View clinical trials related to Ventricular Dysfunction.
Filter by:This study will explore which characteristics of patients with heart failure will likely predict improvement after cardiac resynchronization (CRT), implantation of a pacemaker to improve heart function. In spite of major medical advances, about 30% to 40% of patients with heart failure do not respond to CRT, and the reasons are not well understood. This study will involve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electrocardiogram (ECG), and echocardiography techniques to let researchers examine what may influence response to CRT. Patients ages 18 and older with a left ventricular disorder and who are not pregnant or breastfeeding may be eligible for this study. Initial evaluation will take 5 to 6 hours. A blood sample of about 2 tablespoons will be collected, and several procedures will be performed. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to obtain images of body organs and tissues. For that procedure, patients will lie on a table that slides into the enclosed tunnel of the scanner and be asked to lie still. They will be in the scanner for 30 to 90 minutes. As the scanner takes pictures, patients will hear knocking sounds, and they may be asked to hold their breath intermittently for 5 to 20 seconds. During part of the scan, a drug called gadolinium will be given intravenously (IV), to make the heart easier to see. Patients will be able to communicate with the MRI staff at all times during the scan. At any time, patients may ask to be moved out of the machine. Patients having metal in their body that interferes with the MRI scanner should not have this test. During the procedure, an ECG machine will monitor the heart, through wires connected to pads on the skin. Patients will have an echocardiogram, in which sound waves look at the heart. A small handheld probe will touch the chest and abdomen, and an IV tube may be inserted to inject a contrast drug to improve the quality of heart images. Patients will have a cardiopulmonary stress test (treadmill test) and a 6-minute walk test, both before pacemaker implantation and then 6 months afterward. Also before and after pacemaker implantation, patients will complete the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire, regarding the impact of heart failure on patients' lives. The follow-up visit will take 3 to 4 hours.
The purpose of the study is to determine the efficacy of treatment of anemia with darbepoetin alfa compared to placebo on the composite of time to death from any cause or first hospital admission for worsening heart failure in patients with symptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction and anemia.
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.
The purpose of this study is to characterize current management of patients with either heart failure or prior myocardial infarction and left ventricular dysfunction and to assess the effect of education, specific clinical guidelines, reminder systems, comprehensive disease state management tools, benchmarked quality reports, and academic detailing on the use of evidence-based heart failure therapies in cardiology practices. This study is a quality improvement initiative that is being conducted through review of patient records.
The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of rosiglitazone treatment on cardiac function compared with metformin
This is a research study to evaluate the electrical properties of heart tissue. The purpose of this study is to determine the impedance (electrical resistance) of different tissues on the outer surface of the heart. This may be important for distinguishing scarred heart muscle from fat that can be seen on the surface of the heart. This information may eventually be utilized in patients that undergo a procedure (called catheter ablation) for the treatment of life-threatening heart rhythms. Investigators expect a detectable difference between the impedance of normal and infarcted myocardium (approximately 50 ohms).
SAVE PACe is a large, prospective, single-blinded, randomized clinical trial with the main objective to study the effect of unnecessary right ventricular apical pacing on the clinical outcome of time to development of persistent AF.
The purpose of the OMNI study is to characterize therapy and diagnostic utilization in study participants implanted with study devices and to describe Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator(ICD)therapy utilization for life threatening arrhythmias in primary and secondary prevention study participants. This study will assess therapies in Medtronic pacemaker, defibrillator, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices. The first therapy is for reducing unnecessary pacing in pacemaker patients. The second therapy provides pacing therapy in an attempt to stop fast or life threatening ventricular arrhythmias in lieu of delivering a defibrillation shock. The third therapy is a diagnostic measurement of a patient's fluid status and provides the physician information on the patient's heart failure status. The study will also assess the time to a patient's first defibrillation shock and will verify that the shock was for a fast or life threatening ventricular rhythm.
Heart failure is a progressive disease that decreases the pumping action of the heart. This may cause a backup of fluid in the heart and may result in heart beat changes. When there are changes in the heart beat sometimes an implantable heart device is used to control the rate and rhythm of the heart beat. The purpose of the REVERSE clinical trial is to determine whether pacing in both the left and right ventricles using Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) can help slow the progression of heart failure in people who have mild or previous symptoms and poor heart pumping function. This kind of therapy has previously been shown to reduce symptoms and improve exercise capacity in people with more advanced forms of heart failure.
The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravenous infusion of carperitide using pressure measurements inside the heart and great vessels and measuring carperitide concentration in the blood.