Clinical Research Directory

Colchicine and Inflammation in Aortic Stenosis

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease in the developed world. Once symptomatic, untreated patients have a poor prognosis with five-year survival rate of 25%. Once at an advanced stage, AS will lead to the development of left ventricle hypertrophy, and eventually heart failure and death. At-present, there is no effective medical therapy for aortic stenosis. Current management of patients with AS consists of 'watchful waiting'. Valve replacement is needed when these patients (often acutely) become symptomatic. Recent studies have shown that inflammatory processes with similarities to atherosclerosis play an important role in AS. Therefore, we hypothesize that treatment with anti-inflammatory therapy, in the form of colchicine, could reduce the progression of AS. If positive, this trial will be the first to provide a potential therapeutic option for millions of people world-wide with AS.

Biopsy of Calcifications Under Contrast Enhancement Guide (BoCCE)

Calcification clusters are 30-40% of recalls in mammographic screening, but have a low positive predictive value (\~15%) for ductal cancer in situ (DCIS) or invasive cancer. These calcifications often need histological assessment with stereotaxic guided biopsy (Mammotome). With extended calcifications, choosing the best area to biopsy may be challenging. The main objective of this 1:1 randomized controlled clinical trial is to compare the accuracy of the CESM guide (study arm with biopsy under CESM guidance) with the traditional Mammotome (control arm with biopsy under stereotactic guidance) in conducting the biopsy in the area of greatest malignancy/grade of the lesion, using as gold-standard the histological exam of the operating piece. Women recalled with indication to perform stereotactic biopsy for clusters of suspicious calcifications on mammography (BIRADS R3 or R4 or R5) not mass-associated will be included. Anticipated sample size is 100 women per arm.

The Added Value of Contrast Enhanced Mammography to Standard Mammography in Assessing the Extent of DCIS

The study hypothesis is that the rate of inadequate surgical margins after conservative breast surgery for DICS and the rate of reoperation (re-excision or/and mastectomy) is lower in the group of patients who underwent standard preoperative mammography and CEM to assess the extent of DICS, compared to the group of patients for whom the preoperative assessment of the extent of in situ breast cancer was not performed using one of the imaging techniques with contrast medium such as contrast mammography or magnetic resonance imaging.

CRUSTAL Study in China

This is a prospective, multicenter, single-arm registry study, aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of using Shockwave IVL catheter in the treatment of coronary artery calcification in real-world clinical practice.

Intravascular Lithotripsy for Acute Stent Under-expansion in Calcified Coronary Lesions

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the standard treatment for patients with coronary artery disease who have an indication for surgery. Coronary artery calcification not only makes stent delivery and expansion more difficult during PCI, but also increases the risk of vessel perforation. In addition, calcified plaque can lead to incomplete stent expansion, which increases the risk of in-stent restenosis and thrombosis. Although the technology and techniques of interventional devices continue to improve, heavily calcified lesions remain an important risk factor for PCI failure. This study is a prospective, multicenter, randomized study. It is planned to select 40 cases of subjects with calcified plaque can lead to incomplete stent expansion who meet the inclusion/exclusion criteria. They are randomly dividing them into Intravascular lithotripsy treatment group and high-pressure balloon treatment group according to the ratio of 1:1. All subjects accept clinical follow-up after operation, at 30 days, 6 months, and 12 months after operation. Follow-up with angiography and OCT are conducted at 12 months. The primary endpoint was thickness of neointima at 12 months.

Calcification on CTCA of a CTO and PCI Outcomes

A chronic total occlusion (CTO) is present in 15-20% of patients who are referred for invasive coronary angiography. CTO Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) procedure success rates have increased over the years and can be as high as 90% when performed by high-volume CTO operators.Procedurally, excess calcification in the CTO anatomy is one factor which makes it difficult to complete the procedure or obtain ideal stent expansion. Excess calcification is best identified by Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography (CTCA) rather than invasive angiography. The investigators plan to retrospectively evaluate CTCA in patients who underwent CTO PCI and correlate calcification characteristics with CTO PCI outcomes and tools utilised for calcium modification.