Clinical Research Directory

Interest of Parametric Positron Emission Imaging in the Diagnosis of Infections on Cardiac Valve Prosthesis

The objective of this study is to determine if early parametric positron emission computed tomography is useful to diagnose cardiac prosthetic valve infections.

Impact of Preoperative Dental Screening in Reducing Infective Endocarditis Risk in Surgical Valve Replacement Patients

In Odense University Hospital preoperative dental screening (PDS) protocol for patients treated with surgical valve replacement was changed from mandatory to targeted PDS to from march 2024. The investigators will therefore compare the risk of IE before vs after march 2024.

Barts Endocarditis Research Registry

The Barts Endocarditis Research Registry is being set up to give a unique opportunity to assess the characteristics of Infective Endocarditis (IE) in our population cohort, the current use of imaging techniques, as well as the implementation of the ESC guidelines and its consequence in terms of prognosis. All this will help improve the diagnosis and management of IE. The registry will also form the core of all our subsequent work, including interventional studies. The endocarditis research registry is to record the epidemiological, demographic, microbiological, surgical and outcome data in our cohort of endocarditis patients. This work will underpin all future work in endocarditis by clearly defining our patient cohort and the outcomes from treatment. We have a series of studies planned that we believe will influence the management of endocarditis (we are working up proposals for genomic and therapeutic trials that will subsequently be presented for ethical and hospital approval). The registry will be generic to all our planned studies, and will allow us to capture data to assess treatment effectiveness

Early Valve Surgery Versus Conventional Treatment in Infective Endocarditis Patients With High Risk of Embolism

Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 15-25% and a high incidence of embolic events (20-50%). Leading causes of mortality are heart failure (HF) resulting from valve dysfunction, and stroke caused by vegetation embolization. The rate of symptomatic embolic events occurring after antibiotic initiation is around 15%. Valve surgery benefit has been clearly demonstrated in patients with periannular complications and moderate to severe HF resulting from acute valve regurgitation. The timing of surgery to prevent embolism is critical since the risk of new embolic event is highest during the first weeks of antibiotic treatment. The primary objective is to compare clinical outcomes of Early Valve Surgery (as soon as possible within 72 hours of randomization) with those of a conventional management based on current guidelines in patients with native left-sided IE and high risk of embolism. 208 patients (104 patients per arm) will be included in a national multicenter (21 centers) prospective randomized open blinded end-point (PROBE) sequential superiority trial.

Retention and Re-Engagement in Treatment for Addiction Following Serious Injection Related Infections (RETAIN)

This project is a pilot study of an adapted intervention of an existing Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment retention intervention called Recovery Management Checkups (RMC). This intervention has been adapted to better fit the experiences and unique issues of those that have been hospitalized with serious injection related infections (SIRI) based on the findings from a prior qualitative study from the principal investigator. This project plans to test the adapted intervention within a smaller group of participants to assess feasibility, acceptability, and calculate early findings of intervention efficacy. Hospitalizations for SIRIs are a unique entry point for patients to start their recovery journey with medications for OUD (MOUD), but many people do not remain on long-term treatment, despite evidence that indicates MOUDs reduce death and re-hospitalization after SIRIs. The study objectives are to: * Assess the implementation feasibility of the adapted RMC model for patients with SIRI and OUD. * Establish preliminary estimates of intervention efficacy. * Make further adaptions to the intervention that will reduce both known and unknown barriers to care and increase effectiveness in future larger scale trials. Findings from this pilot study will result in further intervention refinement to better fit the target population, and serve as the basis for a larger randomized control trial that will have aims focused on more in-depth analysis of the efficacy of this program

Evaluation of the Prognostic Impact of a Neuro-vascular Examination Associated with Cerebral MRI in the Acute Phase of Infectious Endocarditis

Infectious endocarditis (IE) is a serious condition with an annual incidence of 3 to 10 per 100,000 people. Brain infarctions complicate approximately 20-40% of endocarditis. Brain MRI can detect the presence of recent ischemic lesions and asymptomatic microbleeds. Preoperative brain imaging is part of the recommended assessment in the management of IEs, but the type of imaging and sequences are not codified and the impact of cerebral and vascular imaging findings on the therapeutic decision remains uncertain. The level of evidence of the recommendations remains low, especially for complicated IEs of stroke. There is very little neurological clinical data on patients with IEs. Similarly, neurologists do not systematically participate in multidisciplinary meetings during the management of an IE. It therefore seems interesting to carry out a neurological cohort of this population and to evaluate what would be the contribution of vascular neurologists in the management of infectious endocarditis.

