View clinical trials related to Atrial Fibrillation.
Filter by:Atrial fibrillation is a condition in which the heart's upper chambers, the atria, contract at an abnormally rapid rate. It is a common type of arrhythmia, and occurs in 1-2% of the general population. The prevalence of atrial fibrillation increases with age. Between 50 and 70% of patients with atrial fibrillation lasting <48 hours spontaneously convert to normal sinus rhythm, and drug therapy increases the likelihood of conversion to sinus rhythm. Another treatment option for conversion of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter is electrical conversion. This is an effective treatment but requires anesthesia. Current treatment strategy for medical conversion of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter is to employ drugs that affect ion channel activity in atrial cardiomyocytes. However, such converting drugs all have potentially serious side effects and are expensive. Potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium molecules are the most important ions causing electric current in the heart tissue. Our hypothesis is that hypokalemia promotes atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter by a direct effect on cardiomyocytes. Accordingly, we also hypothesize that potassium infusion may convert atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter to normal sinus rhythm. If so, this would be an inexpensive treatment with potentially very few side effects.
Background and study concept: Atrial fibrillation is the new global epidemic in cardiology. With improved survival from other cardiovascular diseases and longer living in general, the incidence and prevalence of AF rise dramatically in all developed countries with an estimated life time risk of one in four for all people above the age of 40 years. Similarly in Denmark, the prevalence is estimated to almost double within 2020. It is a fatal arrhythmia with doubled mortality compared to patients with normal sinus rhythm; this primarily caused by an increased risk of stroke and heart failure. In particular stroke is a feared complication with a 70% risk of fatal outcome or lasting handicaps and immense costs for each patient as well as in terms of health costs. Moreover, many AF patients experience a variety of symptoms and have markedly reduced quality of life. Opposed to heart failure patients and patients who have suffered from a myocardial infarction, AF patients are not offered any sort of rehabilitation when diagnosed. Pharmacological treatment of the arrhythmia is challenging. Most often, individual and careful risk evaluation including ultrasound of the heart is obligatory to choose optimal treatment strategy and prophylactic anticoagulation. In case a new anti-arrhythmic drug is started to restore and maintain sinus rhythm, hospitalization for at least two days with heart rhythm monitoring is required to detect any possible potentially dangerous or even fatal arrhythmia as a side effect to the treatment. Additionally, the first new oral anti-arrhythmic AF drug introduced for more than twenty-five years proved to be hazardous in a high-risk AF population and is now only used with strict precautions. To explore the role of alternative treatment strategies and to renew handling of cardiac arrhythmia, we have therefore set out to study the role of physical exercise in AF patients. Our specific study aims are to examine: 1. The effect of physical exercise on AF burden 2. The effect of physical exercise on the risk of cardiovascular hospitalization Method: Our study is an interventional, randomized exercise study. 60 patients older than 18 years with ECG-documented AF will be included if written informed consent is obtained. They will be randomized 1:1 to moderate-severe (80-85% of max capacity) or low intensity (50% of max capacity) training. Exclusion criteria are language barrier, illness inherent with an expected survival shorter than a year, other reasons preventing the patient from training, revealed serious cardiac disease during pre-tests, AF ablation within one year, permanent AF. Both groups are first participating in a nurse-led educational and care program. The program is built on two individual consultations and one team consultation with focus on education in AF. The patients will be thoroughly examined before randomization and after ended training period with special ultrasound of the heart, ECG-monitored test of maximal oxygen uptake on ergometer bicycle, 24 hours measurement of blood pressure and pulse, and blood samples. They will all be taught to use home ECG recorders, a new handheld device. The patients will send ECG's twice daily and if the experience cardiac symptoms for 5 months (during exercise and two months after). When randomized the patients will be divided in teams of ten and trained on separate teams, so the physiotherapist closely can guide the patients in training at the correct intensity level. Measurements: During and after physical exercise the burden of atrial fibrillation is measured by tele-ECG i.e. number of ECGs with atrial fibrillation divided by total number of ECGs. ECG reporting begins after four weeks of physical exercise and continues 2 months after last training session. Recording of hospitalization begins after randomization and continues one year after last training session. All hospitalizations caused by AF or related to the AF disease (relapse of AF, heart failure, stroke, new anti-arrhythmic medication, elective electrical cardioversion, complications to anticoagulation, pacemaker implantation) are recorded. Also, total days in hospital are registered. The AF population is growing on a global scale and the disease attracts immense interest on all international cardiology congresses. New knowledge of the effect of training for the general population as well as the effect in the setting of established disease could have paramount effect for prognosis, quality of life, and health costs as pharmacological treatment is AF still holds challenges.
