20 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) accounts for over 50% of heart failure cases in the United States, affecting a primarily elderly population. No treatment has been shown to affect mortality in HFpEF, which is more than 50% at five years a hospitalization. This project explores the underlying cardiovascular physiology of patients with HFpEF with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets that would allow improved treatment of this devastating disease.
The purpose of this research study is to test whether treatment with isosorbide mononitrate will improve left ventricular hypertrophy ("thickening") which puts people at risk for developing heart failure. Once it develops, heart failure is a very serious condition and thus it is important to find ways to prevent it from happening. The investigators have reasons to believe that dilating the blood vessels with this specific medication will improve the thickening of the heart, which increases the risk of heart failure.
To compare the efficacy and safety of aliskiren in combination with losartan compared to losartan on the regression of the increased size of the left ventricle in overweight patients with high blood pressure.
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with high blood pressure, compared to those without LVH. Reduction of left ventricular mass (LVM) with antihypertensive agents is associated with improved clinical outcome. This study will evaluate the effects of amlodipine/benazepril in reducing LVM in patients with high risk hypertension.
The electronic health record contains vast amounts of cardiovascular data, including potential clues that an individual may have unrecognized cardiac conditions. One important example is the finding of thickened heart muscle -- known as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) -- on echocardiograms (heart ultrasounds). If the underlying cause of LVH is untreated, individuals are at an increased risk of developing more severe pathology. As the most common cause of LVH, hypertension and its downstream consequences account for more cardiovascular deaths than any other modifiable risk factor. Critically, many individuals have signs of cardiac damage from hypertension before it is diagnosed or treated. Despite this evidence, there are often gaps in healthcare delivery that contribute to substandard recognition and treatment. Thus, there is an urgent need to validate alternative cost-effective screening and intervention strategies. Echocardiograms are ordered by many specialties and for numerous indications. Even when LVH is reported, the finding may be underappreciated and not prompt further evaluation. Whether data from prior echocardiograms can be harnessed to improve patient care through a centralized intervention is unknown. Accordingly, the goal of this randomized pragmatic clinical trial is to study the impact of a centralized clinical support pathway on the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension and the recognition of LVH-associated diseases in individuals with evidence of thickened heart muscle on previously performed echocardiograms.
The investigators' goal is to show that in hypertensive men and women with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) treatment with a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist, versus a thiazide-like diuretic, will improve coronary microvascular function and cardiac efficiency, which will associate with improvements in LV structure and function. The investigators will achieve this through a randomized, controlled, basic experimental study involving humans (BESH).
Studying the causal roles of components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (including angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang-(1-7)), angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), Ang II, and ACE), uric acid, and klotho in pediatric hypertension and related target organ injury, including in the heart, kidneys, vasculature, and brain. Recruiting children with a new hypertension diagnosis over a 2-year period from the Hypertension and Pediatric Nephrology Clinics affiliated with Brenner Children's Hospital at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital. Healthy control participants will be recruited from local general primary care practices. Collecting blood and urine samples to analyze components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (Ang-(1-7), ACE2, Ang II, ACE), uric acid, and klotho, and measuring blood pressure, heart structure and function, autonomic function, vascular function, and kidney function at baseline, year 1, and year 2. Objectives are to investigate phenotypic and treatment response variability and to causally infer if Ang-(1-7), ACE2, Ang II, ACE, uric acid, and klotho contribute to target organ injury due to hypertension.
Pediatric primary hypertension is increasingly common, occurring in 5-10% of normal-weight children and up to 25% of children with obesity. It is a risk factor for adult cardiovascular and renal disease. But even during childhood, hypertension is associated with significant morbidity, including cognitive impairment and organ damage. In the heart and kidneys, this organ damage is characterized by thickened heart muscle (left ventricular hypertrophy) and spillage of protein in the urine (albuminuria). Obese children are also at risk for fatty liver disease. However, the cause of pediatric primary hypertension, the role of obesity, and the mechanisms behind heart and kidney injury are poorly understood. Due to these limitations, there are no first-line medications, and treatment is often inadequate. An altered renin-angiotensin system may cause primary hypertension and related organ damage. Evidence suggests uric acid, FGF23, klotho, and obesity play a role in renin-angiotensin system-mediated injury. An improved comprehension of the pathophysiology of pediatric primary hypertension could enhance clinical care by targeting treatment to the cause of disease and informing novel measurement of organ damage.
We will directly test the hypothesis that an initial strategy of lisinopril-based therapy will be more effective than atenolol-based therapy in causing regression of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) over one year in patients with hemodialysis hypertension despite similar degree of BP reduction.
How high blood pressure in hemodialysis patients should be diagnosed and treated using medications or without medications is the purpose of this study.
This is an ongoing, prospective cohort study of children and young adults who are evaluated in the Reversing the Negative Effects of Weight on the Heart (ReNEW) Clinic at Johns Hopkins University. Demographic and clinical data of patients who agree to participate are obtained via chart review and entered into a longitudinal clinic registry.
This project seeks to reduce the disparity in hypertensive heart disease which exists for African-Americans who have poorly controlled hypertension (HTN), also known as blood pressure (BP). The investigators are targeting a highly vulnerable, often neglected subject population which stands to benefit tremendously from better BP control and a corresponding decrease in heart damage. HTN occurs early in life and more often in African-Americans, reducing both quality and quantity of life. Inner-city African-Americans with HTN utilize the emergency department (ED) for chronic BP management. Like cardiovascular disease, vitamin D deficiency disproportionately affects African-Americans. Vitamin D is thought to play an important role in cardiovascular health. Vitamin D replacement in those who are deficient has been thought to reduce the cardiovascular disease, especially if initiated early before irreversible damage has occurred, but this has yet to be tested in a prospective clinical trial. Accordingly, this proposal was designed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D and cardiac damage (as identified on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging) in a cohort of African-American, vitamin D deficient hypertensive patients without prior history of heart disease. The primary objective of this proposal is to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D therapy in vitamin D deficient African-Americans with HTN. Vitamin D is an inexpensive treatment, which, if shown to be effective could improve the existing approach to a widely accessible, cost-effective option.
