Clinical Trials

The Bashir™ Endovascular Catheter has been designed to administer therapeutic agents in the peripheral vasculature. Because of the unique design of the catheter, with its six expandable infusion limbs, the Bashir™ Endovascular Catheter has the ability to: 1. Create a much larger central channel for blood flow, thereby utilizing the body's own endogenous fibrinolytic agents to lyse the clot, and 2. Greatly enhance the radial dispersion of a catheter-administered thrombolytic agent throughout the thrombus. Expansion of the multiple arms of the basket in the infusion catheter causes fissuring of the clot. The net result is that a greater surface area of clot is exposed to both endogenous and exogenously administered lytic agents, thereby promoting clot dissolution.

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.

Are you an adult willing to give blood samples? This study investigates ways to prevent blood clotting in people with sickle cell disease. In this population, blood clotting is the most common cause of vascular death after heart attack and stroke. Scientists are studying the blood of people with sickle cell disease and comparing it with the blood of people without sickle cell disease over 2 years. To participate in this study, you must be between the ages of 18 and 80 years old and willing to participate for up to 2 years. This study takes place in Bethesda, Maryland.

Has your doctor recommended right heart cardiac catheterization for you? This study is investigating new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that use a guidewire to help position a heart catheter within the heart. MRI fluoroscopy shows pictures of the heart so that doctors can watch while they work. Using the guidewire during MRI may improve the procedure of heart catheterization. To participate in this study, you must be at least 18 years old, and your doctor must have recommended right heart catheterization for you. This study is located in Bethesda, Maryland.

ASCEND researchers are partnering with families of children who receive extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) after a sudden failure of breathing named pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). ECMO is a life support technology that uses an artificial lung outside of the body to do the lung's work. ASCEND has two objectives.

The purpose of this study is to compare reintubation rates and outcomes of patients treated with high-flow nasal canula oxygen therapy (HFNC) and patients treated with provider choice of standard care.

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate if augmenting a usual audit and feedback implementation approach with telehealth-enabled support improves coordinated spontaneous awakening/breathing trials and patient outcomes for mechanically ventilated patients.

Ventilated pediatric patients are frequently over-sedated and the majority suffer from delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction that is an independent predictor of increased risk of dying, length of stay, and costs. Universally prescribed sedative medications-the GABA-ergic benzodiazepines-worsen this brain organ dysfunction and independently prolong duration of ventilation and ICU stay, and the available alternative sedation regimen using dexmedetomidine, an alpha-2 agonist, has been shown to be superior to benzodiazepines in adults, and may mechanistically impact outcomes through positive effects on innate immunity, bacterial clearance, apoptosis, cognition and delirium. The mini-MENDS trial will compare dexmedetomidine and midazolam, and determine the best sedative medication to reduce delirium and improve duration of ventilation, and functional, psychiatric, and cognitive recovery in our most vulnerable patients-survivors of pediatric critical illness.

The investigators will screen all mechanically ventilated ED patients for study eligibility and will enroll all consecutive patients satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study aims to improve care by educating caregivers on AWP and the use of the neuromuscular blockers, which are already routinely used, and studying that process in a rigorous fashion.

The goal of this study is to compare two different ways of helping patients with a condition called sepsis who need help breathing using a machine called a ventilator. The investigators want to study which way of setting the ventilator is better for the lungs.