Clinical and Diagnostic Features of Endocarditis

The burden of endocarditis has changed in the last years due to an increase in percutaneous valve procedures offered to a more fragile, and old population. Therefore an update in epidemiology data is necessary. The Observational prospective multicenter study to characterize the cLinical ANd DiagnoStiC feAtures of endocarditis in the contemPorary Era, (ENDO-LANDSCAPE study) is an observational, multicenter and international study. The study has two arms: retrospective and prospective. The retrospective arm will involve collecting data from patients discharged with a diagnosis of endocarditis between 2016 and 2022. The data obtained in the retrospective arm of the study will be utilized in a power calculation to determine the sample size for the prospective arm of the study. In the prospective phase in every participating center, all patients referred for echocardiography to assess for endocarditis and those with established endocarditis independent of the screened request will be eligible. Patients will then be stratified according to the presence or abscence of endocarditis. Those with an established diagnosis of endocarditis will be prospectively followed for outcomes.

Cytokine REmoval in CRitically Ill PAtients Requiring Surgical Therapy for Infective Endocarditis (RECReATE)

Infectious endocarditis (IE) and other severe infections are well-known to induce significant changes in the immune response including immune functionality in a considerable number of affected patients. In fact, numerous patients with IE develop a persistent functional immunological phenotype that can best be characterized by a profound anti-inflammation and/or functional anergy. This was previously referred to as "injury-associated immunosuppression (IAI)" by Pfortmüller et al., published in Intensive Care Medicine Experimental 2017. IAI can be assessed by measurement of cellular (functional) markers. Persistence of IAI is associated with prolonged ICU length of stay, increased secondary infection rates, and death. Immunomodulation to reverse IAI was shown beneficial in immunostimulatory (randomized controlled) clinical trials. CytoSorb® treatment is currently used as standard of care in some institutions in surgically treated IE patients. The investigators aim to investigate two accepted treatment protocols and aim to explore whether adsorption with a cytokine adsorption filter can increase immune competence in treated individuals.

An Oral Doxycycline Regimen to Prevent Bacteremia Following Dental Procedures

Although controversy exists regarding the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis for patients at risk of infective endocarditis, expert committees continue to publish recommendations for antibiotic prophylactic regimens. The last American Heart Association (AHA) and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines include several important changes, highlighting that clindamycin (CLI) is no longer recommended as an alternative to amoxicillin in those allergic to penicillin. This new project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of oral doxycycline in preventing post-dental extraction bloodstream infection.

PREhabilitation in Patients Awaiting Acute Inpatient Cardiac SurgEry

This is a single centre, single arm pilot feasibility study to determine the feasibility and practicality of prehabilitation in acute inpatients waiting for cardiac surgery. We will be looking into participant eligibility, acceptability, recruitment rates, completion rates and barriers to implementing a prehabilitation programme. Secondary outcomes include safety (incidence of adverse events directly related to the study), improvement in 6 minutes walk test (6MWT), hand grip strength, quality of life, and spirometry. At the end of the trial, we will be seeking the feedback of the participants to help us improve the design further.

Accelerated Treatment of Endocarditis

Existing guidelines recommend a duration of antibiotic treatment of endocarditis of 4-6 weeks one or more types of intravenously administered antibiotics. The long hospitalization increases several risks for the patient, including mental strain and increased loss of function. Furthermore, it poses a significant financial burden on the health systems. Current guidelines fail to use available clinical and paraclinical, data collected from patients (echo, temperature, CRP, leukocytes, procalcitonin etc.) to determine duration of treatment. A strategy including these data in treatment algorithms ensures an individualized treatment, targeting the individual patient's course and response to treatment. Thus, the purpose of this open-label, prospective, non-inferiority, RCT study is to investigate the safety and effectiveness of shortening treatment of endocarditis based on the individual patient's initial treatment response, sampling 475 patients, approx. 125 patients with each type of bacteria (Streptococci; Enterococcus faecalis; Staphylococcus aureus).

Postoperative Antibiotic Management Duration Following Surgery for Intravenous Drug Abuse (IVDA) Endocarditis (OPTIMAL)

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and compliance of initial intravenous (IV) antibiotics followed by oral antibiotic therapy following uncomplicated IVDA endocarditis. Endocarditis has a high rate of sickness and death, involves a long hospitalization and a long-term use of IV antibiotics necessitating six (6) weeks of in-patient hospital stay, and comes with a high cost.

The ENDOCARDITIS AUMC Data Collection

The investigators will compare patients with and without infective ndocarditis undergoing valve surgery and evaluate factors that may help optimise perioperative care of these high-risk patients.

Effectiveness of Antibiotic Prophylaxis of Infective Endocarditis for Invasive Dental Procedures in Patients With Prosthetic Heart Valves and/or History of Infective Endocarditis

Infective endocarditis (IE) continues to cause serious morbidity and mortality. To reduce its incidence, antibiotic prophylaxis has been recommended before invasive dental procedures in patients with at risk predispositions. Several studies have examined the effect of antibiotic prophylaxis on the incidence of IE and have brought conflicting results. The investigators aim to evaluate the effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis before invasive dental procedures to prevent oral streptococcal infective endocarditis in patients with prosthetic heart valves and/or history of IE, using a registry-based, cluster-randomized, controlled trial. In secondary objectives, the investigators aim to analyze changes in dentists' practices.