Clinical Research Directory

Exploratory Study of the Diagnostic Potential of an Innovative Thoracic Vibration Analysis Technique

Heart and lung disease are two major causes of hospitalisation and mortality in France (4-8). Together, these two diseases affect several million people in France, either acutely or chronically. They represent a major public health problem in social and economic terms. Diagnosis of these disorders is often delayed, with acute decompensation preceded by a period of frustrating, non-specific clinical signs (9-12), which delay their discovery. Screening for these conditions in their early stages or diagnosing them in their acute form is crucial, but remains difficult because it requires multiple investigations that are costly and time-consuming (biology, radiology, ECG, etc.). The difficulty of diagnosis, the progressive profile and the ever-increasing frequency of these conditions (environmental and socio-economic factors) have considerably altered the landscape of medical emergencies and contributed to their difficulty. The availability of a non-invasive technique capable of diagnosing both cardiac and pulmonary disorders without the help of an expert, without direct contact with the patient and without requiring his or her active participation, would be a major advance. Technological innovations in all fields have always helped to improve patient care.The recent emergence of telemedicine and POCT(US) connected objects (point of care testing, point of care ultrasound)(13,14) is a good illustration of this. A new technique using ultrasound, developed by the Langevin Institute (Surface Camera Motion) and supported by the start-up Austral Diagnostics, makes it possible, without direct contact with the subject, to record the propagation of thoracic vibrations induced by the functioning of the heart pump and respiratory mechanics.Consequently, any anomaly in the functioning of these organs can cause a change in the thoracic vibration regime and its propagation. This completely new technique for exploring thoracic vibrations provides a particularly rich signal that has not yet been explored. Under these conditions, the signatures associated with cardiac and/or pulmonary pathologies are not yet perfectly defined.Furthermore, the diagnostic potential of this new technique in the early or acute phases of cardiopulmonary pathologies remains to be assessed. In this prospective study, we propose to explore the signatures produced by this signal in various cardiac and respiratory pathologies. The aim is To identify the discriminating criteria of the SMC signal that enable cardiac and pulmonary pathologies to be detected compared with a group of healthy subjects.

Cardiac Contractility Modulation in Chagas Heart Disease

Chagas disease is an endemic problem in Latin America, where millions of people are chronically infected with T. cruzi. Recently, it was assumed to have clinical and epidemiological relevance in several other countries due to migratory and globalizing social factors. CCC occurs in 30-50% of infected individuals, causing considerable morbidity/mortality rates. Heart failure is the most prevalent morbidity. While CRT and drug treatment have been advocated and implemented without much success to improve the clinical condition of patients with CCC, there is no consistent scientific evidence on the role of cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) as a form of adjuvant treatment for heart failure in patients with CCC. The hypothesis of this study is that patients with CCC, advanced heart failure, severe systolic dysfunction, and non-LBB have better clinical and functional responses when undergoing implantation of a CCM device than when undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Prevention of Age-associated Cardiac and Vascular Dysfunction Using Avmacol ES

Our local IRB approved clinical studies seeking proof of principle for the hypothesis that SFN can be safely administered to humans at doses sufficient to protect age-associated cardiac dysfunctions. Beneficial effects of SFN-therapy will be assessed by Pre- and post-intervention echocardiography, and exercise endurance at 0 and 24 weeks. Peripheral blood cells from treated and control subjects will be compared for mitochondrial respiratory function, oxidative damage, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and expression of antioxidant \& anti-electrophile genes.

RHYthm and Myocardial Function Relationship Evaluation in Heart Diseases

Arrhythmias are widespread among the global population. Although they can occur in healthy hearts, they are often the manifestation of a hereditary or acquired heart muscle disease, and may be the cause or, more often than not, the consequence. In recent decades, with advances in medical knowledge and technology, non-pharmacological therapies for arrhythmias have become increasingly popular. These fall into two broad categories: therapies aimed at electrostimulation and those aimed at ablation of arrhythmias. The selection of patients eligible for these procedures is essential for the effectiveness of the therapy, the reduction of complications and the optimisation of resources. Not all patients, even those selected according to guidelines, respond equally to the chosen therapy. Other patients, due to their clinical/ECG characteristics, do not have clear indications and remain in a borderline area where the class of evidence and/or recommendation of the guidelines is less stringent. Still others develop recurrences or complications during follow-up that require further intervention. In this context, it is essential in the study of these patients not only to use standard instrumental examinations, such as echocardiograms, Holter ECGs and stress tests (simple and cardiopulmonary), but also and above all to use advanced imaging methods (STE, 3D echo, MRI, CT, PET-CT) and remote monitoring tools that integrate diagnostic algorithms managed by artificial intelligence. In light of these considerations, our project consists of conducting an observational study that includes all patients with arrhythmias who are candidates for electrostimulation and/or ablation procedures at the Arrhythmology Unit and/or followed up at the Arrhythmology Clinic of our Polyclinic, in order to assess the clinical and/or imaging characteristics associated with a worse prognosis in this population, in terms of response to therapy and development of complications. Our main aim is to identify, within the above-mentioned population, the subgroups of responder patients versus non-responder patients, i.e. those with a worse prognosis , who deserve greater attention and more frequent follow-up.

Aerobic Exercise is Cardio-protective in Hemato-oncological Disease and New-onset Chemotherapy

Oncological diseases are the main cause of death in developed countries and also in Uruguay. Advances in therapeutics have made possible to aspire to cure and in other cases long-term remission with a significant increase in survival and the transformation of cancer into a chronic disease. Chemotherapy treatments have some side effects and cardiotoxicity is well known within them. Heart failure (HF) is a progressive pathology, with high mortality and high resource requirements of the health system with a prognosis that may be worse than some types of cancers. The treatment of established systolic dysfunction and symptomatic HF is mainly based on the indication of inhibitors of the angiotensin-converting enzyme and beta-blockers among other pharmaceutical and no pharmaceutical interventions. Aerobic physical exercise, as a therapeutic intervention, reverses the physiopathological changes that are presumed to lead to HF in sedentary people and it is known, it is feasible to execute an exercise program in cancer patients. However, effective treatments for the primary prevention of systolic dysfunction are not well known. Our hypothesis is that an aerobic physical exercise program for at least 3 months, in subjects with lymphoma and new-onset chemotherapy, is effective in preventing left ventricular systolic dysfunction, at the end of chemotherapy and at one year. For this, the investigators propose a randomized, controlled, clinical study which is blind both for the patient and the evaluating physician, comparing the difference of global longitudinal strain (an echocardiographic result of myocardial function) pre-chemotherapy minus end of chemotherapy and minus one year after, between the active group (aerobic program) and the control group (flexibility program).