Vascular Disease

A prospective, multicenter single-arm, open label study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Neuroguard IEP System for the treatment of carotid artery stenosis in subjects at elevated risk for adverse events following carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

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.

The SATURN trial aims to determine whether continuation vs. discontinuation of statin drugs after spontaneous lobar intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the best strategy; and whether the decision to continue/discontinue statins should be influenced by an individual's Apolipoprotein-E (APOE) genotype.

An MRI ancillary study (SATURN MRI), in a subset of SATURN participants , will evaluate the effects of continuation vs. discontinuation of statin drugs on hemorrhagic and ischemic MRI markers of cerebral small vessel disease, and whether the presence/burden of hemorrhagic markers (i.e. cerebral microbleeds and/or cortical superficial siderosis) on baseline MRI influences the risk of ICH recurrence on/off statin therapy.

This partially randomized phase III trial studies the side effects of inotuzumab ozogamicin and how well it works when given with frontline chemotherapy in treating patients with newly diagnosed B acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Monoclonal antibodies, such as inotuzumab ozogamicin, may block cancer growth in different ways by targeting certain cells. Drugs used in chemotherapy work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Giving inotuzumab ozogamicin with chemotherapy may work better in treating young adults with B acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Complete occlusion of the Internal carotid artery (ICA) by atherosclerotic disease (COICA) causes approximately 15%-25% of ischemic strokes in the carotid artery distribution. Patients treated with medical therapy have a 7%-10% risk of recurrent stroke per year for any stroke and a 5%-8% risk per year for ipsilateral ischemic stroke during the first 2 years after ICA occlusion. Internal carotid artery occlusion causes an estimated 61,000 first-ever strokes per year in the US an incidence more than twice the annual occurrence of ruptured intracranial aneurysms Additionally, 40% of subjects with COICA who present with transient ischemic attack (TIA) and 70% of COICA who present with stroke have cognitive decline with increased risk of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's' disease (AD) with time (2,3).

Symptomatic COICA subjects are at increased risk of developing cognitive impairment and progressive development of vascular dementia and AD with time. Our proposal leverages several compelling retrospective and prospective preliminary data from human to perform this exploratory trial with go/no-go criteria to proceed to a phase 3 based on the data generated

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 use dual energy x-ray computed tomography (DECT) to evaluate the relationship between heterogeneous perfusion, hypoxia (low oxygen in inspired gas) and induction of pulmonary vascular dilatation to characterize emphysema susceptibility in a normal smoking population. The investigators will correlate DECT measures of perfusion with lung injury measured by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). 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 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 purpose of the study is to test the effects of blocking sympathetic nerve activity with a drug called clonidine on blood vessel function and muscle nerve activity in adults who are obese and have high blood pressure.

The cohort of subjects will consist of 69 healthy young men and women age 18-79 years who are obese, defined as a body mass index \> or = to 30 kg/m2, who have untreated systolic hypertension (systolic blood pressure \> or = to 130 - \<180 mmHg- average of at least 3 measurements 2 min apart after 10 min seated resting position). These 69 subjects will then be randomized to 3 treatment arms: clonidine (0.1 mg/day), hydrochlorothiazide (25 mg/day) or placebo for 4 weeks in years 1 and 2. All tablets will be encapsulated by to look identical. Subjects will randomly (1:1:1) receive one of the following combinations in a double-blind, placebo-controlled design:

1. Oral clonidine (0.1 mg twice/day)
2. Oral hydrochlorothiazide (12.5 mg twice/day)
3. Oral placebo

I

This study investigates the effect of dietary inorganic nitrate supplementation on 1) large elastic artery stiffness and hemodynamics and 2) cerebrovascular function in middle-aged and older adults. Participants will be randomized to consume either nitrate-containing or nitrate-depleted beetroot juice.