Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, but treatment has advanced dramatically. Statins, blood thinners, and blood pressure medications prevent many heart attacks and strokes. Surgeons can repair blocked arteries, replace valves, and implant devices that regulate heart rhythm or pump blood.
What's actually going on in research
Trials are testing PCSK9 inhibitors and inclisiran for cholesterol, SGLT2 inhibitors and finerenone for heart failure, and gene therapies for inherited cardiac conditions. Researchers are studying inflammation's role in heart disease, testing new anticoagulants, and developing devices that restore heart function without transplant.
SGLT2 inhibitors
Originally diabetes drugs, SGLT2 inhibitors like empagliflozin and dapagliflozin now treat heart failure in people with or without diabetes. They reduce hospitalizations and extend survival.
Gene therapy for cardiac disease
Trials are testing gene therapies for familial hypercholesterolemia and rare inherited cardiomyopathies. These one-time treatments aim to correct the genetic defect causing disease.
Inflammation targeting
Drugs that reduce inflammation, like colchicine and canakinumab, lower heart attack risk. Researchers are testing whether treating inflammation can prevent cardiovascular events as effectively as lowering cholesterol.
What to know before you search
Eligibility typically depends on cholesterol levels, blood pressure, history of heart attack or stroke, heart function measurements, and presence of diabetes or other risk factors.
What types of trials are currently open
- Prevention trials — Testing drugs or interventions to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at high risk. These often run for years to detect meaningful differences in cardiovascular events.
- Heart failure trials — Testing medications, devices, or procedures to help the heart pump more effectively and reduce hospitalizations.
- Post-heart attack trials — Testing treatments given after a heart attack to prevent another event, reduce scarring, or restore heart function.
- Device trials — Testing pacemakers, defibrillators, heart pumps, and valve replacements to see which patients benefit most and whether new designs improve outcomes.
- Cholesterol trials — Testing newer drugs that lower LDL cholesterol more aggressively than statins alone, particularly in people who can't tolerate statins or need additional reduction.
Recently added Cardiovascular Diseases trials
Walking and Thinking - Brain Activity During Complex Walking in Stroke
Everyday life requires individuals to function in complex environments and perform tasks that involve the integration of motor and cognitive abilities. However, stroke often leads to impairments in motor-cognitive interaction, which can negatively affect mobility, balance, attention, and the ability to live independently. Although motor-cognitive performance has been identified as an important rehabilitation target after stroke, limited knowledge exists regarding the underlying brain function associated with these difficulties and how rehabilitation and exercise interventions can best address them. Improving treatment for motor-cognitive difficulties after stroke, such as dual-task walking and navigation, remains a major challenge. An important step is developing assessment methods that accurately capture these impairments in ecologically valid settings that reflect real-world mobility demands. The investigators therefore aim to explore brain function during complex walking after stroke by investigating motor-cognitive performance and its neural correlates during three walking conditions: dual-task walking, navigation, and a combination of both. Non-invasive measures of brain activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) together with advanced real-time gait analysis will be used to better understand how stroke affects motor-cognitive functioning during complex walking tasks.
Comparison Of Different Mechanical Thrombectomy Devices in Endovascular Treatment of Acute Iliofemoral Venous Thrombosis
A head-to-head comparison of two different types of percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) - ClotTriever System versus aspiration thrombectomy (including rheolytic thrombectomy) - in patients with acute iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was conducted to determine whether ClotTriever System can improve thrombus clearance rate, reduce the incidence of post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), and enhance the long-term efficacy of endovascular treatment for acute iliofemoral DVT.
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