View clinical trials related to Atherosclerosis.
Filter by:Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. In addition, many patients suffer from valvular and aortic disease. Although various tools are available to identify patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease at risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE), the identification of these patients remains a clinical challenge. One promising avenue is the use of different serum biomarkers involved in atherothrombosis which could provide an easy and cost-effective step in risk stratification.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether olmesartan medoxomil is effective in the treatment of coronary atherosclerosis progression and epicardial adipose tissue(EAT) volume reduction in patients with coronary atherosclerosis detected by coronary CT angiography(CCTA).
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and improved CVD risk assessment is needed for personalized medicine. Atherosclerosis measures including plaque volume and adverse plaque features have prognostic value. Novel techniques have been developed for assessing carotid, coronary, and femoral atherosclerosis using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods that are rapid and reproducible, have improved spatial resolution, and do not require contrast media, making atherosclerosis assessment in multiple vascular beds feasible during a single MRI session. This pilot research will provide preliminary data to develop an innovative global atherosclerosis measure including carotid, coronary, and femoral vascular beds, for assessing cardiovascular risk and for monitoring atherosclerosis response to therapy. 20 participants will be recruited in one year.
The retinal vein occlusion (RVO) is the second most common retinal disease after diabetic retinopathy, and is a common cause of unilateral visual loss. The risk factors that predispose to RVO are many and are generally the same as those found in vascular alterations involving other parts of the body, as in the case of stroke or coronary heart disease. Several authors have attempted to determine whether the pathogenesis of RVO can be of arterial type, considering the disease as consequent to atherosclerosis, rather than resulting from venous disease. Although less frequent than the other diseases RVO affects considerably on health care costs. Direct medical costs showed that in one year a patient with this disease has a higher than average cost for a patient with hypertension or glaucoma. Knowing the prevalence of the disease in Italy and identify modifiable risk factors, recognizing additional risk factors related to gender, genetic predisposition and especially the social-economic and cultural background in the pathogenesis of RVO, are the objectives that led to the planning of this study. In order to assess the prevalence of the disease and the current "clinical practice" we aim to create an online register between Italian specialist centers (ophthalmic emergency care and thrombosis centers) with immediate portability and usability of the data.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Dyslipidemia has long been recognized to be the most important risk factor in the development of atherosclerosis in human beings. In Taiwan, the rates for hypercholesterolemia (≧250mg/dl) were 4.3% and 5.5% in 1970; 12.99% in 1980; and 17.1% in 1990. Those for hypertriglyceridemia (≧200 mg/dl) were 6.5% and 11.1% in 1970 and 13.0% in 1990. Low serum HDL-C was an isolated and independent coronary risk factor among a good number of Taiwanese people. Lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with statins has in the last decade become part of the standard treatment regimen in patients with dyslipidemia. However, most embarrassing, is the insufficient data for clinical use in Taiwan. It is necessary to have rationalized and balanced guideline for the management of dyslipidemia in Taiwan, based on our local epidemiological, clinical and basic research data. Because all these trials were conducted in Caucasians and no large-scaled end-point research about the lipid lowering therapy (LLT) was published in Asians before, this registry study attempts to define the status of lipid lowering therapy in Taiwan and the effect of LLT on CVD morbidity and mortality in a large population of patients receiving primary or secondary prevention therapy. The medications will only depend on the decision made by the primary care physicians. The patient or physician can decide to be withdrawn from this registry at any time because of any reason. The lipid profile change, myopathy, or liver enzyme change after the LLT will also be recorded.
