Clinical Trials

Are you a current patient at Massachusetts General Hospital or Brigham and Women’s Hospital with clinical depression and heart failure or unstable chest pain (called angina)? This study is investigating whether 26 weeks of education and increased monitoring from healthcare managers improves psychiatric and heart symptoms better than self-managed care. This study takes place in Boston, Massachusetts.

Have you experienced a cardiac event in the past 6 months? This study assesses the efficacy of combining center-based and remote- or home-based cardiac rehabilitation sessions. Many patients who require cardiac rehabilitation, including those with angina myocardial infarction, heart failure, heart valve disease, and coronary heart (artery) disease, do not complete the necessary amount of rehabilitation sessions when done in a center-based environment. Researchers are investigating whether a combination approach will help. To participate in this study, you must be between 18 and 85 years old. This study takes place in Detroit, Michigan.

Does your developing baby have a heart defect? Have you had a stillborn baby? This study tests a new technology to measure fetal heart activity and find possible problems early. These problems include fetal arrhythmia and conduction disorders such as Brugada syndrome. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years old and pregnant, and have one of five high-risk complications of pregnancy: a fetus with a major congenital heart defect, hydrops, or gastroschisis; a previous unexplained stillbirth; or twins who share a placenta. This study is located in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Have you been diagnosed with orthostatic intolerance? This study aims to find out how the body’s regulation of basic functions, such as heart rate and blood pressure, is altered in people who have orthostatic intolerance. This condition, which has an unknown cause, is characterized by a racing heartbeat, dizziness, lightheadedness, and other symptoms that occur when a person stands up. To participate in this study, you must be between 18 and 80 years old and have orthostatic intolerance. This study is located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Do you or your child have dyslipidemia? This study is exploring how different diagnostic tests can help us understand how lipid disorders, including high blood cholesterol and high blood triglycerides, affect the body. Information from this study may help improve the way lipid disorders are diagnosed or treated in the future. Participants in this study must be at least 2 years old. The study is being conducted in Bethesda, Maryland.

Are you an adult who is healthy or has problems with the level of cholesterol or other lipids in the blood? This study is gathering information on the risk factors for very high or very low levels of lipids, or fats, in the blood. Researchers will collect participants’ demographic information, medical history, and blood samples. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years old. This study takes place in Dallas, Texas.

Pneumonia is a major public health problem for the elderly and is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death for this population, particularly for elderly nursing home residents. This planning grants seeks to establish a safe and effective dose of zinc supplementation with the goal to conduct a larger randomized clinical trial to study the effect of zinc supplementation in nursing home elderly with low serum zinc levels on the risk, antibiotic use, and duration of sick days with pneumonia. This project has significant potential to positively impact the health and quality of life in the elderly and to reduce the economic costs associated with their care.

DIVA is a pragmatic randomized clinical trial (RCT) to determine: among (P) preterm infants born 24-27 6/7 weeks gestation undergoing extubation from mechanical ventilation, whether (I) Non-invasive neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NIV-NAVA) (C) compared with Non-synchronized nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NS-NIPPV), will reduce the incidence of (O) extubation failure within (T) 5 days (120 hours) of extubation.

This observational trial studies whether respiratory viruses are the cause of lung disease (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome [BOS] or graft-versus-host disease of the lung) and changes in lung function in patients who have received a donor stem cell transplant. Patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) are at higher risk of developing BOS. Studies have also shown that patients who had a respiratory viral illness early after their transplant are at higher risk of developing lung problems later on. Patients who are at risk and who already have BOS might benefit from being monitored more closely. Spirometry is a way of assessing a patient's lung function and is often used to diagnose lung disease. Spirometry measured at home with a simple handheld device may reduce the burden of performing pulmonary function testing at a facility and potentially help patients get their lung disease diagnosed and treated sooner.

The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of respiratory functional and respiratory motor responses to the scES as an important step toward the long-term goal of developing effective evidence-based rehabilitation strategies for patients with SCI. The central hypothesis is that scES raises the excitability of motor networks for respiration resulting in amplified use-dependent neural plasticity in response to the respiratory training. The rationale for the proposed study is to justify the development of a new direction in respiratory rehabilitation by using respiratory training in combination with electrical spinal cord stimulation.