Initial Dual Oral Combination Therapy Versus Standard-of-care Initial Oral Monotherapy Prior to...
Thromboembolic Pulmonary HypertensionChronic Disease1 moreChronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is characterised by an obstruction of proximal or more distal pulmonary arteries by residual organized thrombi, combined with a variable microscopic pulmonary vasculopathy (microvasculopathy). Besides lifelong anticoagulation, surgical pulmonary endarterectomy is the treatment of choice in subjects with proximal CTEPH affecting large pulmonary arteries. However, around half of CTEPH subjects are not operated, mainly because of distal lesions inaccessible to surgery. International data have reported survival rates of 88, 79, and 70% at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively, in subjects with inoperable CTEPH, underscoring the need for better treatment strategies. In those subjects, current guidelines recommend medical therapy with or without balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA). Currently, only one drug (riociguat), targeting the NO pathway, is approved and reimbursed in Europe. Thus, riociguat monotherapy is considered as the standard-of-care treatment for subjects newly diagnosed with inoperable CTEPH. Recently, macitentan, targeting the endothelin-1 pathway, showed to be also effective in subjects with inoperable CTEPH. However, macitentan is currently not approved for CTEPH in Europe. BPA has been also reported to improve hemodynamics, symptoms and exercise capacity. However, complications, including mainly vascular injury, may occur during this procedure and it has been shown that the risk of BPA-related complications was strongly related to the level of pre-BPA mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). Medical therapy and BPA have in fact complementary effects since they target different lesions. Indeed, BPA targets fibrotic organized thrombi in the segmental arteries down to small pulmonary arteries of 2-5 mm in diameter. Medical therapy, for its part, targets microvasculopathy, similar to that observed in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), in vessels less than 0.5 mm in diameter. Therefore, it is strongly believed that the use of medical therapy prior to BPA may reduce the risk of BPA-related complications by improving pulmonary hemodynamics and may improve global efficacy. In PAH, initial dual oral combination therapy with drugs targeting the NO and endothelin pathways is considered as a standard of care, more efficacious than monotherapy and safe. In contrast, there are no data from controlled trials regarding the efficacy and safety of initial combination therapy regimens versus standard-of-care monotherapy in treatment-naïve subjects with inoperable CTEPH. The investigators hypothesize that initial dual oral combination therapy may be superior to standard-of-care riociguat monotherapy for improving pulmonary hemodynamics prior to BPA and for reducing the risk of BPA-related complications.
Acute Assessment of the Aria CV System in Patients With WHO Groups 2 and 3 Pulmonary Hypertension...
Pulmonary HypertensionThis study is a prospective, non-randomized, two arm, single-center acute feasibility study assessing safety and performance of the Aria CV Acute PH System in WHO Group 2 and 3 PH patients.
Milrinone in Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
Congenital Diaphragmatic HerniaPersistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn2 moreInfants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) usually have pulmonary hypoplasia and persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) leading to hypoxemic respiratory failure (HRF). Pulmonary hypertension associated with CDH is frequently resistant to conventional pulmonary vasodilator therapy including inhaled nitric oxide (iNO). Increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) can lead to right ventricular overload and dysfunction. In patients with CDH, left ventricular dysfunction, either caused by right ventricular overload or a relative underdevelopment of the left ventricle, is associated with poor prognosis. Milrinone is an intravenous inotrope and lusitrope (enhances cardiac systolic contraction and diastolic relaxation respectively) with pulmonary vasodilator properties and has been shown anecdotally to improve oxygenation in PPHN. Milrinone is commonly used during the management of CDH although no randomized trials have been performed to test its efficacy. Thirty percent of infants with CDH in the Children's Hospital Neonatal Database (CHND) and 22% of late-preterm and term infants with CDH in the Pediatrix database received milrinone. In the recently published VICI trial, 84% of patients with CDH received a vasoactive medication. In the current pilot trial, neonates with an antenatal or postnatal diagnosis of CDH will be randomized to receive milrinone or placebo to establish safety of this medication in CDH and test its efficacy in improving oxygenation.
Copd Exacerbation and Pulmonary Hypertension Trial
Acute Exacerbation of COPDThis trial will investigate whether patiens admitted with an acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive lung disease and pulmonary hypertension will benefit from a targeted pharmacological treatment.
Fetal Endotracheal Occlusion (FETO) in the Resolution of Pulmonary Hypertension in Fetuses With...
