Congestive Heart Failure

The purpose of this study is to analyze the utility of a novel five-point ultrasound as a predictor of volume overload in diverse patients who are admitted with volume overload/congestive heart failure (CHF) exacerbation at Boston Medical Center (BMC), the largest safety-net hospital in New England. Current standard of care (SOC) involves the utilization of laboratory markers and physical exam, which is often inconsistent and equivocal. The investigators will assess will assess if ultrasound-assisted diuresis reduces recurrent episodes of volume overload/decompensated heart failure.

Imagine having heart failure, a condition where the heart struggles to pump blood, making daily life hard. People with heart failure often don't feel well and end up going to the hospital a lot. Many of these people could feel better with extra help, but there aren't many programs that offer support beyond usual heart failure treatments. That's where the ADAPT program comes in, which stands for "Advancing Symptom Alleviation with Palliative Treatment." In this program, nurses and social workers call people weekly, helping them manage their toughest symptoms, offering tools to cope with heart failure, and keeping the patients' current doctors involved. We tested this program in a research study with heart failure patients and found that it improved their quality of life and lowered depression, anxiety, and heart failure symptoms. The question now is if the ADAPT program will work in the community, outside of a research setting, so that more people could benefit from it. Specifically, can the ADAPT program work well in new places? Will patients and their families find it helpful? Most importantly, can it help improve the lives of people with heart failure in these new settings? To answer these questions, the study team will work with healthcare providers to 1) ask how to adjust the ADAPT program to work well in various settings (e.g. primary care, heart failure clinic) and 2) use this information to create simple materials and trainings to help them easily provide ADAPT. This will prepare for the next phase of this project to test out the new ADAPT program.

The purpose of this study is to collect different measurements using a method called peripheral venous pressure (PVP). PVP checks the pressure in the veins in the arms or legs. It can give doctors a good idea of how well the heart is working, similar to another method called central venous pressure (CVP), which doctors use in hospitals. In this study, the research team will measure PVP in people aged 0-17. The researcher hopes that this data will help doctors understand how PVP measurements relate to health outcomes, which could lead to better ways to diagnose and treat patients in the future. The peripheral venous pressure (PVP) device will be used to non-invasively measure the pressure required to stop blood flow in the forearm, which will indirectly measure the PVP in the forearm. This device is composed of a pressure sensor and a Doppler flow detector that will be connected to a research laptop for data collection. This device will be placed on the forearm. If you agree to be in this study, the study team will monitor the venous flow rate (the amount of blood moving through the veins over a certain period of time) using a Doppler Flow Detector while applying pressure to the vein with a pressure sensor. This will take place on the forearm. The internal jugular vein will be identified and recorded using ultrasound imaging and Doppler sensor. The forearm vein will be identified and marked using ultrasound imaging. Pressure will be applied for 15 seconds, and then stopped and repeated 4 times, making five sets of measurements. The procedure may be repeated in 2-3 additional sessions during the hospital stay, if necessary. Your participation in this study will last approximately 30 minutes. This procedure is for research only and will not affect your regular care. This will occur during your child's stay in the PCICU/PICU. No additional study visits will be required. The following procedures are being performed for research purposes only: Copying information such as your medical history from your medical record; Obtaining non-invasive peripheral venous pressure measurements.

The purpose of the study is to determine if there is a reduction in the length of stay and rates of rehospitalization for patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure when physicians are provided daily measurements of peripheral venous pressure versus no daily measurements of peripheral venous pressure.

Background: Intravenous (IV) loop-diuretics have been a key component in treating pulmonary edema since the nineteen sixties and has a Class 1 recommendation in the 2021 European Society of Cardiology guidelines for heart failure. Conversely, vasodilation was downgraded in the treatment of acute heart failure due to a lack of trials that compare vasodilation with loop-diuretics in a hyperacute clinical setting. This clinical equipoise will be tested in a trial including patients with pulmonary congestion immediately at hospital admission. Primary objective: To determine the superior strategy of loop-diuretics (furosemide), vasodilation (nitrates) or the combination during emergency treatment. Design: Investigator-initiated, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial with 1:1:1 allocation. Intervention: Intervention-phase will last 6 hours from study-inclusion, and patients will be allocated to one of three groups: * Boluses of 40 mg IV furosemide + nitrate-placebo as soon as possible and repeated up to 10 times. * Boluses of 3 mg IV isosorbide dinitrate + furosemide-placebo as soon as possible. * Boluses of both 3 mg IV isosorbide dinitrate + of 40 mg as soon as possible.

