Clinical Research Directory

Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Patients With Chronic Coronary Syndromes

The CCS-plastics is an investigator-initiated, prospective, multicenter study of patients undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) for suspected or known chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) referred to invasive coronary angiography for clinical indication. Patients identified as eligible for the protocol will be asked for written consent to participate in the study. The patients' dossiers will be uploaded and transmitted to the core laboratory for analysis. The routine management of the CCS patients will not be affected and all patients will be managed according to current standards. Invasive coronary angiography and coronary blood samples will be performed following the current standards, guidelines, and indications. During invasive coronary angiography, coronary blood samples will be collected per standard of care and sent to a centralized, specialized core laboratory for MNPs and biomarkers analysis. The central core lab for MNPs analyses will be the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, Italy. The identification, quantification (concentration, mcg/ml), and typing of plastic particles will be performed in each tube for each patient, using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and laser direct infrared (LDIR) spectroscopy. The CCTA will be centrally analyzed by Centro Cardiologico Monzino to evaluate qualitative and quantitative plaque features. Patients will be followed clinically at 1 and 3 years per standard of care.

Microplastics and Nanoplastics (MNPs) in Patients With ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI)

Air pollution and microplastics pose major public health threats. Emerging data have shown that micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants accumulating in human tissues, triggering inflammation and prothrombotic state. This study will investigate the presence and burden of MNPs within coronary thrombi/thromboaspirate of patients presenting with ST segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention and their association with cardiac damage, plaque vulnerability, microvascular obstruction, and cardiovascular events. Plaque vulnerability will be explored by optical coherence tomography, while microvascular obstruction will be assessed by bolus thermodilution and cardiac magnetic resonance. Participants will be followed up for 1-year to evaluate whether the presence and the burden of MNPs will be associated with a higher incidence of the cardiovascular events.

Environmental Pollutants and Life Quality

This study is part of the MISTRAL project, funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Program, within the Work Programme 2021-2022 of Pillar II - Health Cluster on Environment and Health, which has the main objective of creating a cloud-based informatics platform for Health Impact Assessment analysis that, thanks to artificial intelligence, is able to simulate different clinical scenarios, economic and social, before and after the introduction of environmental risk mitigation policies, starting from data and evidence derived from case studies (several European cities) with different levels of exposure to environmental, health, geographical and socio-economic factors. The Project involves 11 partners distributed among Italy (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Azienda Sanitaria Locale di Taranto, University of Bari, Politecnico di Bari, APS PLANET), Belgium (University of Hasselt), Poland (AGH-University of Technology and Science), Germany (Nuromedia), Spain (Ubitel), Greece (WINGS-ICT Solutions) and England (University of Oxford, University of Suffolk). Specifically, the ZEPHYR study is a cross-sectional (cross-sectional), population-based, multicenter survey. The centers involved are the ASL of Taranto with the Taranto City Single District (Coordinating Recruitment Center), the University of Hasselt, Belgium (Recruitment Center Hasselt Hospital Campus), and the University of Krakow, Poland (Rybnik University Hospital as recruitment center).