Active clinical trials for "Myocardial Ischemia"

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in the world. Most of the attention in treating ischemic heart disease (IHD) is understandably directed toward treating coronary artery disease. However there are other treatable culprits in these patients. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is widespread in IHD patients, even in the absence of hypertension. It is a strong predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. In one study, the presence of LVH was a stronger predictor of mortality than either multivessel cor-onary disease or impaired LV function. Metformin is an antihyperglycemic agent with a history of successful use in type 2 diabetes. In the UKPDS (United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study), metformin was associated with a 39% lower risk of myocardial infarction compared with conventional therapy. Metformin also offered dual benefits of improving vascular function and lessening ischemia in nondiabetic patients. Hence, the main aim of this study was to assess whether metformin could regress LVM in patients with IHD. The secondary aim was to assess the effect of metformin on LV volumes and endothelial function in this patient group.

This study is to assess the function of blood vessels while being treated with different types of blood thinners to determine the effect of these medications on blood vessels.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease and stroke, is the leading cause of death in the US. Every year, more than one million Americans have a heart attack, and nearly 800,000 have a stroke. In 2010, heart disease alone is expected to cost the country more than $316 billion in health care and lost productivity. Both lifestyle changes and medication can reduce the risk of CVD, and this project combines these approaches in the hopes of identifying a practical intervention for use in primary care medical offices. The project combines two previously tested interventions and updates them to meet current guidelines for diet and use of aspirin and cholesterol-controlling drugs (statins). The research team is delivering the combined intervention in two formats: web-based and counselor-based. Each format has the same content, but the web-based advice is accessed through the Internet by clients at home, a community site, or a primary care office. The other format involves sessions delivered to clients by a counselor either in person at a primary care office or over the telephone. The researchers will compare how effective each format is in reducing participants' risk of coronary heart disease. They will also determine the interventions' effect on participants' diet, physical activity, smoking status, medication adherence, and other health indicators. In addition, the team will compare the two formats' cost-effectiveness and how well the patients, office staff, and clinicians accept the interventions. Recruited from five family practices, 600 patients representing the geographic and ethnic diversity of North Carolina are taking part in this study. Half the participants are randomly assigned to the web-based intervention; the other half to the counselor-based version. Both groups will also get information on local resources, such as gyms and farmers markets, that can help participants maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The purpose of the study is to assess the diagnostic performance of fully automated motion corrected (MC) first pass myocardial perfusion MRI, compared to the original non-corrected first pass myocardial perfusion images in a cohort of patients with suspected ischemic heart disease, using coronary angiography as the reference standard. It is expected that this improved comprehensive protocol for cardiac MRI be accurate at detecting significant coronary artery disease and may obviate the need for other more expensive and invasive diagnostic tests currently used.

The use of coronary computed tomographic angiography(CTA)is rapidly increasing, but there is lack of data which supports their use in the initial evaluation of patients who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. The hypothesis underlying this proposal is that the use of stress-rest myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) as an initial test for the evaluation of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients who are at intermediate risk of coronary events will result in less further non-invasive and invasive testing and result in reduced costs, without adversely affecting clinical outcomes in the short term.

Survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) are known to have an increased risk of developing late treatment sequelae such as cardiovascular events due to coronary artery disease. At present no active screening is performed in these patients since it is not known whether screening and subsequent treatment by means of revascularization is effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in symptomatic individuals. In the trial the efficacy and therapeutic consequences of screening for coronary artery diasease by multi-slice CT (MSCT) among asymptomatic HL survivors will be evaluated.

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether intravenous glutamate infusion given in association with surgery for unstable coronary artery disease can protect the heart from myocardial injury, postoperative heart failure and death.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether it is safe to receive an injection of your own bone marrow adult stem cells (autologous BM-MNC) to your heart wall during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

Not infrequently, a physician is faced with uncertainty regarding the ability of a patient to perform adequate exercise in the noninvasive evaluation of known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) by the use of radionuclide stress myocardial perfusion imaging. In selected patients, protocols that combine exercise (either low-level or symptom-limited) with vasodilator stress agents have been found to be safe and effective in both identification of the presence and severity of CAD as well as risk stratification for adverse cardiac outcome. However, currently utilized combined stress protocols have drawbacks. Further refinement of combined stress protocols would potentially lead to more appropriate stress protocol selection for patients while enhancing laboratory efficiency. The purpose of this prospective, randomized study will be to evaluate the relative merits of combining regadenoson with symptom-limited exercise in patients clinically-referred for vasodilator-exercise stress myocardial perfusion imaging for the assessment of known or suspected CAD. It is hypothesized that combining regadenoson with symptom-limited exercise is a safe and feasible stress testing modality which is non-inferior to that which combines symptom-limited exercise with dipyridamole.

Despite immediate symptomatic success after coronary bypass surgery in patients with coronary artery disease, this effect is not sustained over time since risk factors for coronary artery disease are still in place. The role of secondary prevention becomes increasingly important as it can potentially decrease or eliminate the need for another intervention in these high risk subjects. This project seeks to evaluate the effect of emphasizing secondary prevention measures in this patient population during hospital admission and through six months post-discharge.