Clinical Research Directory

Early Feasibility Study (EFS) Evaluating Percutaneous Repair of the Atrial Septum With a Novel PFO Occluder: The PROTEA-PFO Study

The goal of this clinical trial is to test a new heart device called P3 Occluder System in patients who have a small opening between the upper chambers of the heart (called a Patent Foramen Ovale or PFO) and have experienced a stroke that may be related to this heart opening. The main question it aims to answer is: • Is the P3 Occluder System safe and effective for closing a PFO in patients who have had a stroke that could be related to a PFO. Participants will: * Undergo the procedure to implant the P3 Occluder System, if deemed appropriate. * Visit their doctor at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years after the procedure for follow up exams. * Answer a phone call from study staff at 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years after the procedure to answer a survey.

Comparing PFO Outcomes of the Occlutech Flex II PFO Occluder to Standard of Care PFO Occlusion

The objective of this study is to investigate whether percutaneous PFO closure with the Occlutech Flex II PFO Occluder is non-inferior to the AMPLATZER™ PFO Occluder and Gore® Cardioform Septal Occluder in closure of the PFO, prevention of recurrent embolic stroke, and device/procedure related Serious Adverse Events (SAE).

Multimodal Brain Function in Migraine Patients With Patent Foramen Ovale

This investigator-initiated, single-center prospective study is designed to clarify how patent foramen ovale (PFO) relates to brain function abnormalities in patients with drug-refractory migraine with aura (MA), and whether percutaneous PFO closure is associated with measurable, longitudinal improvements in neurophysiological and neuroimaging markers as well as clinical symptoms. The study addresses two core questions: (1) Do MA patients with clinically significant right-to-left shunt due to PFO demonstrate distinct resting-state brain function patterns-captured by high-density EEG (hdEEG), resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), and standardized cognitive testing-compared with MA patients without PFO? (2) In MA patients with PFO who undergo clinically indicated percutaneous PFO closure, do these multimodal brain function measures change over time after closure (pre-procedure vs 1, 6, and 12 months), and are such changes accompanied by improvement in migraine burden, quality of life, and mood/anxiety symptoms? The protocol includes two phases. In Phase 1 (cross-sectional comparison), two groups are evaluated at baseline: MA with PFO (PFO+/MA+) and MA without PFO (PFO-/MA+). Participants complete hdEEG and rs-fMRI to characterize whole-brain power spectral density and connectivity, and undergo MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) testing and validated symptom/psychological assessments (e.g., MIDAS, MSQ v2.1, PHQ-9, GAD-7, RoPE). In Phase 2 (prospective self-controlled cohort), eligible PFO+/MA+ participants who proceed to percutaneous PFO closure as part of routine clinical care are followed longitudinally with repeated multimodal assessments at pre-closure baseline and post-closure 1, 6, and 12 months. This phase evaluates within-person trajectories of resting-state brain function (hdEEG, rs-fMRI) and cognition/emotion measures, together with migraine diary-based outcomes and patient-reported quality of life/disability and mood/anxiety scales. Key eligibility focuses on adults aged 18-65 years with ICHD-3-defined migraine with aura and a history of frequent migraine (≥4 migraine days/month during screening) despite prior preventive therapy trials; the PFO group requires echocardiographic confirmation of PFO with at least moderate right-to-left shunt (e.g., during Valsalva on contrast TEE), consistent with the study's focus on clinically meaningful shunt physiology. The primary endpoints are multimodal brain function and cognition measures. In Phase 1, the main outcomes include between-group differences in MCCB composite score, rs-fMRI whole-brain functional connectivity strength, and hdEEG spectral power across frequency bands (delta/theta/alpha/beta/gamma) and theta-band connectivity quantified by whole-brain phase-lag index (PLI). In Phase 2, the primary outcome is the 12-month post-closure change in these multimodal resting-state brain function measures, reflecting dynamic neural recovery or reorganization after PFO closure. Secondary outcomes include changes in migraine clinical metrics (monthly migraine days, attack frequency and duration, and complete remission rate), migraine-specific quality of life (MSQ v2.1), disability (MIDAS), and depression/anxiety symptom scores (PHQ-9 and GAD-7) over follow-up. Safety outcomes include adverse events potentially related to the closure procedure and routine post-procedural anti-thrombotic therapy, captured throughout follow-up.