Congenital Diaphragmatic HerniaCongenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) occurs when the diaphragm fails to fully fuse and leaves a portal through which abdominal structures can migrate into the thorax. In the more severe cases, the abdominal structures remain in the thoracic cavity and compromise the development of the lungs. Infants born with this defect have a decreased capacity for gas exchange; mortality rates after birth have been reported between 40-60%. Now that CDH can be accurately diagnosed by mid-gestation, a number of strategies have been developed to repair the hernia and promote lung tissue development. Fetal tracheal occlusion (FETO), using a fetoscopically delivered and removed balloon device, has been used to temporarily occlude the trachea and increase lung distension in CDH to allow the lungs to develop and has been shown to increase survival at birth. The role of FETO in the resolution of pulmonary hypertension in fetuses with severe left- and right- sided CDH remains unclear. Our recent observation that FETO is associated with a higher proportion of infants who resolve their pulmonary hypertension by the age of 1 year as compared with those who have not had FETO, is based on a retrospective cohort study, which, as with any such design, has some intrinsic limitations. Thus, a prospective cohort study that is appropriately powered to confirm or disprove this encouraging observation is needed. If our preliminary observation is confirmed, resolution of PH by the age of 1 year could be added to the benefits of the FETO procedure in severe left and right-sided CDH cases. The investigators will perform 40 FETO procedures on fetuses diagnosed prenatally with severe right- or left-sided CDH, and outcome data will be compared with that of a control group of severe right- or left-sided CDH who will not undergo the FETO procedure because of medical or social issues. Because the prevalence of left-sided CDH is higher than right-side CDH, the investigators will perform 25 FETO procedures in left sided CDH and 15 in right-sided CDH, and these outcomes will be compared to a cohort of 40 non FETO cases.
Latent Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH )After...
Pulmonary HypertensionChronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary HypertensionSevere CTEPH leads to an impaired physical capacity and a restricted quality of life and poor prognosis. Pulmonary endarterectomy represents the best choice as therapy, when the thrombi are located in the central pulmonary vessels and therefore can be operated. By this operation the pulmonary artery pressure can be normalised and the patients' survival improved. Up to now, after successful endarterectomy patients only receive anticoagulation. Despite operation many patients remain symptomatic and are restricted in their physical capacity. Therefore a hypothesis of this project is that most of the patients, even after successful operation, show peripheral vascular remodelling with a ventilation-perfusion mismatch and elevated pulmonary pressure during exercise. In this study we aim to analyse how many patients with CTEPH after endarterectomy show elevated pulmonary artery pressures at rest or during exercise and are limited in their physical capacity, hemodynamics, oxygen uptake and quality of life and need further therapy. Another aim is to examine whether exercise and respiratory therapy may improve the patients postoperatively. Therefore 30 patients with CTEPH > six months after endarterectomy, with ongoing restricted exercise capacity shall be included. After baseline examination in the University hospital Heidelberg the patients receive exercise and respiratory therapy for three weeks. The patients will receive further examinations at the end of rehabilitation after 3 weeks and after 15 weeks. All examinations include medical history, family history, physical examination, ECG and echocardiography at rest and during exercise, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, assessment of the respiratory muscle strength, the SF-36 questionnaire for quality of life, laboratory testing and MRI. Rehabilitation will be conducted in the clinic for rehabilitation Koenigstuhl, Heidelberg. Participants will be randomised into two groups, a control group receiving a conventional therapy for three weeks, in which physical exertion is to be avoided and a training group with additional exercise and respiratory therapy.
REstrictive Versus LIberal Oxygen Strategy and Its Effect on Pulmonary Hypertension After Out-of-hospital...
HypertensionPulmonary Arterial5 moreBackground: For patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) at the intensive care unit (ICU), oxygen therapy plays an important role in post resuscitation care. During hospitalisation, a lot of these patients occur with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Currently a wide oxygen target is recommended but no evidence regarding optimal treatment targets to minimise the prevalence of PAH exists. Methods: The RELIEPH trial is a substudy within the BOX (Blood pressure and OXygenation targets in post resuscitation care) trial. It is a single-center, parallel-group randomised controlled clinical trial. 300 patients with OHCA hospitalised at the ICU are allocated to one of the two oxygenation interventions, either a restrictive- (9-10 kPa) or liberal (13-14 kPa) oxygen target both within the recommended range. The primary outcome is the fraction of time with pulmonary hypertension (mPAP >25 mmHg) out of total time with mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes are: length of ICU stay among survivors, lactate clearance, right ventricular failure, 30 days mortality and plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level 48 hours from randomisation. Discussion: This study hypothesises that a liberal target of oxygen reduces the time with PAH during mechanical ventilation compared to a restrictive oxygen target in patients with OHCA at the ICU. When completed, this study hopes to provide new knowledge regarding which oxygen target is beneficial for this group of patients.
Effect of a Parenteral Emulsion With Omega3 on Neonates With PPHN and CDH
Pulmonary Hypertension of NewbornDiaphragm DefectThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of a parenteral emulsion containing n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in fish oil on clinical outcomes, markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, and pain in neonates with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) compared with those who receive an emulsion containing soy oil and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) without n-3 LC-PUFA.
Hemodynamic Effects of BPA at Rest and During Exercise in CTEPH
Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary HypertensionChronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is characterized by obstruction of the pulmonary vasculature by residual organized thrombi, leading to increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), progressive pulmonary hypertension, and right heart failure. Medical therapy and balloon angioplasty (BPA) are effective treatment alternatives in lowering pulmonary pressures and increasing pulmonary flow. The aim of this study is to assess the hemodynamic effects of BPA or medical therapy on the pressure-flow relationship in the pulmonary vasculature and the pulmonary vascular compliance.
Rivet PVS Therapy in Group 2 PH-HFpEF
Heart FailurePulmonary HypertensionThis clinical investigation is a prospective, multicenter, non-randomized, open-label, Early Feasibility Study to evaluate the safety, performance, and initial clinical efficacy of the Rivet PVS therapy in patients with symptomatic pulmonary hypertension.