Clinical Trials

Health organizations recommend exercise in an intensity based manner to promote cardiovascular adaptation and prevent disease. Metformin is a common anti-diabetes medication that reduces future type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, the optimal dose of exercise to be combined with metformin for vascular health remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether combining high or low intensity exercise with metformin has the potential to outperform either exercise intensity alone on blood flow across the arterial tree as well as impact insulin action in individuals with metabolic syndrome.

Do you have metabolic syndrome? This trial is testing whether low-intensity exercise or high-intensity exercise works best to lower the risk of heart and blood vessel diseases in people who have metabolic syndrome and are taking a medicine called metformin to treat high blood sugar levels. To participate in this study, you must be between 40 and 80 years old and diagnosed with metabolic syndrome but not type 2 diabetes. This study takes place in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Do you or your child have overweight or obesity? This study aims to find effective ways to prevent and treat obesity and metabolic syndrome in African American communities. The study will test the effectiveness of a family-based comprehensive health and fitness programs involving community health workers. Participants must be 12 years old or older and African American and have overweight or obesity. This study takes place in Charleston, South Carolina.

Does your child have higher triglyceride levels but normal cholesterol levels? This study is testing whether a protein supplement called carnitine can help prevent blood vessel stiffness in teenagers who have metabolic syndrome or other risk factors for heart and blood vessel diseases. Participants in this study must be between 13 and 19 years old and have moderate to high blood triglyceride levels but normal blood cholesterol levels. This study takes place in Houston, Texas.

Do you or your child have a platelet, bleeding, or white blood cell disorder? This study is looking at people who have platelet or other blood disorders. The researchers will use a blood sample to look for problems with platelets and a possible genetic cause in the participant’s DNA or RNA. To participate in this study, you must be a child or adult who either is healthy or has a platelet disorder, coagulation disorder, or white blood cell disorder. This study is located in New York, New York.

Does your infant have a low platelet count? This study investigates immature platelet counts as a marker for bleeding risk in newborns with thrombocytopenia, compared with platelet counts alone. Immature platelets are the most recently produced platelets and may be a better marker of platelet production. To participate in this study, you must have a newborn who is less than 32 weeks’ gestational age, has a birth weight greater than 500 grams, and has a platelet count less than 100 × 109/L. This study takes place in multiple locations in the United States, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Are you an adult with polycythemia vera or thrombocytosis? This study aims to find a new treatment or cure for polycythemia vera and thrombocytosis by locating genes and their changes, or mutations, that may contribute to these disorders. To participate in this study, you must have polycythemia vera with elevated hemoglobin (higher than 18 in men and 16 in women) or thrombocytosis with an elevated platelet count (higher than 450,000). This study takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah.

his trial will evaluate an oral drug discovered in a high throughput screen, which increases fetal globin protein (HbF and red blood cells expressing HbF)and messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to high levels in anemic nonhuman primates and in transgenic mice.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) impairs oxygen transport to tissue and causes endothelial injury. Thus, therapeutic interventions aim to improve both, but there is an unmet need for biomarkers to determine when intervention is necessary and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen intervention in individual patients. This study proposes to monitor SCD and its treatment through their impact on cerebral hemodynamics, as the brain is one of the most vulnerable and consequential targets of the disease. Specifically, this study will optimize quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and advanced optical spectroscopy techniques such as frequency-domain near-infrared and diffuse correlation spectroscopies (FDNIRS-DCS) to monitor 1) cerebral oxygen transport with measures of cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMRO2) and 2) endothelial function with cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR).

The main goal of this study is to determine whether the treatment will lead to a complete absence of severe vaso-occlusive events (VOEs) in patients with severe SCD.