Active clinical trials for "Myocardial Ischemia"

The main focus of the pilot study is to evaluate the feasability and effectiveness of a collaborative care intervention for patients suffering from a coronary heart disease (CHD) with insufficient controlled health related risk factors in their lifestyle. The design of the study is a wait list control design. 30 patients will receive treatment immediately after submission, the other 30 after 6 months. An interdisciplinary team, including a care manager for each patient, will offer an individualized treatment plan, based on shared decision making for each patient to reduce risk factors and improve quality of life.

The majority of the acute coronary events are caused by coronary artery segments with minimal luminal disease, but with potentially significant vascular wall inflammation and oxidative stress leading to plaque vulnerability. It has become apparent that an initial injury at the endothelial surface, is the primary site of the mechanisms involved and a role for vascular inflammation and the interaction with oxidative stress continues to emerge. Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is a novel biomarker for vascular wall inflammation that circulates in the blood bound to both low density (LDL) and high density (HDL) lipoprotein and promotes vascular inflammation. Circulating levels of Lp-PLA2 mass and activity are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events. Recent studies, demonstrating that Lp-PLA2 is also associated with coronary endothelial dysfunction. However, the relationship between Lp-PLA2 and early atherosclerotic changes in the coronary arteries, and the contribution of lipoprotein binding to the deleterious potential of Lp- PLA2 have not been elucidated. Our working hypothesis is that the endogenous local activation of the Lp-PLA2 pathway plays an integral role in early coronary atherosclerosis and contributes to the mechanism of coronary endothelial dysfunction and the structural and mechanical properties reflecting plaque vulnerability. Thus, the current application will characterize prospectively the correlation between the functional, mechanical, and structural vascular wall properties, and the systemic as well as the coronary activity of the Lp-PLA2 pathway.

Approximately half of patients with acute chest pain, a very common reason for emergency department visits worldwide, have a cardiac cause. Two-thirds of patients with a cardiac cause are eventually diagnosed with a so-called non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction. The diagnosis of non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction is based on a combination of symptoms, electrocardiographic changes, and increased serum cardiac specific biomarkers (high-sensitive troponin T). Although being very sensitive of myocardial injury, increased high-sensitive troponin T levels are not specific for myocardial infarction. Invasive coronary angiography is still the reference standard for coronary imaging in suspected non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction. This study investigates whether non-invasive imaging early in the diagnostic process (computed tomography angiography (CTA) or cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR)) can prevent unnecessary invasive coronary angiography. For this, patients will be randomly assigned to either one of three strategies: 1) routine clinical care and computed tomography angiography early in the diagnostic process, 2) routine clinical care and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging early in the diagnostic process, or 3) routine clinical care without non-invasive imaging early in the diagnostic process.

Up to 35% of hip fracture patients have been shown to experience heart injury after surgery, and as many as 10% have a heart attack or die in the three months after surgery. Hip and knee arthroplasty patients are also at risk of cardiovascular complications. Patients who have these complications have higher levels of inflammation postoperatively. Statins (such as atorvastatin/Lipitor) lower cholesterol and also lessen inflammation. Both of these effects are important in preventing heart attacks. Statins have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks in non-surgical patients, and to protect from heart attacks in patients having heart surgery. Whether statins can prevent heart attacks in orthopedic patients is not known. In this pilot study the investigators will treat 30 orthopedic surgery patients (hip fracture, hip or knee arthroplasty) with either atorvastatin or placebo (a capsule with no study drug). Patients will start the study drug prior to surgery and take it for 45 days after surgery. Neither the doctors nor the patients will know whether they are taking atorvastatin or placebo. The investigators will look for evidence of inflammation and heart injury after surgery. The investigators hypothesize that atorvastatin will lessen the degree of postoperative inflammation found in these patients. In this study, the investigators will use a very sensitive test of heart injury that can detect problems even when patients have no symptoms. The investigators hypothesize that this test will demonstrate silent heart injury in over 50% of the hip fracture patients and over 30% of arthroplasty patients in our study. The results of this trial will help us to develop a larger study in 1000 hip fracture and joint replacement patients to determine whether atorvastatin protects orthopedic surgery patients from heart injury and other complications of surgery.

The investigators will test the hypothesis that aspirin or clopidogrel taken twice daily will augment their antiplatelet efficacy in patients with an elevated platelet turnover (as measured by the proportion of reticulated (young) platelets) compared with once daily dosing.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of catheter based injections of VM202 into the heart.

The overall objective of the CAP study was to determine genetic influences on efficacy of simvastatin treatment with regard to LDL cholesterol reduction and changes in other markers of cardiovascular disease risk.

The ability of a new SSFP-based BOLD MRI sequence to assess myocardial oxygenation changes in response to coronary flow changes induced by adenosine and increased CO2-partial pressure will be examined in healthy volunteers and patients with suspected coronary artery disease. Also the susceptibility of a new SSFP-based BOLD sensitive MRI sequence to changes in arterial oxygenation will be examined. This will help understand the physiologic basis of oxygen sensitive imaging of the heart.

Safety and dosimetry of BFPET™ will be evaluated in healthy volunteers and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients , male or female and of age ranging between 20-80 years old.

To determine if 16-64 slice multidetector CT (MDCT) can replace the invasive procedure in patients scheduled for coronary angiography in order to exclude the presence of CAD