The aim of this study is compare the surgical convenience and early and long-term outcomes of cryomaze procedure using nitrous oxide with using Argon gas. The investigators will analyze the pathologic findings of atrial tissue after cryoablation using two probes and early and long-term outcomes with Holter monitoring. Atrial fibrillation burden 3 months and 1 year postoperatively and atrial activity will be checked.
Background:The acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a complication of coronary artery disease (CAD) and associated with increased mortality. Dual antiplatelet therapy of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) with P2Y12 receptor antagonists such as clopidogrel is a cornerstone in the treatment of patients with advanced CAD. Due to delayed onset of action, intersubject variability or resistance to clopidogrel, different platelet aggregation inhibitors have been developed. Ticagrelor is a reversible P2Y12 receptor antagonist with superior efficacy compared to clopidogrel in the prevention of cardiovascular death in these patients. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is also associated with thromboembolic events and substantial mortality. Beside vitamin K antagonists (VKA, phenprocoumon) for stroke prevention in patients with AF, the direct factor Xa inhibitor rivaroxaban and the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran have recently received approval for prophylactic treatment of patients with non-valvular AF. However, there is a lack of efficacy or safety data for the combined impact of antithrombotic drugs in patients requiring arterial and venous thromboembolic prophylaxis due to their underlying co-morbidities. Study objectives: To evaluate the effect of ticagrelor + ASA in combination with dabigatran, rivaroxaban or phenprocoumon at steady state on markers of coagulation activation. The effects on coagulation activation will also be studied after a single dose of dabigatran, rivaroxaban or ticagrelor and at a therapeutic INR of phenprocoumon. Study design: A single-centre, prospective, randomized, controlled, analyst-blinded study in three parallel-groups. Subjects will receive ticagrelor + ASA in combination with dabigatran (treatment A), rivaroxaban (treatment B) or phenprocoumon (treatment C). All IMPs will be administered at doses indicated for stroke prevention in AF or ACS. Markers on thrombin generation and platelet activation will be studied in venous blood where coagulation is in resting state and in shed blood where the clotting system is activated in the microvasculature in vivo: prothrombin fragment 1+2 (F1+2), thrombin-anti-thrombin (TAT), β-thromboglobulin (β-TG), D-Dimer, thromboxane B2 (TxB2), CD40 ligand (CD40L), p-Selectin. Further, the endogenous thrombin potential (ETP), inhibition of factor Xa activity, activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), prothrombin time (PT), Biophen® and Hemoclot® will be assessed in venous blood. Study population: A total of 60 healthy, non-smoking and drug-free male volunteers will be enrolled in this trial and randomized into one of three balanced groups (treatment A, B and C; n = 20 per group). Main outcome variables: β-TG, F1+2 and TAT in shed blood Additional outcome variables: - D-Dimer, TxB2, CD40L and p-Selectin in shed blood - β-TG, F1+2, TAT, D-Dimer, TxB2, CD40L, p-Selectin, ETP, aPTT, PT, inhibition of factor Xa, Biophen® and Hemoclot® in venous blood Risk/ benefit assessment:Total blood loss will be, dependent on treatment allocation, between 330 ml and 510 ml throughout the entire study period of 4 - 5 weeks. This amount of venous blood is considered to be acceptable in this healthy population. Blood sampling procedures may cause mild and transient pain. A minor haematoma may occur at the site of needle insertions. Bleeding time incisions may leave small persistent scars. Administration of the study drugs, in particular as triple combination for 5 days, results in transient hypocoagulability and may cause overt or occult bleeding. The risk is considered low in the healthy subjects under study. Continuous monitoring of safety parameters (haemoglobin, haematocrit, platelet count, coagulation) and surveillance of the overall status will be performed during study participation. Subjects will be instructed to avoid vigorous physical exercise and handling of hazardous machinery during study participation. ASA, dabigatran and rivaroxaban can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Other side effects are rare. The combination of these novel anticoagulants (dabigatran, rivaroxaban, ticagrelor) has not been investigated so far. Conducting this study in a healthy population limits potential bleeding risk reported from drug interactions and impaired liver or renal function, which may influence the pharmacokinetics and -dynamics of the investigational products. This study can provide information on haemostatic system activation in vivo during triple treatment with antithrombotic drugs, which is indicated for patients with AF and ACS. The results of this study may provide dosing guidance for risk reduction of patients with ACS and AF.
