View clinical trials related to Atherosclerosis.
Filter by:Project 3 of the PPG grant "Stress and Atherosclerotic Plaque Macrophages A Systems Biology Approach," funded by the NHLBI, examines the relationship between psychosocial stress and atherosclerotic inflammation, cell proliferation and burden using novel PET/MRI. Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma controls and healthy controls will be recruited into a two-center clinical study. The study team will use functional MRI to examine the relationship between activation of fear circuits in the brain and relate these data to hematopoietic system activation, and vascular inflammation measured by FDG-PET, and atherosclerotic burden measured by MRI.
Although several large well designed clinical trials have shown that erythropoietin which is commonly used to treat anemia associated with kidney disease, increases the risk of stroke and heart disease, the mechanism for this increased risk is unknown. The investigators' preliminary studies show that the adverse effects of erythropoietin are from activation of the heterodimeric erythropoietin/ beta common receptor which only occurs with high doses of erythropoietin. The investigators propose a clinical trial of 120 patients assigned to low doses of erythropoietin given more frequently or the same cumulative dose of erythropoietin administered as a high dose once every two weeks and assess effects on the beta common receptor activation, inflammation and vascular disease as evidence by MRI of the carotid arteries.
The INTENSITY-LOW study aims to answer if there are any limits to LDL reduction in relation to benefitting vascular health from a mechanistic viewpoint, and therefore potentially limitations to primary prevention in healthy volunteers by lowering LDL cholesterol using PCSK9 therapies. This research is being carried out because it is unclear what the lowest threshold of LDL cholesterol should be to attain significant reductions in CV risk in healthy individuals. It is also unknown whether there is a true limit of LDL cholesterol below which there is no further improvement in endothelial function in healthy people, and, whether this is associated with a reduction in markers of both systemic and vascular inflammation. This study will hope to provide evidence that the so-called pleiotropic effects of statins are actually mediated by a mechanism of LDL-cholesterol lowering per se and not necessarily a special therapeutic effect of statins. Defining this may help identify individuals from the general population who may benefit from more aggressive lipid-lowering treatment than standard statin treatment in terms of CV morbidity and mortality. This study will be conducted in healthy volunteers only, where participants will be randomized to either the Alirocumab arm (which is a therapy designed to lower cholesterol) or comparator arm. Both Alirocumab and comparator arms will be combined with Atorvastatin (another therapy designed to lower cholesterol) at the second dosing visit. In total, thirty healthy individuals will be recruited to this single centre, randomized, single blind, parallel group, mechanistic physiological study which will be conducted at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/University of Cambridge. This study will be open to recruitment for one year and the total study duration for each participant will be approximately 10 weeks. There will be 4 study visits in total with a telephone follow up at the end of the study. Of these visits, two will be dosing visits and the total duration of treatment is approx. 4 weeks. A series of non-invasive haemodynamic assessments and minimally invasive procedures including blood tests and forearm blood flow measurements will be conducted prior, during and post dosing to determine if there is an improvement of endothelia vascular function (as measured by nitric oxide bioavailability) and reduced systemic inflammation. This study is funded by JP Moulton Charitable Foundation.
The ENTRAP Study is a prospective, multi-center, non-randomized, single-arm, study with follow-up to 30 days to determine the acute safety, acute device performance and clinical performance of the Vanguard IEP Peripheral Balloon Angioplasty System with Integrated Embolic Protection. The Vanguard IEP Peripheral Balloon Angioplasty System with Integrated Embolic Protection is indicated for peripheral vascular percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and capture and removal of embolic material during angioplasty for the femoral, iliac, popliteal and profunda arteries.
Background: The plant-derived omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3-n-3) may reduce the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, including incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke and peripheral artery disease. However, the results of previous studies have been inconsistent. Objectives: To investigate the associations between dietary intake of ALA, adipose tissue content of ALA, and the risk of the major atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases incident myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke and subtypes, and peripheral artery disease. Methods: This project will be based on data from the Danish cohort study Diet, Cancer and Health which consisted of 57,053 men and women at recruitment between 1993 and 1997. Dietary intake of ALA will be assessed using a validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire and adipose tissue content will be determined with the use of gas chromatography analyses of adipose tissue biopsies collected at baseline. Also, detailed information on lifestyle factors, medical history and anthropometri was collected at baseline. Incident cases have been identified through national registries and the diagnoses have previously been validated. Analyses of dietary intake of ALA will be analysed using a traditional cohort design, whereas analyses on adipose tissue content of ALA will be analysed based on a case-cohort design. Hazard ratioes with 95% confidence intervals will be used to describe the associations between the exposure variables and the outcome variables of interest.
This study is designed as a prospective observational feasibility study. The investigators will study whether vulnerable plaques on OCT (fibrous cap ≤ 70 μm) show a locally increased uptake of 18F-choline on PET-MRI compared to stable plaques and whether the culprit plaque shows a locally increased uptake of 18F-choline on PET-MRI compared to non-culprit plaques. First, 15 NSTEMI or STEMI patients who underwent urgent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of the culprit vessel, who are diagnosed with multivessel coronary disease and are currently scheduled for a second PCI at the VieCuri hospital will be included. These patients will be subjected to an additional 18F-choline PET-MRI examination at the MUMC+ and an additional optical coherence tomography (OCT) examination (during the PCI procedure at the Viecuri hospital). OCT will be performed as a reference standard to validate 18F-choline PET-MRI for detection of vulnerable plaques in the coronary arteries. In addition, 15 NSTEMI patients, who are scheduled for PCI of the culprit lesion at the MUMC+, will be subjected to an additional 18F-choline PET-MRI examination at the MUMC+. Hereby, the culprit coronary vessel and thereby the culprit plaque can be identified by the location of the myocardial infarct, as identified by late enhanced MRI. The investigators will study whether the culprit plaque shows an increased 18F-choline uptake on 18F-choline PET-MRI compared to non-culprit plaques in the other coronary arteries. All patients will receive standard, guideline-based clinical care, while PET-MRI and OCT will be performed as additional measurements. Before the start of the study, 5 stable angina pectoris patients that are scheduled for a PCI procedure at the MUMC+ will be included at the MUMC+ for a single PET-MRI scan to optimize the parameters of the coronary PET-MRI scan.
the study will be carried out to standardize normal parameters of vascular duplex ultrasound of the cranial vessels in the Egyptian population.
To investigate the effect of cilostazol compared with aspirin on carotid atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
Project which objective is to test the effectiveness of an extracurricular physical activity intervention based on high intensity interval training (MOVI-daFit!) on improving cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), cardiometabolic risk, executive function, and academic performance.
Atherosclerotic plaque uptake of 18F-sodium fluoride (NaF) in positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET-CT) was recently shown to correlate with clinical instability in patients with CV disease. We hypothesize that rosuvastatin reduces 18F-NaF plaque uptake. Our group will scan coronary, aortic and carotid arteries of high-risk CV subjects with 18F- NaF-PET-CT. Individuals with 18F-NaF-positive plaques will be treated with rosuvastatin for six months, followed by 18F-NaF-PET-CT re-evaluation.