A prospective, multi-center, open label, randomized controlled, superiority trial to compare clinical outcomes between routine distal perfusion catheter (DPC) insertion versus provisional distal perfusion catheter (DPC) insertion in the occurrence of sign or symptom of acute limb ischemia in patients undergoing mechanical circulatory support (MCS) through femoral artery approach.

This study examines TRPC6 in predicting and preventing chemotherapy related cardiac toxicity and heart failure in patients with breast cancer. Cardiac toxicity, changes in heart function is a well-recognized complication of certain cancer related therapies. Understanding these changes may allow early intervention against therapy-related cardiac toxicity and also identify novel therapeutic targets to protect patient long-term cardiac health. Studying samples of blood from patients with breast cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), identify biomarkers related to cardiac toxicity, and prevent the development of therapy-induced cardiac toxicity in patients receiving chemotherapy.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged populations with multiple chronic conditions have high rates of nonadherence to essential chronic disease medications after hospital discharge. Medication nonadherence after hospital discharge is significantly associated with increased mortality and higher rates of readmissions and costs among these patients. Major patient-reported barriers to essential medication use after hospital discharge among low-income individuals are related to social determinants of health (SDOH) and include: 1) financial barriers , 2) transportation barriers, and 3) system-level barriers. Although, medication therapy management services are important during care transitions, these services have not proven effective in improving medication adherence after hospital discharge, highlighting a critical need for innovative interventions. The Medication Affordability, Accessibility, and Availability in Care Transitions (Med AAAction) Study will test the effectiveness of a pharmacy-led care transitions intervention versus usual care through a pragmatic randomized controlled trial of 388 Medicaid and uninsured hospital in-patients with MCC from three large healthcare systems in Tennessee. The intervention will involve: 1) medications with zero copay, 2) bedside delivery then home delivery of medications, and 3) care coordination provided by certified pharmacy technicians/health coaches to assist with medication access, medication reconciliation, and rapid and ongoing primary care follow-up. We will examine the impact of the intervention during 12 months on 1) medication adherence (primary outcome) and 2) rapid primary care follow-up, 30-day readmissions, hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and costs. We will conduct key informant interviews to understand patient experience with the acre received during and after care transitions. By examining effectiveness of the intervention on outcomes including medication adherence, health care utilization, costs, and patient experience, this study will provide valuable results to health systems, payers, and policymakers to assist in future implementation and sustainability of the intervention for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether acute stress can precipitate congestive heart failure (CHF) exacerbation in patients with CHF.

Endovascular therapy (EVT) has proven to be more beneficial for patients with AIS caused by large vessel occlusions (LVO) than medical management alone. A recent meta-analysis of 5 RCTs showed that EVT significantly reduced disability at 90 days compared to medical management \[1\]. Despite its obvious benefits, patients may have neurological deterioration despite successful thrombectomy due to ischemia progression, intracranial hemorrhage, re-occlusion, or vasogenic edema. The incidence of early neurological deterioration (END) following EVT for acute stroke has been reported to be ranging from 14.1-35.2% with some studies defining END up to 7 days and some restricting the definition between 6-72 hours post thrombectomy. A small proportion of these patients, approximately 5.9-10.5%, experienced sICH following EVT. Whether END occurs due to ischemic or hemorrhagic it leads to worse outcomes.

The objective of this study is to widely implement and evaluate the Care Transitions App in a randomized controlled trial. The app the investigators designed for patients with multiple chronic conditions has four envisioned modules: 1) falls-reduction content, 2) a digital post-discharge transitional care plan (e.g., after hospital care plan, including education, medications, follow-up appointments, warning signs to watch for, nutrition, and other care plan activities), 3) a new module for patients with MCC (diabetes, congestive heart failure, and chronic kidney disease) including condition-specific post-discharge care plans with relevant symptom management activities, 4) a new post-discharge report module which summarizes key care transition findings and allows for patients to enter notes and questions for their providers and their own goals for recovery.

