View clinical trials related to Atherosclerosis.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the results of drug eluting balloon are non-inferior to the Nitinol stent implantation in the femoropopliteal segment.
Utilizing Computed Tomographic Angiography to Evaluate Coronary Artery Disease in Patients on Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy Intro: It is well known that HIV treated with antiretroviral drugs increases the risk for coronary artery disease. Studies have documented this with various methods including analyzing the effects of retroviral therapy on cardiac risk factors such as diabetes, lipids and hypertension. Still other studies have looked at carotid and brachial artery intimal thickness. Our study, then, aims to evaluate the relationship between HIV medications and coronary atherosclerosis using a novel method. Coronary artery CT angiography is a relatively new diagnostic procedure to evaluate heart disease in cardiac patients. We will apply this test to HIV patients on longstanding antiretroviral therapy to directly examine their coronary arteries to assess heart disease. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy will have increased coronary artery disease compared to the general population. Methods: This project will be conducted in collaboration between Florida Heart Center and Associates in infectious Disease - two communities based infectious disease and cardiology practices. We will identify all the HIV positive patients seen within a 1 month timeframe at the infectious disease office. These patients will then be filtered by our exclusion/inclusion criteria. After obtaining informed consent, we will draw blood from each patient to gather lab values such as A1C, cholesterol, inflammatory markers, and other markers associated with coronary artery disease. Each enrolled patient will then schedule and receive a 64 slide coronary CTA at Florida Heart Center. The results of the CTA scans will be categorized in mild, moderate, and severe coronary artery disease. The data, then, will consist of the parameters measured on blood work, and the results of the coronary CTA. Inclusion Criteria: 1. Patients aged 35 to 50 with HIV and on retroviral therapy for at least 5 years. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Patients with prior documented coronary artery disease, heart attack, stent placement, or heart surgery. Statistical Analysis: We will conduct a multivariate analysis on the cardiac risk factors taken from patient history and the bloodwork (diabetes, lipids etc) to correlate them with the results of the CTA. We will also conduct basic analysis to support our hypothesis that long term antiretroviral therapy increases coronary artery disease. Funding: The bloodwork and CTA tests ordered in this study will be payed for by insurance companies where available. In cases where insurance companies will not pay, Florida Heart Center will pay for the CTA tests and Associates in infectious Disease will fund the bloodwork. Humans Subjects Protection: This will be a projective chart review study that will require access to protected health information. Thus, we will seek full IRB approval from the FSU IRB committee with informed consent. An informed consent document will be given to each patient explaining all the risks and benefits of the study in addition to the methods. Recruitment will be done by an office staff or medical assistant not on the research team. After patient recruitment, their medical records will be flagged for study and they will undergo the required testing. At completion of testing, their results will be recorded in the final data sheet, and their medical record will no longer be flagged for study. No identifying data will be recorded in the final data sheet, and the data will be stored in an encrypted excel sheet on a secure password protected personal laptop running antivirus and firewall. Third parties (such as family members) will not have access to any research data regardless of authorizations received from the study subjects. All the test results and labwork performed for the study will go into the patient's individual medical record at their respective offices. Thus, if an authorized third party wishes to view any test results, they can do so via the normal methods at the doctor's office.
To collect post marketing surveillance data on patients receiving at least one Combo Bio-Engineered Sirolimus Eluting Stent when used according to the Instructions for Use. Data will be collected in order to assess the long term safety and performance of the Combo Stent in routine clinical practice.
Atherosclerotic disease, or hardening of the arteries, is characterized by the thickening of the arterial walls due to fatty deposits in wall and inflammation in the wall of arteries. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and genetics play an important role in developing clinical symptoms of atherosclerosis disease. The complications of advanced atherosclerosis are chronic, slowly progressive and cumulative, resulting in heart attack, stroke and/or death and blockage of arteries. This study is being done to assess the effectiveness of Spironolactone therapy to slow down the worsening of atherosclerotic disease (hardening of the arteries) in aorta (this is a large vessel coming out of your heart) compared to placebo (look alike sugar pill). This will be checked by comparing before and after therapy magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pictures of your aortic wall. Spironolactone is an FDA approved drug used to treat heart failure and in the management of hypertension (high blood pressure), but in this study it is used for another unapproved reason. In this study, we would like to evaluate the effects of Spironolactone in people with diabetes and atherosclerotic disease.