Since decades, oral anticoagulation (OAC) with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) is an established therapy for both prevention and treatment of thromboembolism in daily clinical routine. Increasing life-expectancy, the demographic change and novel oral anticoagulants lead to an increasing complexity of medical therapy. However, data on quality and management of VKA therapy with phenprocoumon in current medical care are limited. Our aim was to investigate the quality of OAC with VKA in current health care and to evaluate the potential for improvements. The investigator-initiated thrombEVAL study program comprises two cohorts of patients treated with vitamin K antagonists for oral anticoagulation therapy in real-life settings: a multicentre cohort of patients in regular medical care and a multi-local, single centre cohort of patients in a telemedicine-based coagulation service. The study program is expected to enrol a total number of approximately 2,000 to 2,500 patients. Both cohorts build on a detailed clinical assessment of participants and anticoagulation therapy at study enrolment. Subsequently active and passive follow-up investigations are carried out to document and validate complications of the treatment. Primary short-term outcome is the distribution of time in therapeutic range; the primary long-term outcome comprises the composite of stroke, systemic embolism, myocardial infarction, major and clinically-relevant bleeding and death.
National, multicenter, prospective, observational, non-interventional study. The objective is to determine if the switch from Vitamin K antagonists (VKA) to Xarelto in subjects treated with VKA with issues for stroke prevention in non valvular atrial fibrillation is associated with an improvement of the treatment satisfaction after 3 months. The treatment satisfaction will be measured by the Anti Clot Treatment Scale (ACTS) score.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Pulmonary Vein Isolation (PVI) performed with the Arctic Front™ Advance Cardiac CryoAblation Catheter System as first-line therapy in comparison with antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD) in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF).
This international study is a prospective noninterventional observational cohort study of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who are prescribed rivaroxaban under routine treatment conditions to prevent stroke or non-central nervous system systemic embolism. Patients will be followed up for 1 year or until 30 days after end of rivaroxaban therapy in case of therapy was discontinued earlier than 12 months. Serious adverse events will be followed up adequately. Laboratory values (e.g., Hb, HCT, haemoccult) should be documented for each point in time they were measured.
This is an investigator-started study. The trial is coded as no. GC&PJ-Dig-Iva2009-2012. The authors have no conflict of interest and there was no financial sponsoring The study was planned according to the Good Clinical Quality standards using an intention-to-treat analysis. The protocol was approved from the ethics committee. Selected patients gave their written informed consent. The family practitioners agreed and obtained the collected data and analysis. Analysis of collected data was performed by a single-blinded author (without knowledge of the used test drug and time of collection of data). Study Hypothesis: Compare the effect of digoxin and ivabradine in chronic heart failure with permanent atrial fibrillation (ischemic etiology). Multiple Time Frames: Primary Outcome is measured before and after each medical intervention. Measurements at baseline and after 3 month of therapy (twice, with the 2 different drugs): Measurements Severity of dyspnea. Digoxin serum concentration. ECG: Heart rate at rest and during 6-min walking test. Cardiac function (echocardiography): systolic function (ejection rate, left trial size,diastolic function. Participants were followed (ambulatory observation) for at least 3 months
In this randomised controlled cross-over study we will investigate whether intrathoracic pressure changes induced by simulated obstructive apnoea and hypopnoea trigger premature supraventricular and ventricular contractions as well as atrial fibrillation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.