Since finishing the sequencing of the human genome in 2003, genetic research in coronary artery disease (CAD) and other complex traits have developed dramatically. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified a considerable number of common genetic variants each associated with the disease. This has led to a new understanding but also to the discovery of new therapeutical targets. However, each of the variants discovered only have minor effects on disease development and even the pooling of the variants only explains a minor percentage of the total heritability. It has been evident that rare or private mutations probably play a great role in the genetic architecture of CAD, especially among young and severely affected patients. These may only be identified by sequencing. Therefore, the investigators hypothesize, that the use of exome sequencing (the read-off of the entire protein-coding regions of the genome) and linkage analysis in families of extreme phenotype cases, will identify disease-causing genetic variants. From the West Denmark Heart Registry the investigators will enroll a minimum of 120 patients with atherosclerosis who have undergone a coronary artery revascularization procedure before the age of 40, to participate in study part 1. A pedigree analysis will be performed and cardiovascular (CVD) risk factors and current preventive treatment will be evaluated. 1. degree relatives aged 30-65 years, who are free of CAD, are invited to participate in study 2. CVD risk factors are evaluated as well as a CT coronary angiogram is performed to quantify the degree of asymptomatic coronary atherosclerosis. Families from study 1 and 2, who are considered severely affected by atherosclerosis, evaluated on a basis of family size, number of affected and severity of disease, will be selected for exome sequencing. Other relevant family members will be included as well as their CVD risk factors will be evaluated. Exome sequencing will be performed and variants found will be filtered on a basis of frequency, linkage analysis, gene position, existing knowledge and in-silico prediction tools. Possible findings will be validated by Sanger-sequencing and causality of new variants will subsequently be sought to be proven by relevant experimental studies.
The aim of this study is to investigate the association of sonographic and histological features of the plaque among each other and with biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. The predictive value of these factors concerning the long-term clinical outcome after carotid endarterectomy will also be assessed. This may help to improve the identification of patients with carotid artery stenosis who will benefit most from carotid endarterectomy. The investigators major hypothesis is that the morphology of carotid plaques is associated with objectifiable sonographic parameters, in particular with the greyscale median. Second, the investigators hypothesize that sonographic and histological plaque morphology are associated with certain biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. Identification of 'vulnerable plaques' on the basis of a peripheral blood draw and a sonographic investigation may enable the treating physician to focus resources on patients who will benefit most form therapeutic interventions for primary prevention of ischemic stroke.
The purpose of the study is to identify a sub-group of diabetic patients at higher risk of progression of coronary disease and also more likely to suffer from heart attack/angina and heart failure. The total number of patients to be recruited in this study will be 250 with type-2 diabetes but no known heart disease. These patients will have an objective measure of the function of the lining of the arteries, CT scan of the arteries of the heart and an ultrasound scan of the heart and arteries of the neck done at baseline along with blood tests for identification new markers of malfunction of the lining and inflammation of the arteries. Patients will be followed up at 18 months. During the follow-up visit, in addition to the blood tests, the CT scan of the heart arteries and ultrasound of the heart and arteries of the neck will be repeated to assess progression of the non-calcified, calcified and mixed plaques in the coronary arteries.
Major vascular surgery involves operations to repair swollen blood vessels, clear debris from blocked arteries or bypass blocked blood vessels. Patients with these problems are a high-risk surgical group as they have generalized blood vessel disease. These puts them at risk of major complications around the time of surgery such as heart attacks , strokes and death. The mortality following repair of a swollen main artery in the abdomen is about 1 in 20. This contrasts poorly with the 1 per 100 risk of death following a heart bypass. Simple and cost-effective methods are needed to reduce the risks of major vascular surgery. Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) may be such a technique. To induce RIPC, the blood supply to muscle in the patient's arm is interrupted for about 5 minutes. It is then restored for a further five minutes. This cycle is repeated three more times. The blood supply is interrupted simply by inflating a blood pressure cuff to maximum pressure. This repeated brief interruption of the muscular blood supply sends signals to critical organs such as the brain and heart, which are rendered temporarily resistant to damage from reduced blood supply. Several small randomized clinical trials in patients undergoing different types of major vascular surgery have demonstrated a potential benefit. This large, multi-centre trial aims to determine whether RIPC can reduce complications in routine practice.
Blood sample is prospectively taken from consecutive patients underwent coronary angiogram in our center, after getting informed consent from the patients. Serum level of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) was measured and the clinical features of patients (including angiographic results) were entered into our database. Clinical follow-up was performed for all patients, and the relationship between AGEs and paitents' outcome were analyzed. Further intervention will be adjusted according to the results,including clinical and basic research in lab.