The long-term goal of the proposed research is to identify and develop effective interventions to decrease persistent, low-level inflammation and risk of CVD. Stress is a substantial contributor to inflammation, and interactions among stress, inflammation, body mass index, and health behaviors have been measured. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is effective for stress reduction, has been shown to be effective for inflammation reduction in individuals with disease, and is a sustainable practice for individuals across the health spectrum. Diet strategies are an effective means of reducing inflammation for some individuals, but may not be successful for many people, as evidenced by the steady rise in obesity rates. The specific aims of this study are to 1) test the effectiveness of MBSR compared to an established intervention of a nutrition enhancement (NE) intervention for the reduction of inflammation, and 2) test the effectiveness of MBSR compared to a non-intervention control conditions (CON) for the reduction of inflammation. Men and women 25-45 years of age will be randomly assigned to participate in MBSR (n=60) or DIET (n=60) or CON (n=60) interventions for 16 weeks. Serum CRP concentrations, additional inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-a, interleukin-6), cortisol diurnal profiles, anthropometrics, dietary intake, and all components of the metabolic syndrome will be measured pre- and post-intervention to elucidate underlying mechanisms and to determine whether health benefits beyond inflammation reduction occur.
This is a technical development study with the goal to develop 3D techniques for atherosclerosis plaque characterization. We hypothesize that 3D MRI is superior to 2D MRI in characterizing major plaque constituents that contribute to severe clinical events such as myocardial infarction or stroke. The major advantages of the 3D techniques to be developed will include high spatial resolution, reduced scan times, and optimized image contrast. The use of contrast injection is not needed with the new techniques, which is greatly beneficial for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease.This is not a funded clinical trial.
The purpose of this trial is to assess the effects of colchicine on vascular inflammation measured by (FDG)-PET imaging in patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease. This effect will also be measured by soluble plasma biomarkers. Finally, an optional pharmacogenomic investigation will be performed to identify genetic biomarkers of patient response.
The risk of developing clinical manifestations of ischemic heart disease is currently assessed by using integrated multifactorial prediction models based on the presence of non-modifiable risk factors, such as age, gender and a family history of early ischemic heart disease along with risk factors which are defined as conventional, such as arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking and diabetes mellitus. However, if the relationship between risk factors and ischemic heart disease clinical manifestations shows some limitations, the relation between risk factors and the coronary atherosclerosis process underlying most ischemic syndromes seems to be even weaker. In fact there is significant individual variability and the limits of such relationship are demonstrated by a non negligible number of subjects at the outliers of mean behaviour of the prediction model. At one outlier, in the presence of multiple risk factors, these subjects do not develop neither coronary events nor coronary atherosclerosis whereas, at the other, coronary events and disease occur in the absence of risk factors.This study aims at detecting new protection and susceptibility factors, thus enabling to formulate new etiopathogenetic hypotheses concerning coronary atherosclerosis and to identify new therapeutic targets.
The primary objective of this study is determine the safety and performance of the Agent™ Paclitaxel-Coated PTCA Balloon Catheter compared to the SeQuent® Please Paclitaxel-Releasing Coronary Balloon Catheter for the treatment of patients with narrowed previously-stented coronary arteries (in-stent restenosis). The performance will be determined at six months post-procedure by quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) to measure Late Lumen Loss (LLL) in the re-opened stented segment. QCA results will be assessed by an independent, blinded angiographic core lab. Study statistical hypothesis: The loss of in-stent luminal diameter at six months after treatment of the restenosed stent with the Agent™ study device is not larger than the respective LLL after treatment with the SeQuent® Please control devices, i.e. study device is non-inferior to the control device with respect to LLL.
The investigators will study Radial artery injury and endothelial function following trans-radial cardiac catheterisation. Radial artery injury will be quantified pre- and post- angiography using Optical Coherence Tomography. The participants will also have radial endothelial function assessed using flow-mediated dilatation at baseline, 24 hours, one week, one month and three months post- angiography. Blood will be taken pre and 24 hours post angiography for characterisation of endothelial progenitor cell numbers and function. The hypothesis is that trans-radial catheterisation will cause a reduction in flow-mediated dilatation which peaks at 24 hours and recovers at three months. The investigators hope to correlate the rate of this recovery with peri-procedural progenitor cell numbers.