Active clinical trials for "Myocarditis"

Viral myocarditis has been recognized as a cause of congestive heart failure, however diagnosis and treatment represents a challenging process. Recently, there is an increasing frequency of different cardiotropic viruses in the clinical setting of myocarditis. The introduction of the new molecular techniques in analysing the etiologic agent of acute myocarditis has enhanced significantly the knowledge on the molecular epidemiology of these viruses. The etiology of patients admitted to our university hospital remains unclear. It is therefore important to identify the aetiology associated with myocardial infections. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the prevalence of a broad spectrum of cardiotropic viruses, including enteroviruses, adenoviruses and parvo B19 virus, in adults with suspected myocarditis with special reference to B19 virus due to its increasing prevalence nowadays. The results of this study will provide a very important information for the prevalent infectious viral agents in our university hospital which will guide treatment protocol.

As of March 2020, COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, halting athletic competition worldwide. Reports from China show a high prevalence of cardiac involvement in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. These cardiac forms were found to be closely associated with adverse outcomes. The use of Magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI) had allowed to show that cardiac dysfunction could be mediated by myocardial inflammation (i.e. myocarditis). The direct implication of the virus was demonstrated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 being detected on myocardial biopsies in a patient with severe heart failure. The experience with other viruses causing acute myocarditis shows that there is a high rate of undetected injuries. Indeed, although severe heart failure can be present at the acute stage, acute viral myocarditis is most commonly pauci or asymptomatic, but still leaving occult myocardial scars visible on MRI, and exposing to higher risks of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death over the long term. Although athletes are younger and have fewer comorbidities than the general population and therefore are at lower risk for severe disease or death, there is a critical and urgent need to assess the prevalence of occult scars in the population of high-level athletes returning to training after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemia.

The study will evaluate myocardial inflammation in cyclists after high intense and sustained exercise. Our hypothesis is that strenuous exercise in recreational cyclists may be associated with myocardial inflammation. Myocardial fibrosis in asymptomatic athletes is associated with life-threatening arrhythmic events and sudden death. Although myocarditis seems to be the most likely underlying cause, it remains unclear if strenuous and sustained physical exercise can cause myocardial inflammation with development of myocyte necrosis and possibly myocardial fibrosis in athletes. Nineteen recreational cyclists performing "L'ETAPE DU TOUR (EDT) de France" a cycling ride (175 km, 3600 m of positive altitude difference) on July 4 2021 will be included in this study. In part 1 of the study, each participant will complete a detailed questionnaire detailing their training history and an echocardiography at rest will be performed. All participants will have exercise testing approximately 1 week before the EDT stage to set aerobic and anaerobic gas exchange thresholds, as well as VO2max.

This study evaluates the incidence, patient characteristics and outcome of myocarditis after the COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in healthcare professionals.

Children can have or develop certain problems with their heart function, specifically with the heart muscle or myocardium. This problem can be caused by many things specifically by infection resulting in myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) or dilated cardiomyopathy (caused by many factors including high blood pressure and heart attacks). The body goes through many processes to repair the injured tissue including using proteins that cause the muscle mass to increase called matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The body also uses proteins that direct the MMPs to stop increasing the muscle mass called tissue inhibitory of metalloproteinases (TIMPs). Currently, there are no published studies that explain or evaluate the relationship that MMPs and TIMPs have in myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy in children. The investigator wishes to perform a prospective study of the serum levels of these proteins and their regulators in children with myocarditis and/or dilated cardiomyopathy and compare them with children that have no heart disease.

Several drugs and chemotherapies seem to induce myocarditis. This study investigates reports of myocarditis, including the International classification of disease ICD-10 for treatments in the World Health Organization (WHO) global Individual Case Safety Report (ICSR) database (VigiBase).

The relationship between the immune system and the myocardium after myocardial ischemia is an evolving field of research. Crosstalk occurs between macrophages and cardiac myocytes to promote cardio-protection and resolution of inflammation after myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury (MI/R injury). Myeloid-epithelial-reproductive tyrosine kinase (MerTK), a member of the TAM family of tyrosine kinase receptors (Tyro-Axl-MerTK), is a macrophage receptor that mediates efferocytosis, anti-inflammatory signaling, and resolution of inflammation. After MI/R injury, intact MerTK is necessary for the phagocytosis of dead cardiac myocytes and to promote anti-inflammatory signaling. Proteolytic cleavage of MerTK to its inactive form, soluble MER, restricts the capacity of macrophages to phagocytize dead cardiac myocytes and impairs MerTK-dependent anti-inflammatory signaling resulting in suppressive effects on cardiac remodeling and function. The Thorp lab at Northwestern University has previously measured soluble MER levels in both adult mice and humans and found that soluble MER concentrations increase after MI/R injury. In adult MI patients, soluble MER was measured post coronary artery reperfusion and was found to be increased (average 3200 pg/mL compared to 1700 pg/mL) compared to controls with stable cardiovascular disease. Based on murine data, the lab further postulated that reperfusion injury may directly interfere with MerTK-dependent cardiac repair as reactive oxygen species formed during reperfusion injury induce proteolytic cleavage of MerTK to soluble MER. Myocardial infarctions are rare events in pediatric patients. However, pediatric hearts are exposed to periods of hypoperfusion, ischemia, and inflammation during times of stress such as cardiac bypass and critical illness, and it is unknown how soluble MER levels change in response to these events. Thus, I was interested in investigating how soluble MER levels change after MI/R injury induced by cardiac bypass as well as in the utility of soluble MER as a biomarker of cardiac inflammation and injury in pediatric patients.

This study evaluates positron emission tomography for the diagnosis of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related myocarditis. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising results in various malignancies however, several immune related adverse events have been described of which myocarditis carries the highest reported mortality. Diagnostic procedures, such as positron emission tomography, help find and diagnose myocarditis and provide functional or disease activity information as opposed to the largely structural/anatomic information.

There is increasing evidence that [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT is useful in the identification and treatment of disease processes that involve cardiac inflammation and infection. Current applications include imaging intra-cardiac device and prosthetic valve infections, evaluating patients with known or suspected cardiac sarcoidosis or other inflammatory cardiomyopathies. However, because normal myocardium can metabolize both glucose and free fatty acids (FFAs), physiological accumulation of FDG in the myocardium can interfere with the recognition of abnormal FDG uptake. The use of a low-carbohydrate diet with a prolonged fast ≥ 12 h nutrition followed by a fast of at least four hours is the effective preparation recommended to suppress physiological myocardial FDG uptake. However, the rate of suppression of physiological accumulation of FDG with this method in our center is only 50%.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) might have high grade immune-related adverse events (irAEs) on the cardio-vascular system. This study investigates reports of cardio-vascular toxicity with treatment including anti-PD1, Anti-PDL-1, and Anti CTLA4 classes using the World Health Organization (WHO) database VigiBase.