View clinical trials related to Cardiomyopathies.
Filter by:The main aim of the study is to determine whether intracoronary infusion of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells can improve the ventricular function of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.Secondary end-points will be: 1. To evaluate possible changes in patient functional capacity and 2. to identify the biological characteristics of the bone marrow graft that might influence on functional recovery.
Several studies have documented that transplantation of bone marrow-derived cells (BMC) following acute myocardial infarction is associated with a reduction in infarct scar size and improvements in left ventricular function and perfusion. The available evidence in humans suggests that BMC transplantation is associated with improvements in physiologic and anatomic parameters in both acute myocardial infarction and chronic ischemic heart disease, above and beyond the conventional therapy. In particular, intracoronary application of BMC is proved to be safe and was associated with significant improvement in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with chronic heart failure. In contrast to ischemic heart failure, the data on effects of BMC transplantation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy are limited to pre-clinical studies. In a rat model of dilated cardiomyopathy, intramyocardial delivery of pluripotent mesenchymal cells improved LVEF, possibly through induction of myogenesis and angiogenesis, as well as by inhibition of myocardial fibrosis, suggesting that the beneficial effects of stem cell transplantation in dilated cardiomyopathy may primarily be related to their ability to supply large amounts of angiogenic, antiapoptotic, and mitogenic factors. Similarly, transplantation of cocultured mesenchymal stem cells and skeletal myoblasts was shown to improve LVEF in a murine model of Chagas disease. Study Aim: To define the clinical effects of BMC transplantation in dilated cardiomyopathy in a pilot clinical study investigating the effects of intracoronary CD34+ cell transplantation on functional, structural, neurohormonal, and electrophysiologic parameters in patients with end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy.
The primary purpose of this study is to compare the number of participants with reversible pulmonary hypertension (vasoreactivity) due to nitric oxide for inhalation and oxygen as compared to 100% oxygen.
We are performing a research study to learn more about the control of an individual's blood thinning (anticoagulation) on warfarin. Individuals from an anticoagulation clinic are being asked to participate in order to see if a lottery which provides the opportunity to win money in combination with the use of the Med-eMonitor might be useful in helping patients to achieve better control of their anticoagulation therapy. Half of the participants will be enrolled in the lottery arm and the other half will be a control group who will receive the Med-eMonitor only.
Bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMC) transplantation is a promising therapy for treating ischemic disease, however the effect in non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy is unknown.This study describes a technique of BMMC transplantation utilizing mini-thoracotomy and results up to one year after the procedure.
This study is looking at cardiac rhythm management (CRM) and fusion beats in patients who have a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), to determine if there is a correlation between the time between the contraction of the upper chambers of the heart (atrium) and the lower chambers of the heart, (ventricle) and heart function. Some studies of people with pacemakers have been done to determine if shortening the time of contraction between the atrium and ventricle could benefit the function of the left ventricle. These studies have shown that there is no benefit in heart function.There have been other studies which have shown that chronic pacing of the right ventricle, especially with the lead placed at the tip of the right ventricle, can lead to a decrease in the function of the left ventricle and congestive heart failure. In some patients long term pacing of the right ventricle has also been associated with a reduction in the ability of the left ventricle to pump blood. This is know as a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, which can be documented by an echocardiogram. This study proposes to evaluate the acute effects of progressive paced fusion beats on the left ventricle to answer the question whether there is an delay between the atrium and ventricle that is "too long" or "too short".
Genes expressing inflammatory cytokines (TNF- alpha, IL1 etc) and genes involved in apoptosis (Caspase 3, Bax, Bcl-2, Fas) are dysregulated in the skeletal muscles of the patients who have muscle wasting and decreased exercise capacity with CHF. Patients who show benefit from CRT may also show reversal of the inflammatory/apoptotic cascade that accompanies CHF and these patients may be the ones who benefit the most from CRT
Heart failure is a very common cause of hospital admission and there are half a million new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. While some important progress has been made over the last two decades for the treatment of heart failure, there still remains a critical need for further advances in our understanding of this disease in order to significantly improve patient outcomes. Large numbers of heart failure patients need to be studied over time to allow scientists to investigate those factors that influence the responses to therapy.
The concept of diabetic cardiomyopathy was initially defined more than 30 years ago, as cardiac failure in diabetic subjects in the absence of underlying coronary artery disease. Diabetes is also thought to contribute to earlier stage cardiac systolic dysfunction and/or to isolated diastolic dysfunction, in excess of underlying coronary artery disease and hypertension. More globally, it is recognized that subjects with type 2 diabetes have more extensive cardiovascular disease and a worse outcome for a similar level of disease than non-diabetic subjects. Despite this epidemiological evidence, the biological programming underpinning the myriad presentations of the diabetic heart' are poorly characterized in humans. Proteomics has emerged as an unbiased technology that enables the measurement of large numbers of steady-state protein levels. The potential to identify a diabetes associated proteomic signature in the heart would be a novel approach to identify putative biological programs altered by the diabetic state. A portion of the right atrial appendage is removed to insert the cardiac bypass machine cannula in certain cardiothoracic procedures. This tissue is usually discarded, however, we propose that it could be employed to examine whether otherwise similar subjects with and without diabetes have distinct atrial proteomic signatures. This pilot study may provide insight into potential biological pathways that orchestrate the worse cardiac prognosis in type 2 diabetic versus non diabetic control subjects.
The purpose of this study is to learn about the twisting or wringing motion of the heartbeat called Left Ventricular Torsion (LV Torsion) which can be seen on ultrasound.