The purpose of this research is to determine if two proteins in the blood are increased during acute myocardial infarction and whether their levels are higher in those who develop heart failure than those who do not. These two proteins are produced and potentially released when the heart muscle is damaged. They may then be released into the blood and be detected by standard method in the research laboratory. At this time, detection of an increase in these proteins in the blood is not known to be associated with any disease or myocardial infarction.

Hypothesis: Tissue and serum samples collected from end-stage heart failure patients receiving left ventricular assist device implantation (LVAD) or heart transplantation will provide information regarding the basic science of heart disease. Tissue and serum samples collected from a limited numbers of "healthy controls" (donor grafts that were not utilized for heart transplantation) will serve as a comparator in research database projects. Design: This is a registry project; there are no investigational treatments, drug or procedures associated with participation in registry activities. This project is an organized functional data and tissue data gathering and storing (database) endeavor with specific focus on the functional, structural, and molecular aspects of heart failure. Data collection will not immediately influence the course of treatment for any patient.

Systemic venous congestion is the primary therapeutic target of intravenous loop diuretics in patients admitted for acute heart failure (AHF). Despite their utility, a significant proportion of AHF patients are discharged with persistent clinical symptoms of congestion (residual congestion). Therefore, in recent years, there has been a growing focus on the use of tools (biomarkers, clinical ultrasound) that allow us to optimize diuretic treatment and thereby improve the prognosis of AHF patients. The objective is to analyze whether the strategy of guiding intravenous loop diuretic dosing based on intra-abdominal pressure(IAP) measurements and clinical ultrasound is superior to the conventional strategy employed in daily clinical practice. This study is a randomized, multicenter clinical trial involving consecutive patients admitted with a diagnosis of AHF in the Internal Medicine and Cardiology departments. Patients who meet the inclusion criteria, after signing informed consent, will be randomized into two groups: 1) Diuretic treatment guided by usual clinical practice and 2) Treatment guided by intra-abdominal pressure levels and clinical ultrasound (inferior vena cava and portal Doppler). This strategy will be maintained during the first 72 hours of admission, with a thorough analysis of congestion and diuretic response being conducted.

Randomized, controlled, unblinded, adaptive design clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PolyCore (Polydextrin, L-Carnitine, D-xylitol) peritoneal ultrafiltration (PUF) in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

The investigators hypothesize that a simple assessment of peripheral venous pressure (PVP) will better predict the diuretic need and long-term outcomes (all cause mortality, all cause rehospitalization, emergency department visits) compared to standard evaluation.

This study investigates the impact and safety of wireless monitoring on the prognosis of heart failure patients with implanted pacemakers and defibrillators. It aims to examine the frequency of unplanned early hospital visits and the early diagnosis/intervention of disease exacerbation based on the presence or absence of wireless monitoring. Additionally, the study analyzes the influence of wireless monitoring on the patient's disease progression as well as satisfaction of the study participants.

Previous research has investigated the use of remote patient monitoring in various clinical contexts, however there has not been a clinical trial examining use of the VitalCare platform for ambulatory management of heart failure. This trial will serve as a pilot study examining the feasibility of use of the VitalCare platform for ambulatory heart failure management and examine the effect of remote patient monitoring on patient engagement. To the investigators' knowledge, this will be the first study examining the effect of remote patient monitoring with the VitalCare platform on heart failure clinical outcomes, such as hospitalization for heart failure exacerbations and emergency room visits for heart failure.

It is believed that targeted SERCA2a enzyme replacement in HFrEF patients will correct defective intracellular Ca2+ hemostasis, resulting in improved cardiac contractile function and energetics which will, in turn, translate to improved clinical outcomes. Additionally, it is hypothesized that correcting SERCA2a dysfunction will also improve coronary blood flow through correction of the impaired endothelium-dependent nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation observed in heart failure.

Clinical trial participation has always been substantially skewed toward certain demographic groups. However, there has been little study on whether trial qualities impact participation in either a positive or negative way. The goal of this research is to identify the characteristics that consistently restrict patients' ability to participate in or complete a trial in which they were initially interested. This data will be evaluated via a number of demographic lenses in order to find trends that could benefit future Congestive Heart Failure sufferers.