Active clinical trials for "Heart Failure"

Successful treatment of pulmonary edema was first published in 1938 by A. L. Barach. Since then, this has been the accepted method of treating acute respiratory failure due to left heart failure and edema. The question was raised if pressure supported ventilation during sleep is used to eliminate sleep apneas, would it be useful also for improving congestive heart failure (CHF). Recent studies assessed the role of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in patients with advanced CHF and found the treatment useful. A possible explanation for these results is that central sleep apnea frequently coexists with severe CHF and is not treated or suppressed by CPAP. The frequency of central sleep apnea increases with the severity of CHF and can be found in more than 30% of patients. A few recent studies showed the usefulness of bilevel positive airway pressure (BIPAP) or adaptive servo-ventilation (ASV). ASV led to improvement in ejection fraction as well as in 6 min walking distance testing, and was associated with decreased BNP levels. In another study, bilevel PAP increased LVEF by 7.9%. The limitations of these studies are the small number of patients and that they were conducted on inpatients only. These factors make it difficult to include BIPAP in the guidelines for chronic heart failure therapy. Recently, two outpatient modalities have been introduced to diagnose sleep disordering breathing (SDB). However, no study has directly compared the results of both studies in patients with CHF. Moreover, no studies have assessed improvement in CHF after BIPAP treatment. In addition, the investigators plan to assess the endothelial function in this population before and after BIPAP treatment with the EndoPAT, a noninvasive technology

To investigate the effect of hydralazine isosorbide dinitrate on clinical outcomes, symptoms, cardiac parameters and functional status of African patients hospitalized with AHF and left ventricular dysfunction during 24 weeks of therapy. Administration of hydralazine/nitrates will be superior to placebo administration in reducing HF readmission or death, improving dyspnoea, reducing blood pressure and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in African patients admitted with AHF and left ventricular dysfunction.

The purpose of this prospective randomized study is to determine whether patients on cardiac resynchronization therapy with concomitant long-standing persistent or permanent atrial fibrillation would benefit from a strategy to restore and maintain sinus rhythm (rhythm control strategy) in comparison to a rate control strategy in terms of higher biventricular paced beats percentage.

There is some evidence to suggest that patients with heart failure may have a reduced dietary intake of vitamins and essential minerals (micronutrients) and that this may worsen the function of the heart. This study is designed to investigate if supplementation with micronutrients (including high-dose vitamin D) will improve the function of the heart in patients with heart failure.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the treatment strategy of long-term intermittent every 30 days, continuous intravenous infusion for 24 hours of Levosimendan, associated to optimal contemporary treatment for advanced heart failure reduce the incidence of admission for heart failure worsening at 12 months follow up, compared with the strategy based solely in the optimal contemporary treatment for advanced heart failure.

Quality of life decreases as the heart failure worsens and is one of the biggest worries of these patients. Physical exercise has been shown as a safe intervention for people with heart failure. Previous studies have tested heterogeneous exercise programs using different QoL instruments and reported that the effects on QoL are inconsistent. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a new exercise program for people with heart failure (EFICAR), additional to the recommended optimal treatment in primary care, to improve QoL, functional capacity and cardiovascular risk factor control.

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of a pulsed application of Levosimendan versus placebo on the composite end-point functional capacity and quality of life.

The purpose of this study is to study the use of neurostimulation in chronic advanced refractory heart failure. The study is determine if it is safe to use neurostimulation in patients with chronic advanced refractory heart failure and to also determine initial observations with regards to its potential effect on heart function and quality of life. The investigators hypothesis is that this study will show both safe and positive effect of neurostimulation on heart failure patients.

The purpose of this study is in a phase I/II safety and efficacy study to evaluate the clinical effect of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) combined pedicled omentum wrapped autologous atrial tissue patch cardiomyoplasty for patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy.

To investigate the hemodynamic, inter and intraventricular desynchrony effects of anodal stimulation and triple site pacing compared with the usual dual site pacing by echocardiography and Tissue Doppler Imaging.