Active clinical trials for "Heart Failure"

Use of the EnSite NavX system to map the coronary vasculature during CRT implant

The investigators hypothesize that aerobic exercise training associated with respiratory muscle training will cause additional benefits compared to isolated exercise training or respiratory training in chronic heart failure patients.

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is an established treatment for severe systolic heart failure with well documented benefits in symptom improvement and reduction of morbidity and mortality. However, upto 30% of patients do not respond to treatment despite fulfilling the recommended indications. Lack of clinical response may be the result of imperfect left ventricular lead placement in the veins around the heart with conventional techniques. Optimum lead placement may constrained by coronary venous anatomy and may overlie scarred heart muscle or may not be at the site of latest electrical depolarisation. In a further 10% of patients, conventional left ventricular lead placement is not possible for other technical reasons. Left ventricular endocardial lead placement may overcome the limitations and allow placement to be guided by echocardiography, electrical mapping and the pattern of heart muscle scarring. We aim to investigate if targeted left ventricular endocardial lead placement improves exercise capacity, heart failure symptoms, heart function and size, heart pumping efficiency and biochemical markers of heart strain. Each parameter will be assessed independently and as part of a composite cardiac performance score. Patients with heart failure will be enrolled who require an endocardial left ventricular lead on clinical grounds as either conventional left ventricular lead implantation has technically failed or they have clinically non-responded to CRT.

The purpose of this clinical trial is to evaluate the potential benefits of a new heart failure diagnostic system for heart failure patients with implanted cardiac resynchronization therapy devices. This system consists of patient tools, a new heart failure risk score and a new clinician website. This study will evaluate this new system as a whole and establish the feasibility of implementing it into clinical practice.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a validated diagnostic prediction model in the appropriate diagnosis of Acute Heart Failure (AHF) in patients presenting at the emergency department with undifferentiated dyspnea.

The serum albumin ascites gradient (SAAG) is a recommended tool for ascites diagnosis since values ≥1.1 g/dl are found in nearly 97% of patients with portal hypertension. However, it mislabels chronic liver disease and heart failure as the cause of ascites. Because type-B Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) is increased in several body fluids of patients with both systolic and diastolic dysfunction, it was found to be a useful marker for diagnosing heart failure and pleural effusion due to heart failure. Nevertheless, to date, the performance of BNP testing for assessing the etiology of ascites has not been examined. The current prospective study is aimed at comparing the following strategies for diagnosing heart failure as the cause of ascites: 1) SAAG plus total protein concentration in ascitic fluid (gold standard); 2) SAAG plus BNP concentration in ascitic fluid; 3) SAAG plus BNP concentration in serum; 4) serum BNP concentrations. SAAG, ascitic fluid protein concentration, serum and ascites type-B Natriuretic Peptide and echocardiography will be performed in all patients. The final diagnosis of the cause of ascites will be adjudicated by independent physicians, blinded for the results of ascitic fluid biochemistry and BNP. Patients will be divided into four groups: Heart failure, Liver cirrhosis, concurrent heart failure and liver cirrhosis (mixed) and other causes of ascites.

Same patients with dilated myocardiopathies with large areas of fibrosis has not been as successful after Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy, for Heart Failure patients in functional class III or IV. Therefore the investigators have decided to associate the Stem-Cell implant with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in these patients.

This study injects a person's own stem cells into heart muscle tissue after a person has one or more heart attacks. The purpose of the study is whether the stem cells will improve a patient's heart performance.

This will be a multicentre Phase IV study in which patients with chronic HF who are managed and followed by HF/heart functions clinics will be followed over a period of two years. Clinic patients who are recruited into the study will have obligatory blood sampling for the surveillance measurement of NT-proBNP level every three months for a minimum of one year (4 samples). One-half of the subjects in each clinic will be randomized to have these NT-proBNP values made known to the attending clinic physicians and nurses, the other half will have these values blinded. During the study, attending clinic physicians can order open-label NT-proBNP or BNP assays, if available in their institution, to assist the management of their patients if they feel it is clinically needed.

Patients suffering from heart failure and a markedly reduced pumping capacity and sometimes desynchronization of the lower chambers of the heart have a higher risk of suffering sudden cardiac death. These patients can be treated with an Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator that terminates dangerously fast heartbeats and in case of asynchronous pumping of the heart can also re-synchronize the lower chambers of the heart (ICD- or CRT-D-system). Patients that moreover suffered from a worsening of their cardiac status (cardiac decompensation) and had to be hospitalized for this reason have a higher risc to have following decompensations. New technology, incorporated into modern Medtronic ICD- and CRT-D-Systems, that measures the amount of water in the lungs is able to warn before such a dangerous worsening occurs. If coupled with modern data transmitting technology (CareLink), automatic information in case of a worsening of the cardiac status can be sent to caregivers, who in turn can react timely in order to prevent a worsening an subsequent hospitalization. The study examines to which extent this new technology prevents potentially adverse cardiac situations and / or hospitalizations and has an influence of the duration of patient´s lives.