View clinical trials related to Cardiomyopathies.
Filter by:Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a medical condition that is due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD). LVSD is a decreased ability of the heart to pump blood forward. There are 5 million people in the United States that have CHF and 52,828 new cases are diagnosed annually. There are 995,000 hospital visits and 52,828 deaths annually due to CHF. Previous studies have shown that people with this condition are at a higher risk for complications immediately after any type of heart surgery than are normal individuals. This includes increased dependence on medications and devices to improve the pumping function of the heart and blood pressure. Additionally, they also have longer lengths of hospital stay and higher rates of death compared to normal individuals. Some patients with LVSD not only have a decreased pumping ability of the heart, they also have an inefficient pumping function. These patients have been shown to benefit from a device therapy known as biventricular pacing. Biventricular pacing involves simultaneously electrically stimulating the two major pumping chambers of the heart known as ventricles using a pacemaker and wires. This causes a more coordinated contraction of the heart chambers resulting in improvement in the pumping ability of the heart and blood pressure. Studies have confirmed that in these patients, implantation of a biventricular pacemaker improves patients' symptoms and quality of life as well as decreasing a need for future hospitalizations. Whether biventricular pacing in patients with LVSD improves patient outcomes after heart surgery has not been investigated. Some patients temporarily develop slow heart rates after cardiovascular surgery. These slow heart rates can cause a decrease in the blood pumped from the heart and result in low blood pressures. Therefore, all patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery, regardless of left ventricular function, receive temporary pacing wires that are placed on one of the ventricles during the surgery. Temporary pacing will result in an increase in heart rate and improvement in the amount of blood pumped by the heart and in blood pressure. The placement of these wires is precautionary as only a few patients need to be paced for slow heart rates. Once patients are felt to no longer require them, the wires are easily removed. The purpose of this study is to determine whether biventricular pacing immediately after heart surgery in patients with LVSD will improve in-hospital outcomes. Patients that are scheduled for heart surgery and meet the inclusion criteria will be approached for consent to participate in this study. Once consented, they will be randomized to one of three treatment arms: usual care, RV pacing (single ventricle pacing), or biventricular pacing. Randomization is a process similar to picking numbers out of a hat. The patients will then undergo surgery as scheduled. During the surgery, the patients will receive the temporary pacing wires on both ventricles instead of one. Immediately after surgery, the patients will receive either usual care, RV pacing, or biventricular pacing depending upon the treatment arm that they were randomized to. The pacing wires will be removed as soon as the patients become stable as per routine. The clinical, operative, and in-hospital characteristics of these patients will be recorded on specialized forms. The characteristics of those that received biventricular pacing will be compared to those that had RV or no pacing to see whether there was any benefit to this mode of therapy.
This is a pilot clinical trial to assess whether the administration of diltiazem may be able to decrease the development or progression of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Diltiazem is a commonly used medication for the treatment of high blood pressure and studies on animals with HCM suggest that diltiazem decreases disease development. This study specifically targets individuals in the "prehypertrophic" phase of HCM-- those with documented sarcomere gene mutations without echocardiographic or EKG evidence of LVH, and therefore without a clinical diagnosis of HCM. The hypothesis of this study is that starting diltiazem administration early in life (in the prehypertrophic phase) will decrease the progression of HCM in individuals with sarcomere gene mutations. This will be assessed by looking at an improvement in the heart's ability to relax using echocardiography, as well as exploratory analyses of a broad range of features reflecting the heart's structure and function.
The purpose of this study is to determine if a drug called atorvastatin will reduce the size and stiffness of the muscle in the left ventricle of the heart.
Compare data (structural and functional) obtained by transthoracic rest echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (with gadolinium) in 30 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
This is a pilot study to find a correlation between MRI and ICD therapy in patients with known cardiomyopathies, aiming to determine if cardiac scarring identified by MRI correlates with ventricular arrhythmias and the occurrence of ICD therapy.
Conventional coronary angiography is the recommended procedure in detection of coronary stenosis in patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy. The aim of this prospective study is to assess diagnostic accuracy of multislice spiral computed tomography coronary angiography in patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy in sinus rhythm, compared to conventional coronary angiography.
The purpose of the study is to determine the usefulness of microvolt T wave alternans (MTWA) testing of patients that have had a heart attack and have decreased pumping ability of the lower chamber of their heart. MTWA testing is a non-invasive test used to detect the likelihood of developing abnormally fast rhythms in the lower chambers of the heart. The objective of the study is to prove that if a patient has a negative MTWA test, they will be less likely to develop abnormally fast and dangerous rhythms in the lower chambers of the heart. The results of the study will help doctors to determine which patients would benefit the most from having an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) implanted.
The purpose of the study is to determine the usefulness of Microvolt T Wave Alternans (MTWA) testing of patients that have had a heart attack and have decreased pumping ability of the lower chamber of their heart. MTWA testing is a non-invasive test used to detect the likelihood of developing abnormally fast rhythms in the lower chambers of the heart. The objective of the study is to prove that if a patient has a positive MTWA test, they will be more likely to develop abnormally fast and dangerous rhythms in the lower chambers of the heart. The results of the study will help doctors to determine which patients would benefit the most from having an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) implanted.
The principal aim is to investigate the safety and efficacy of rosiglitazone in patients with chronic systolic heart (Dilated cardiomyopathy). We hypothesize that in patients with heart failure, rosiglitazone is safe, and can reduce nitric oxide (NO) derived oxidative stress (in particular, nitrotyrosine) thereby improving endothelial dysfunction, left ventricular performance, and metabolic parameters.
The CASPER will collect systematic clinical assessments of patients and families within the multicenter Canadian Inherited Heart Rhythm Research Network. Unexplained Cardiac Arrest patients and family members will undergo standardized testing for evidence of primary electrical disease and latent cardiomyopathy along with clinical genetics screening of affected individuals based on an evident or unmasked phenotype.