View clinical trials related to Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy.
Filter by:The TEAMMATE Trial will enroll 210 pediatric heart transplant patients from 25 centers at 6 months post-transplant and follow each patient for 2.5 years. Half of the participants will receive everolimus and low-dose tacrolimus and the other half will receive tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. The trial will determine which treatment is better at reducing the cumulative risk of coronary artery vasculopathy, chronic kidney disease and biopsy proven-acute cellular rejection without an increase in graft loss due to all causes (e.g. infection, PTLD, antibody mediated rejection).
Heart transplantation is an effective life-saving treatment for patients with end-stage heart disease. After a transplant, the new heart may develop narrowing in the arteries, causing heart failure, heart attacks and abnormal heart rhythms. This condition is known as cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). The disease is very common, affecting almost a third of heart transplant patients by 5 years after transplant. CAV is a serious problem that causes the new heart to fail and is one of the main causes of death after transplant. Early detection of CAV is important as treatment options are poor once the disease is established. Currently, available techniques to evaluate CAV are limited by poor ability to detect disease early. The current tests usually focus on the large heart arteries and do not examine the smaller arteries that are also affected.
Heart transplantation is the best option for patients with end-stage heart failure. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is the leading cause of death following cardiac transplantation and is not managed by current therapies. Its pathogenesis traduces in an accelerated form of coronary artery disease (CAD) with similarities to atherosclerosis but also particular features of endothelial dysfunction associated to the alloimmune conflict and humoral responses toward the graft. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is the validated invasive method for late CAV diagnosis, but occurs lesions are established. Identification of reliable non-invasive early endothelial injury biomarkers that reflect mechanisms of cardiac damage thus remain a major challenge to optimize therapeutic management of post transplant morbidity. Endothelial dysfunction is a central feature of both CAV and CAD and results from a desquilibrium in the balance of endothelial lesion and repair that is partly controlled by recipient immune system. Through their expression of receptors sensing antibodies (FcR CD16) and endothelial stress-induced signals (CX3CR1 fractalkine receptor and NKG2D MICA receptors), Natural Killer (NK) cells represent effector cells with unique potential to generate both humoral and innate immune injury of graft endothelium.
Cardiac transplantation is the ultimate treatment option for patients with end stage heart failure. Cardiac allograft vasculopathy remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality after transplantation. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors are used in less than one half of transplant recipients. Preliminary data suggest that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors retard the atherosclerotic plaque development that is the hallmark of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Moreover, this class of drug appears to increase circulating endothelial progenitor cell number and has anti-inflammatory properties, both of which improve endothelial dysfunction, the key precursor to the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. The objective of this project is to investigate the role of an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, ramipril, in preventing the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. During the first month after cardiac transplantation subjects will undergo coronary angiography with intravascular ultrasound measurements of plaque volume in the left anterior descending coronary artery. Using a coronary pressure wire, epicardial artery and microvascular physiology will be assessed. Finally, endothelial function and mediators of endothelial function, including circulating endothelial progenitor cells, will be measured. Subjects will then be randomized in a double blind fashion to either ramipril or placebo. After 1 year, the above assessment will be repeated. The primary endpoint will be the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy based on intravascular ultrasound-derived parameters. The second aim will be to assess the effect of ramipril on endothelial dysfunction early after transplantation. The final aim is to determine the impact of ramipril on coronary physiology early after transplantation.