Active clinical trials for "Ventricular Dysfunction"

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common disorder that can lead to heart failure. Not all people with CAD are eligible for today's standard treatments. One new treatment approach uses stem cells-specialized cells capable of developing into other types of cells-to stimulate growth of new blood vessels for the heart. This study will determine the safety and effectiveness of withdrawing stem cells from someone's bone marrow and injecting those cells into the person's heart as a way of treating people with CAD and heart failure.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether giving cardiosphere-derived stem cells (CDCs) to patients with decreased heart function and/or a large amount of damaged muscle after a heart attack is safe. CDCs are cells grown from small biopsy samples taken from the heart. Giving a patient their own CDCs is an investigational procedure that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this study. In addition to determining whether this treatment is safe, the study will also examine whether it can decrease the amount of heart muscle damage and/or improve heart function after a heart attack. The amount of heart muscle damage and the function of the heart directly affects prognosis (the predicted course of the disease), and the development of heart failure and other complications some patients experience after a heart attack. By way of background, scientists and physicians believed, until just a few years ago, that heart muscle damaged after a heart attack could not be replaced. Recently, however, scientists discovered that new heart muscle can form, or be regenerated, and that this process can be enhanced (or increased) by the administration of large numbers of certain cells isolated from the heart or bone marrow. These cells can be stem cells, or cells derived from stem cells, and they may achieve their benefit by forming new heart muscle cells, becoming heart muscle cells themselves, or releasing substances which increase the ability of already existing stem cells to form new heart muscle. All of the studies conducted so far have been experimental and no cell type is approved for routine clinical care of patients with heart disease. However, studies involving bone marrow stem cells do indicate some small improvement in heart function and one large study demonstrated a decrease in clinical events in the group which received bone marrow cells. Investigators of this study decided to study CDCs because they come from a person's own body, and therefore have no foreign immune antigens which may be rejected. Since the cells come from the person's heart, they are more likely to form heart tissue. In addition, animal studies indicate no safety problems and that these cells are capable of forming heart muscle and blood vessel cells after heart attacks. The investigators are now studying whether the same is true in humans.

The purpose is to study if HF treatment guided by NTproBNP in addition to clinical symptoms and signs is more effective than treatment guided by clinical symptoms and signs alone in patients with HF and left ventricular systolic dysfunction

This study will be done in patients who require the implantation of a cardiac pacemaker (an electronic device that controls the heartbeat) for complete heart block (a heart rhythm abnormality resulting in a slow heart beat). Pacemakers regulate the heart beat by delivering pulses of electricity through special wires (pacing leads) which are placed inside the heart. This study will compare two groups of pacemaker patients. Each group will have their pacing leads placed in a particular location in the heart. The purpose of the study is to show whether the position used in one group is better for maintaining effective heart function compared to the position used in the other group. The leads in one group will be placed in a position called the Right Ventricular Apex. This is the traditional and most frequently used position for pacemaker leads. The leads in the other group will be placed in a position called the Right Ventricular High Septum. This is a less commonly used position, but may result in health benefits for the patients compared with the Right Ventricular Apex.

The study aims to use cardiac MRI scans and analysis techniques to evaluate differences in cardiac function after 12 months of pacing in patients with pacing leads placed in different positions within the right ventricle (apically or septally).

Thirty (30) patients with chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction secondary to MI scheduled to undergo cardiac catheterization will be enrolled in the study. This is a phase II study intended to gain additional safety and efficacy assessments among two dose levels previously studied in a phase I setting.

All individuals who receive a heart transplant are at risk for developing antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). An antibody is a protein produced by the body's immune system when it detects a foreign substance, called an antigen. The mechanism of an antibody is to attack an antigen. In antibody mediated rejection, antibodies will attack the transplanted heart, causing injury to the heart. The purpose of this investigation is to determine if a study drug, called eculizumab (Soliris), is safe to use in heart transplant recipients, and determine if it reduces risk of antibody-mediated rejection.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether neuromuscular electrical stimulation can improve exercise tolerance for patients with heart failure and continuous dobutamine use in a hospital.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether adding AF Suppression™ to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves the prognosis of heart failure patients benefiting from cardiac resynchronization therapy.

The aim is to provide evidence of the long-term benefits of personalised pacemaker programming on heart function and battery longevity. This will be achieved by showing in a single centre, phase II, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial that reducing the amount of pacemaker beats to a minimum reverses these changes and extends battery life.