View clinical trials related to Heart Failure.
Filter by:Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is involved in the regulation of blood pressure and fluid volume. It is used for the early diagnosis of heart failure (HF) in patients presenting to the emergency room with dyspnea. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine marker of inflammation that exhibits significant prognostic value in predicting severity and outcome of sepsis. Recently, it was suggested that inflammatory cytokines play an important role in the development of heart failure. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a propeptide of calcitonin which is normally produced in the C-cells of the thyroid glands. Although physiologic levels of PCT remain very low, a dramatic increase in serum PCT levels is observed during severe systemic infections. These properties make procalcitonin less useful for the diagnosis of simple infections but a very promising marker of severe infections especially in the critical care setting. To investigate the co-relation between BNP, IL-6 and procalcitonin in two groups of patients; those presenting with the diagnosis of decompensated heart failure and in patients presenting with the diagnosis of sepsis without cardiovascular or hemodynamic dysfunction.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether benefits of topical testosterone on symptoms and function of male HF patients, and its effects on rehospitalization rates and quality of life.
This is a randomized trial of the use of Albuterol in the setting of acute decompensated Congestive Heart Failure with radiographic evidence of Cardiogenic Pulmonary Edema.
TELEMED-HF is a randomized, controlled clinical intervention trial designed to: (1) examine the efficacy of an electronic Medication Adherence Support System (MASS) in improving and monitoring patients' medication adherence; to (2) i determine the effect of medication adherence on hospitalization and health care consumption.
This is a prospective, double blinded randomized clinical study to evaluate the Effects of Pentoxifylline on left ventricular systolic function indices and circulating biomarkers in patients with chronic congestive heart failure. A few studies all focused in Africa have consistently shown marked beneficial effects of pentoxifylline in improvement of left ventricular size and systolic function along with marked decrease in biomarkers of heart failure and apoptosis markers on top of standard CHF therapy. Furthermore pentoxifylline was shown to have negligible effects on heart rate, blood pressure in those studies. Limitations of these studies are that they are largely single center originating in the African subcontinent and have never been tested in the North American population, particularly Caucasians. Despite major advances in medical therapy for congestive heart failure, it is still one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in North America. Most medications tested for improvement of Ejection Fraction with the exception of Beta-Blockers and Ace-Inhibitors have been associated with worsening mortality. Pentoxifylline is a medication that has negligible effects on myocardial oxygen consumption, yet promising effects on inflammatory markers seen in CHF with the possibility of improvement in LV systolic function and symptomology and may prove to be a useful addition for CHF patients. This would prove to be especially useful, particularly when associated with no major side effects.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether left ventricular endocardial pacing exhibits a greater acute hemodynamic response during biventricular pacing in patients who do not show this response to standard cardiac resynchronization therapy.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the CentriMag ventricular assist system to help pediatric patients who have experienced heart failure during surgery and cannot be removed from cardiac bypass.
1. Study Hypothesis: - The decrease of plasma adrenomedullin (ADM) concentration by ultrafiltration and isovolumetric hemofiltration in patients with acute III and IV Class New York Heart Association Functional(NYHA) heart failure is more pronounced than a standard diuretic treatment and is related with clinical improvement. 2. Outcome Measurements: To correlate the adrenomedullin plasma levels with clinical treatment, ultrafiltration and hemofiltration related to: - Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level - angiotensin II level - sympathetic nervous activity - oxydative stress - clinical outcome at the beginning, at discharge and 90 days after randomization.
Out of all the patients that receive a CRT-D ( a dual chamber pacemaker with defibrillator ) for cardiac resynchronization therapy there is approximately one-third that do not respond. We believe that by using a simple technique that includes routine echocardiography that are normally performed in these patients could help us better understand how to program their device to reach better optimization.
The prognosis for heart failure patients is bleak for the advanced stages of the disease, with a reported 6-month mortality rate of almost 50% in patients treated with chronic inotropic therapy. As well as its very severe prognosis, heart failure is a costly disease. Heart transplantation remains the reference treatment for the terminal stage of the disease but although this is an effective therapy, it does engender ethical, social, economic and legal problems. It also requires irreproachable and costly logistics, immuno-suppressor treatment and a lifetime of follow-ups. In particular, the number of donors has been going down steadily for several years in most countries which offer a heart transplant programme and some patients cannot take advantage of being added to a waiting list for a graft (age, co-morbidities…). It is in this context that, alongside the medical treatments for cardiac insufficiency, other therapeutic strategies were developed, including resynchronization and long-term mechanical circulatory support. The progress made in resynchronization is at several levels: better understanding of the action mechanisms, the development and improvement of equipment specifically dedicated to resynchronization and prospective and randomized clinical trials which have scientifically validated this technique. Simultaneously, many studies were published evaluating long term support with mechanical circulatory support (MCS), excluding light devices, as a bridge to transplant or an alternative to a transplant. It is also recognized that mechanical circulatory support with a new generation of continuous flow assist device improved the quality of life and functional capacity, with a reduced risk of device failure and infrequent need for replacement. The "Achilles heel" of cardiac resynchronization remains the 20 to 40% of patients who respond barely or not at all. Among this population of patients, some are not candidates for a transplantation and long-term mechanical circulatory support by axial pump is an alternative to be considered. We elaborated an original randomized pilot study for these patients in order to evaluate their survival and their quality of life, to define if they should be proposed a left ventricular assist device (LVAD)or not.