will include an estimation of exercise capacity based on a six-minute walking test, and questionnaire assessments using standardized instruments. The trial will be initiated in two countries. In order to account for possible drop-outs, 60 patients will be enrolled in Italy and 60 in Belgium (20 control and 40 intervention patients in each country). Target patients are stable ambulatory CHF patients (NYHA class 2-3; reduced left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%). Eligible patients will be recruited by their treating physician from collaborating medical centers in both countries; they will be enrolled in the trial after giving informed consent for participation. After baseline assessment, patients will be randomized into either the intervention (duration of 6 months) or control (usual care) condition. Data collection will be repeated at the end of the trial.