Active clinical trials for "Constriction, Pathologic"

Biliary strictures present a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge to clinicians due to unsatisfied accuracy of sampling modality. The major problem is very difficult to discern malignant from non-malignant strictures, such as patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). With the poor prognosis and high mortality rate of advanced stage of hepatopancreaticobiliary malignancies, early and accurate diagnosis impacts patients' outcome and possible surgical candidacy. Therefore, a pre-operative determination of malignancy to help plan appropriate treatment is highly desirable. Before 2000s, several diagnostic modalities, including laboratory tests, ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT) scan, cholangiography by percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography endoscopic (PTC) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and brushing cytology disclosed 13% to 24% false positive rate for suspicious malignant hilar strictures. Compared to recent studies, ERCP brushings still suffer from low sensitivity (41.6% ± 3.2% (99% CI)) and negative predictive value (58.0% ± 3.2% (99% CI)). In order to increase diagnostic accuracy, at least two sampling methods, including brushing cytology, biopsy, and fine-needle aspiration is therefore recommended. One article showed multimodal tissue-sampling (Brushing + Biopsy + Fine-needle aspiration) increased the sensitivity for diagnosis of malignant biliary stricture to 62%. However, no any literature demonstrate the best sequence of combined sampling modalities to yield the highest diagnostic accuracy. Besides, the role of stricture dilation before or after different tissue sampling modality is still uncertain. In this study, the investigators want to compare stricture dilation before or after multimodal tissue-sampling, including brush cytology, intraductal suction and forceps biopsy for the diagnosis of malignant biliary stricture and also assess which kind of the sequence of combined tissue-sampling modalities could offer the highest diagnostic accuracy.

Multi-centre, multi-national, observational, prospective registry in four central full access centres in Germany (2), France (1) and the United Kingdom (1) and up to two satellites per hub (smaller hospitals / office based cardiologists (OBC) without access to surgical and percutaneous aortic valve (AV) interventions). The hypothesis is that the management of patients with severe AS will differ between sites with on-site access to all treatment modes and those without such facilities.

This observational cohort study studies the impact myocardial fibrosis has on patients with severe aortic stenosis undergoing aortic valve replacement.

The asses and evaluate whether trans apical access for TAVR is associated with apical dysfunction.

The purpose of this study is to narrow the gap between patients being diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis and those being appropriately monitored and treated. For this purpose a prospective survey of current practice (3 months) will be conducted followed by a six month period of intervention during which a variety of quality improvements measures will be implemented. There will then be a 3 month follow-up period during which the legacy of this initiative will be monitored during which no intervention will be carried out.

The IRISS study is designed to collect clinical and angiographic outcomes data when stenting intracranial atherosclerotic lesions using the Wingspan™ Stent System with Gateway™ PTA Balloon Catheter in routine clinical practice.

There are many reports about the association of coronary artery disease (CAD) and cerebral artery stenosis (CAS), which had been proved to induce stroke and cognition decline after the revascularization including coronary bypass surgery (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention. Perfusion defect on nuclear brain scan is also noted to correlate with these neurological complications. On the other hand, the perioperative arrhythmia and following cerebral embolism was also attributed to be one factor inducing such neurological hazards. In the patients with coexistent CAD and CAS (1st group), and also the patients scheduled for CABG or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (2nd group), we, the researchers at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, attempted to integrate all the parameters mention above, including angiography of coronary and cerebral system, quantitative analysis of nuclear brain scan, biochemical profile, and signals of a new ambulatory device which could record the electrocardiograph (ECG) and electroencephalograph (EEG) simultaneously, in order to define the correlation between them. A chorological relation between EEG signals and ECG signals is our first target to be worked out. Thereafter, we hope to establish a regression model of all involved parameters according to the relation. Such a model, we believe, is essential not only to explain the post-CABG neurological complications, but to prevent them. Furthermore, for the undetermined ischemic stroke patients who had no obvious culprit artery or embolism source, the paroxysmal arrhythmia had long been regarded as the cause. Whether a paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which had not been disclosed by routine ECG, could induce most of such a stroke is still not known. With this new ambulatory device which could record the electrocardiograph (ECG) and electroencephalograph (EEG) simultaneously, we want to answer the question.

Prospective, multi-centre, multi-national registry with a follow-up of 3 months, in five European countries and Canada (Toronto), with elective patients undergoing TF-TAVI (n=120) and isolated SAVR (n=120), respectively and a control group of 50 patients receiving medical treatment only. All patient groups will fill in three different questionnaires to assess quality of life in 5 different languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). One of these will be a new questionnaire, the Toronto Aortic Stenosis QoL (Quality of Life) questionnaire (TASQ).

As for today, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is indicated only in symptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) at high surgical risk. As cancer therapy improves, some AS patients suffering active malignancy (including advanced metastatic diseases) may be more endangered by their untreated valvular disease than their oncological disease. Among these patients, TAVI may be indicated before cancer related surgery or cardiotoxic anti-cancer therapy in order to achieve better anti-cancer therapy outcomes. Individualized life expectancy assumptions should be evaluated by the heart team in the clinical decision-making process as an essential factor in weighing the risk-benefit ratio for oncologic patients undergoing TAVI. A multicenter, international TAVI in Oncology Patients with AS (TOP-AS) registry was designed to collect data on patients with an active malignancy and severe AS undergoing TAVI. The aim of the study is to evaluate the outcomes, benefits and risks of oncology patients undergoing TAVI, mainly the patients' survival and cause of death and also the interactions between the valvular and the oncologic conditions.

Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular complications, as a reflection of the chronic inflammatory status. Monocytes-macrophages in diabetic subjects present impaired arachidonic acid metabolism. Moreover, atheromatous plaques in diabetic subjects seem to be significantly enriched in 2-AA-LPC (2-arachidonoyl-lysophosphatidylcholine) and are more inflammatory and more likely to rupture than are plaques in non-diabetic subjects. We therefore hypothesize that this vulnerability of atheromatous plaques in diabetic subjects could be explained by impaired 2-AA-LPC metabolism within the plaque.