View clinical trials related to Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy.
Filter by:Many patients with end-stage heart failure, a condition in which the heart fails to pump enough blood to support the body's other organs, are fortunate enough to receive a heart transplant. However, despite taking medicines aimed at blunting the immune system's response to the donor heart, some of them will develop transplant-related disease in the coronary arteries supplying their hearts. Fifty years after the first human-to-human heart transplant, this disorder-cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV)-remains a leading cause of long-term death and has been coined the 'Achilles' Heel' of heart transplantation. Indeed, a better understanding of how CAV occurs and improved therapies to prevent and/or slow its development are desperately needed to meaningfully impact patient outcomes. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a key molecular regulator of arterial health, and our prior data suggests that it is associated with accelerated CAV. In this particular study of recent heart transplant recipients, we are asking: Does ET-1 contribute to the coronary artery's capacity to dilate/constrict? To answer this question, during the cardiac catheterization at 1 year post-transplant (standard of care), we will measure blood levels of ET-1 and perform an invasive evaluation of coronary vasomotor function inn a consecutive subset of patients who will have received a 1-week course of the oral endothelin receptor antagonist (macitentan) prior this catheterization, which will allow us to test how much ET-1 contributes to coronary responsiveness. The findings from this study may provide the necessary foundation to study whether endothelin receptor antagonists are able to effectively reduce the rate of accelerated CAV.
Cross-sectional study. We will prospectively obtain ddcf-DNA levels in all patients who undergo routine coronary angiography > 1 year after HT. Our main goal is to evaluate the performance of Donor-derived Cell Free DNA (ddcf-DNA) as a biomarker of CAV.
The main goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of the proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor evolocumab on cardiac allograft vasculopathy in de novo heart transplant recipients. Secondary objectives are to assess the impact of treatment on: i) cholesterol levels, ii) renal function, iii) inflammation, iv) quality of life, v) cardiac function as assessed by biomarkers and echocardiography, vi) the number of rejections, and (vii) safety and tolerability. As an exploratory outcome, the investigators will asses the effect of treatment on clinical events (death, myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke, cancer, end stage renal disease).
Heart transplantation (HTx) is a procedure which is hindered by several complications. The HEARTS registry aims to allow the analysis of risk factors of all post-HTx complications. It consists in an exhaustive data collection at the moment of inclusion, i.e. HTx, knowing that patients underwent a full-fledged evaluation beforehand to evaluate their aptitude to being transplanted. Post-HTx complications include but is not limited to: all-cause mortality, AMR, ACR, CAV, AKI, sepsis, cancer, psychological disorders, metabolic disorders.
Is real-time myocardial perfusion echocardiography (RTMPE) a feasible and effective non-invasive method to detect significant Coronary Allograft Vasculopathy in pediatric and adult cardiac transplant recipients? Will perfusion deficits correlate with significant coronary artery stenosis identified by standard stress echocardiography and Invasive Coronary Angiography (ICA), and identify diffuse small vessel disease more effectively than current non-invasive techniques?
The CART Pilot study was designed to provide preliminary observations (about performance and safety) and generate hypotheses for future studies . The primary goal of the study is to evaluate the performance at one year of second-generation ABSORB Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS)(Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA , USA), the Everolimus Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold, in heart transplant recipients affected by cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) and significative coronary stenosis. The secondary objectives are: - to collect data about the procedural and clinical outcomes post-procedure , 30 days, 180 days and at 1,2 and 3-year follow-up, of patients who underwent ABSORB BVS implantation in order to investigate the safety of the device in CAV population; - to evaluate the progression of the disease and the its interactions with the study device by using data derived from multi-imaging invasive techniques. The vascular reparative therapy and in particular the BVS technology showing important advantages in terms of endothelial preservation, adequate vasomotion, and restoration of the media and adventitia of the vessel wall, could represent a new and more effective therapeutic option, compared to bare-metal and drug-eluting stent technologies, for transplanted patients, since all these mechanisms may, at least in part, counteract the detrimental changes leading to CAV, namely constrictive remodeling and rapid atherosclerosis progression. Subjects enrolled into the clinical study will be male or female derived from the heart transplant recipients population of every participating center. The clinical study will enroll 30 subjects. Subjects, who underwent the yearly expected coronary angiography follow-up after heart transplant surgery, meeting the general and angiographic inclusion and exclusion criteria (eligibility will be assessed by Heart Team consensus) will be asked to sign an informed consent form. Subjects who do not meet inclusion and exclusion criteria are subject to the standard follow-up of heart transplant (HTx) recipients and will undergo to an invasive evaluation after 365 ± 28 days. The study comprises two distinct phases: - the enrollment phase which starts with the recruitment of the first subject and it is planned to last one year; - the follow-up phase which is planned to last three years from the enrollment of the last patient. The total duration of the study will be of four years, including both the enrollment and the follow-up phases