This study will consist of middle-aged Caucasian non-failing subjects with high blood pressure who are homozygous for a gene that confers increased risk of developing heart failure, the Glycine 83 variant of the Ka renal chloride channel (ClC-Ka Gly/Gly 83), or middle-aged Caucasian non-failing hypertensive subjects who lack the heart failure risk gene, the wild-type Arginine 83 Ka renal chloride channel (ClC-Ka Arg/Arg 83). Subjects on standard therapy for high blood pressure with an angiotensin converting inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) will be randomized to additional treatment with eplerenone (an aldosterone antagonist) or placebo, and assessed for changes in echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVMI). Secondary endpoints will assess left ventricular remodeling and other echocardiographic variables. The investigators hypothesize that subjects homozygous for the CLCNKA risk allele will have a greater response to eplerenone in terms of reductions in LVMI than those lacking the risk allele.
The Dallas Heart Study (DHS-1) is a large, multi-ethnic, population-based epidemiological study designed to identify determinants of atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD) in a representative United States (US) urban environment. This study completed enrollment in 2003. Our objective is to pinpoint factors contributing to progression: 1. from health to ASHD risk; 2. from ASHD risk to subclinical ASHD; and 3. from subclinical to clinical ASHD. Identification of the critical factors in these transitions will enable targeted implementation of appropriate therapy to interdict before clinical ASHD develops.
This study is designed to compare the effects of COREG MR (carvedilol modified release formulation) to atenolol on indices of left ventricular dimensions when added to standardized angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition, and to the effect of ACE inhibition alone. Subjects with LVH (left ventricular hypertrophy) and hypertension will be studied. The primary endpoint will be the change in left ventricular mass index (LVMI) characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) following 12 months of treatment. Secondary endpoints include the change in LV (left ventricular) mass, LV wall thickness, diastolic left ventricular filling parameters, and left ventricular ejection fraction by echocardiographic methods at Treatment Month 12. Composite outcomes and individual event data will also be evaluated by treatment group.
To assess the efficacy of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) reduction and 24-hour blood pressure control of Valsartan 80mg or Nebivolol/Valsartan 5/80mg once daily as replacement therapy for currently treated or untreated hypertensive patients with LVH not at BP goal.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a technology-based behavioral Healthy Lifestyle intervention on adiposity (body mass index z-score), blood pressure (mean clinic systolic BP), and heart size (LVM) in comparison to standard care.
Currently, aortic stenosis (AS) is considered a "surgical disease" with no medical therapy available to improve any clinical outcomes, including symptoms, time to surgery, or long-term survival. Thus far, randomized studies involving statins have not been promising with respect to slowing progressive valve stenosis. Beyond the valve, two common consequences of aortic stenosis are hypertrophic remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) and pulmonary venous hypertension; each of these has been associated with worse heart failure symptoms, increased operative mortality, and worse long-term outcomes. Whether altering LV structural abnormalities, improving LV function, and/or reducing pulmonary artery pressures with medical therapy would improve clinical outcomes in patients with AS has not been tested. Animal models of pressure overload have demonstrated that phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibition influences nitric oxide (NO) - cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling in the LV and favorably impacts LV structure and function, but this has not been tested in humans with AS. Studies in humans with left-sided heart failure and pulmonary venous hypertension have shown that PDE5 inhibition improves functional capacity and quality of life, but patients with AS were not included in those studies. The investigators hypothesize that PDE5 inhibition with tadalafil will have a favorable impact on LV structure and function as well as pulmonary artery pressures. In this pilot study, the investigators anticipate that short-term administration of tadalafil to patients with AS will be safe and well-tolerated.
Currently, aortic stenosis (AS) is considered a "surgical disease" with no medical therapy available to improve any clinical outcomes, including symptoms, time to surgery, or long-term survival. Thus far, randomized studies involving statins have not been promising with respect to slowing progressive valve stenosis. Beyond the valve, two common consequences of aortic stenosis are hypertrophic remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) and pulmonary venous hypertension; each of these has been associated with worse heart failure symptoms, increased operative mortality, and worse long-term outcomes. Whether altering LV structural abnormalities, improving LV function, and/or reducing pulmonary artery pressures with medical therapy would improve clinical outcomes in patients with AS has not been tested. Animal models of pressure overload have demonstrated that PDE5 inhibition influences NO-cGMP signaling in the LV and favorably impacts LV structure and function, but this has not been tested in humans with AS. Studies in humans with left-sided heart failure and pulmonary venous hypertension have shown that PDE5 inhibition improves functional capacity and quality of life, but patients with AS were not included in those studies. The investigators hypothesize that PDE5 inhibition with tadalafil will upregulate NO-cGMP signaling, reduce oxidative stress, and have a favorable impact on LV structure and function as well as pulmonary artery pressures and quality of life. In this pilot study, the investigators anticipate that short-term administration of tadalafil to patients with AS will be safe and well-tolerated.
The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that are associated with improved cardiovascular function with the use of CPAP therapy on subjects diagnosed with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.