Heart Disease

Stiffening of your blood vessels, particularly the large vessels from your heart (called the aorta and carotids) you age contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as heart attack and stroke. Nerve activity from your brain to your body also increases with advancing age but it is unknown if this nerve activity contributes directly to the stiffening on your blood vessels in older adults in addition to high blood pressure. Therefore, successful completion of the proposed aims will have a significant clinical impact by identifying if nerve activity from your brain could be a novel target for therapies that would lower stiffness of the aorta and carotid arteries in older adults.

Moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity is known to reduce the risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and other adverse pregnancy outcomes that increase future maternal cardiovascular disease risk (2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2018; Davenport et al., 2018), yet less than 25% of pregnant women meet public health physical activity guidelines (Hesketh & Evenson, 2016). More than 95% of the 24-hour day is spent in sedentary behavior, sleep, or light-intensity activity; however, the impacts of these lower intensity activities on adverse pregnancy outcomes are unknown. This multi-site observational cohort study (N=500) will leverage state-of-the-art, 24-hour behavior assessment in each trimester of pregnancy and examine associations with adverse pregnancy outcomes to inform guidelines and future interventions designed to improve women's pregnancy and long-term cardiovascular health.

This randomized phase III trial studies how well imatinib mesylate works in combination with two different chemotherapy regimens in treating patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Imatinib mesylate has been shown to improve outcomes in children and adolescents with Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) ALL when given with strong chemotherapy, but the combination has many side effects. This trial is testing whether a different chemotherapy regimen may work as well as the stronger one but have fewer side effects when given with imatinib. The trial is also testing how well the combination of chemotherapy and imatinib works in another group of patients with a type of ALL that is similar to Ph+ ALL. This type of ALL is called "ABL-class fusion positive ALL", and because it is similar to Ph+ ALL, is thought it will respond well to the combination of agents used to treat Ph+ ALL.

ORION-4 is a research study coordinated by the University of Oxford and co-sponsored by The University of Oxford and Novartis (Protocol: CTSU_MDCO-PCS-17-01 (CKJX839B12301)). The study aims to find out if a new cholesterol-lowering injection (inclisiran) safely lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who have already had one of these conditions, or who have had an operation or procedure to treat blocked arteries.

This study will assess the effect of lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with evolocumab on major cardiovascular events in adults without a prior myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke who are at high risk of a cardiovascular event.

Study ROR-PH-301, ADVANCE OUTCOMES, is designed to assess the efficacy and safety of ralinepag when added to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) standard of care or PAH-specific background therapy in subjects with World Health Organization (WHO) Group 1 PAH.

The investigators will study the effect of pulmonary arterial vasodilation to see if it eliminates indices of persistent lung injury in smokers that are susceptible to emphysema.

The proposed research is clinical study evaluating the therapeutic benefits of curcumin on vascular function in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The study aims to establish that curcumin will improve endothelial function and reduce large artery stiffness by reducing oxidative stress and in conjunction with lowering markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. In addition, the study will evaluate the potential benefit of curcumin on cognitive function in patients with CKD.