Heart transplantation (HT) is a lifesaving procedure for patients with end-stage heart failure and provides a better survival and quality of life if compared to medical treatment. HT is subject to alloimmune response, which, if left uncontrolled, is capable of jeopardizing long-term cardiac function. Advances in immunosuppression have enhanced the survival of HT patients. Nearly 2500 HT per year have been performed in the US during the last 10 years and despite significant improvements, long-term survival rates remain poor. More than 20% of patients do not survive more than 3 years, and those who survive are afflicted by long-term complications of alloimmunity and chronic immunosuppression. Life expectancy of patients who lose cardiac allografts is dramatically poor due to the absence of any therapeutic tool apart from re-transplantation, which is plagued by poor outcomes. The identification of novel therapeutic targets is thus mandatory. ATP/P2X7R signaling in T cells is highly relevant for cardiac allograft survival. ATP is a small molecule present at high concentrations inside cells; it is released as extracellular ATP (eATP) following cell damage or death where it acts as a danger signal. ATP is sensed by the P2X receptors (seven receptors named P2X1-7), mainly expressed by T lymphocytes. We have recently demonstrated that the ATP/P2X7R axis has a key role in cardiac allograft survival in humans and mice. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a major limiting factor for HT survival; indeed CAV occurs in 50% of HT recipients by 5 years after transplantation and invariably results in allograft failure. CAV is clearly of immunological origin, as syngeneic murine grafts do not develop it. Once CAV occurs, the most definitive treatment is re-transplantation, but survival remains poor. We hypothesize that a single nucleotide polymorphysm (SNP) loss-of-function P2X7R mutation (p.Glu496Ala / c.1513A>C, rs3751143) generates a compensatory upregulation of the other purinergic receptors (P2XsR), thus creating a state of hypersensitivity to eATP. This eATP hypersensitivity results in an abnormal generation of Th1/Th17 cells, that leads to CAV and early cardiac allograft loss. Our study will answer a fundamental question: What is the effect of the P2X7R loss-of-function mutation on the immune system? Our goal is to generate the first targeted-therapy for a selected group of cardiac transplant recipients.
All individuals who receive a heart transplant are at risk for developing antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). An antibody is a protein produced by the body's immune system when it detects a foreign substance, called an antigen. The mechanism of an antibody is to attack an antigen. In antibody mediated rejection, antibodies will attack the transplanted heart, causing injury to the heart. The purpose of this investigation is to determine if a study drug, called eculizumab (Soliris), is safe to use in heart transplant recipients, and determine if it reduces risk of antibody-mediated rejection.
Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a progressive disease of the coronary arteries in transplanted hearts which is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The broad objective of this research study is to advance our ability to diagnose as early as possible the presence of CAV and to non-invasively predict those patients at increased risk of CAV with novel techniques. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a novel intracoronary imaging technique using an optical analog of ultrasound with a resolution 10 times greater resolution than intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in peripheral blood have been shown to play a role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and peripheral arterial tonometry is a clinical tool used to predict endothelial dysfunction (a precursor of atherosclerosis) which has been validated in non-transplant patients. Patients scheduled for routine cardiac catheterization with IVUS at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota (MN) that reach inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study will be approached on the day to get informed consent to perform OCT, blood sampling and peripheral endothelial function testing. The investigators aim to 1) compare the frequency and plaque type of CAV as defined with OCT versus IVUS-Virtual Histology (IVUS-VH), 2) predict the presence and severity of CAV with absolute counts of EPCs and 3) with peripheral endothelial function scores.
Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a unique form of accelerated plaque formation seen in the coronary arteries of patients who have received heart transplantation. It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients after heart transplant. Little progress has been made in characterizing this disease process, with more sophisticated imaging allowing for more detailed analysis of CAV, superior stratification of transplant recipients is possible and earlier interventions can be performed if necessary to prevent mortality and graft loss. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a novel imaging modality with much higher resolution then Intra-Vascular Ultrasound (IVUS). This study will involve examining patients post-heart transplant using this high-resolution imaging modality. It is currently the standard care for patients post-heart transplant to receive annual coronary angiograms with close follow up. Patients will be imaged using OCT at the time of their routine annual angiogram, and will be re-imaged one year later at the time of the next annual angiogram or earlier if clinically indicated. The study goal is to better characterize CAV in vivo with OCT imaging and to try to identify patterns of the disease, including intra-coronary risk assessment.