Active clinical trials for "Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic"

The goal of the prospective observational study is to evaluate the immunological background of inflammatory response often seen after open thoracic aortic surgery. Patients scheduled for this type of procedure will undergo a series of blood testing (preoperatively, and several times postoperatively). The blood samples will be used for a wide scale of immunological tests to better evaluate potential differential markers against infection. A control group will include patients with active infective endocarditis (preoperatively). The main question is if there is a biomarker able to determine a difference between sterile systemic inflammation and infection after thoracic aortic surgery. The second question is if there is a difference in dynamics of evaluated biomarkers between sterile postoperative inflammation and active endocarditis.

Observational prospective pilot study to analyze the trajectory of neuroinflammatory protein expression in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in relation to systemic compartment in patients undergoing thoracic aortic surgery. The aim of this study is to identify and unravel the biochemical (neuroinflammatory) pathways involved in postoperative delirium. Patient undergoing thoracic aortic surgery will have an external lumbar drain (ELD) in situ on the day before surgery. This ELD remains in place during and three days after surgery to reduce the risk on periprocedural spinal cord ischemia. Paired measurements of CSF and blood will be analyzed.

The Diagnosis of a thoracic Aortic Aneruysms usually made when imaging an abdominal aortic aneurysm which has reached threshold or as an incidental finding during a chest scan by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, these imaging modalities are expensive, involve radiation exposure and can cause anaphylaxis and other allergic reaction from the contract agents used. In addition CT scans are contraindicated for those who have: allergic reactions to the contrast, radioactive iodine treatment for thyroid disease, metformin use, and chronic or acutely worsening renal disease. Ultrasound is a non-invasive imaging modality that is cheaper than the methods currently used for TAA detection and surveillance. Echocardiography is limited in assessing the TAA as it is not sensitive to image beyond the proximal ascending aorta which is why it is currently not used for screening or surveillance. A pilot study found that ultrasound has the potential to be used as a diagnostic modality for thoracic aortic aneurysms and may have a role in surveillance in patients for whom CT scanning is contraindicated. They found that the sensitivity and specificity of detecting TAA was 100% and 70% for a threshold of 35 mm, and 84% and 90% for a threshold of 40 mm. However, further validation of this methodology is required for it to be considered as a method of diagnosis and surveillance for this patient group. This study was only carried out by one experienced sonographer so it important to repeat this study to see if other sonographers are able to obtain the necessary views. The main purpose of this study is to validate the protocol used by pilot study to assess whether thoracic aortic aneurysms can be detected and measured accurately using ultrasound. There are two main objectives of this study: Can ultrasound be used to detect thoracic aortic aneurysms? Can ultrasound be used to accurately measure thoracic aortic aneurysms? If the results of this study show that ultrasound has high sensitivity and specificity for detecting thoracic aortic aneurysms, it could lead to a thoracic aorta screening programme.

Clarification of indications for surgical correction in patients with borderline expansion of the ascending aorta

This project concerns a population at risk of sudden death by dissection of the thoracic aorta. Its interest is to make it possible to recognize the genes that protect or worsen the evolution of aneurysms, to better understand the mechanisms involved, to detect and treat aneurysms of the thoracic aorta, wich is a pathology that is completely silent clinically until life-threatening complications. The variability in the severity of the disease within the same family is related to modifier genes. The objective is to find the modifying factors that account for the variability in the severity of the progression of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta.

An aortic aneurysm (thoracic or abdominal) is a permanent dilatation of the aorta caused by weakening in the arterial wall. The feared complication is aortic rupture or dissection, leading to potentially lethal aortic bleeding and associated with mortality rates up to 95%. The current diagnosis criteria do not suffice, therefore the goal of this study is the development of an improved biomechanics-based and microstructural-based diagnostic tool.

The primary objective of the clinical investigation is to assess the use of the the Visceral Manifold Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysms (VTAAA) stent graft system to repair thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms in patients having appropriate anatomy. The primary intent of the study is to assess safety (i.e. freedom from major adverse events (MAE) at 30 days) and preliminary effectiveness (i.e., treatment success and technical success) of the device (i.e., the proportion of treatment group subjects that achieve and maintain treatment success at one year).

This is a global, prospective non-interventional, multi-centre, post-market study of the Vascutek Thoraflex™ Hybrid system in patients with acute thoracic aortic syndrome, subacute/chronic dissection of the aorta and aortic aneurysm.

Patients with bicuspid aortic valve-related aortopathy are at increased risk of aortic dilatation, dissection and rupture. Currently, risk stratification is largely based on aortic diameter measurements, with those deemed high risk referred for aortic replacement surgery. This approach is imperfect, and potentially exposes many patients to unnecessary high-risk aortic surgery, or fails to identify those at risk of dissection or rupture with smaller diameters. In patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms, the investigators recently demonstrated that uptake of 18F-sodium fluoride predicts disease progression and clinical events independent of aneurysm diameter and standard clinical risk factors. Based on the investigators preliminary data, a study was proposed to look at 18F-sodium fluoride uptake in patients with bicuspid aortic valve-related aortopathy. The proposed study will shed light on the underlying pathological processes involved in aortic complications of this disease as well as potentially providing an important risk marker to predict disease progression and guide the need for major aortic surgery.

Objective The objective of this study is to discover whether an infusion of nicardipine is able to reduce the time taken to achieve electrocerebral silence (ECS) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for aortic surgery. Hypothesis By inhibiting cold-induced cerebral vasoconstriction, nicardipine will maintain cerebral blood flow and allow more rapid cooling of the brain during CPB. This will manifest as a reduction in the time taken to achieve ECS and also as a reduction in overall CPB time.