3 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
This retrospective double-cohort study seeks to: 1. Describe the cardiovascular manifestations and electrophysiological (EP) substrate in COVID-19 infection and their association with clinical outcomes; and 2. Develop a method of cardiovascular risk stratification in COVID-19
The purpose of this research study is to determine if carotid artery ultrasound scanning can provide additional information for determining cardiovascular risk in patients. Patients who agree to participate wil undergo non-invasive carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) measurement and plaque assessment. Findings of CIMT will be compared to results of patient standard of care stress echocardiogram (SE) and of diastolic function. We hypothesize tht 1) in patients undergoing SE for inappropriate or uncertain indications, CIMT and plaque assessment will provide useful risk stratification beyond use of traditional risk factors; 2) CIMT findings will correlate with results of SE in terms of exercise capacity and 3) Exercise capacity will correlate with diastolic function.
A novel Cardiac MRI sequence, developed by Dr. Maria Altbach (Double Inversion radial fast Spin Echo T2 mapping), has been tested clinically. It demonstrated a high sensitivity to the heart muscle swelling ("edema") in different types of heart injury, including heart attacks. The investigators propose to use T2-Map methodology in patients with acute heart attacks and to compare value of this method with other clinical and imaging parameters in predicting short-term (30 day) clinical outcomes of these patients. If successful, the project will provide an effective risk-stratification tool to identify patients with heart attack as a result of atherosclerotic disease, who require more aggressive therapeutic approach and closer follow-up after initial hospitalization.