Hypertension Clinical Trials

Hypertension is a common condition with a concomitant burden of stroke, kidney disease and myocardial infarction. Its prevalence in developed societies is increasing as they age, and in less developed countries, as their populations assume aspects of the Western diet and lifestyle. Nocturnal non-dipping hypertension (NDHT) - the failure of blood pressure (BP) to dip at night - is estimated to complicate ~40% of hypertensives and is associated with poor outcomes. Randomized controlled trials have shown that a reduction of daytime systolic blood pressure by as little as 5mmHg on average (towards a target of 140mmHg) translates into a measurable clinical benefit. The peak nocturnal difference may be ~15-20mmHg systolic, illustrating the substantial potential for incremental benefit by adequate blood pressure control across the 24 hour cycle in this population. In this study, the investigators wish (i) to establish through repeated assessment, the stability of the non-dipping phenotype (Phase 1), and (ii) to deeply phenotype non-dippers by using parameters assessing day/night patterns, the chronobiome (Phase 2). To facilitate data collection over the course of the study, the investigators use wearable devices and mobile phone applications. Read Less

High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, affects nearly half of all Americans and increases the risk for heart disease and stroke. Only about half of people with high blood pressure have it under control. New methods to control blood pressure are needed to reduce heart attack and stroke rates. The purpose of this study is to test whether a digital program that includes personalized health coaching and remote patient monitoring with a connected blood pressure cuff, all delivered on a smartphone or website, can improve blood pressure control compared with usual care among patients with high blood pressure. Read Less

The investigators' goal is to show that in hypertensive men and women with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) treatment with a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist, versus a thiazide-like diuretic, will improve coronary microvascular function and cardiac efficiency, which will associate with improvements in LV structure and function. The investigators will achieve this through a randomized, controlled, basic experimental study involving humans (BESH). Read Less

This study will evaluate whether the mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist eplerenone, when compared to chlorthalidone plus potassium chloride, can improve cardiac MRI-derived myocardial perfusion reserve and fibrosis, independent of blood pressure, and proportionately to the severity of autonomous aldosterone production. Read Less

The primary objective of this project is to refine a cognitive-behavioral intervention for comorbid alcohol misuse and modifiable CVD risk with diverse stakeholder input, so that the intervention can be deployed within existing VA systems. The intervention will deliver telehealth CBT for alcohol misuse, tailored and timely text messages facilitating clinical traction with CVD risk reduction, and a telehealth coaching call to transition focus of treatment targets. The primary hypotheses of this study are that the developed intervention will be feasible to deliver, acceptable to Veterans and clinicians, and show signs of reducing alcohol misuse and increasing behaviors associated with cardiovascular health. Read Less

The goal of this research is to determine whether a theory-informed implementation strategy is successful at increasing the uptake of a supported home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) program as well as to determine the effectiveness of this evidence-based practice when implemented across multiple practices serving a diverse patient population. Read Less

BP-REACH is a study of a team-based (pharmacist and health coach) program for lowering blood pressure for people with a prior stroke or heart attack in the Los Angeles Department of Health Services public healthcare system. The goal of this clinical trial is to test if this team based program is better at helping people reduce their blood pressure than usual care for people with prior heart attack or stroke. The main questions it aims to answer are: Do people in the REACH BP program have lower blood pressure at 12 months compared to those getting usual care? Do people in the REACH BP program have better Life's Essential 8 scores and patient experience compared to those getting usual care? Read Less

Above-normal systolic blood pressure (SBP), defined as SBP >/= 120 mmHg, is the major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, cognitive decline/dementia, and other chronic health problems. Despite the availability of treatments to lower SBP, over 75 percent of adults with above-normal SBP fail to control BP, which has led to a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of deaths attributable to BP over the past decade. Therefore, above-normal SBP is a major public health burden. Greater than 65 percent of adults 50 years of age and older have above-normal SBP. The number of adults age 50 years and older is rapidly increasing, predicting a continued increase in above-normal SBP driven morbidity and mortality in the absence of effective treatment strategies. This makes developing novel SBP-lowering therapies an urgent biomedical research priority. Increasing SBP is closely linked to vascular dysfunction, observable as impaired endothelial function, increased large-elastic artery stiffness, and impaired cerebrovascular function. Declines in these functions play a large role in the increased risk of chronic disease associated with above-normal SBP. The primary mechanism responsible for SBP-induced vascular dysfunction is thought to be oxidative stress-associated inhibition of nitric oxide bioavailability. Therefore, to have the largest biomedical impact, new SBP-lowering therapies should also improve vascular function by decreasing oxidative stress. Healthy lifestyle practices, such as conventional aerobic exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, or reducing sodium intake, are all first-line strategies to lower SBP. Importantly, these lifestyle practices also improve vascular function, in large part by reducing oxidative stress. However, adherence to healthy lifestyle practices is poor, with adherence to guidelines generally between 20 to 40 percent in adult Americans. The greatest reported barrier to meeting healthy lifestyle guidelines is lack of time. Therefore, time-efficient interventions have great promise for promoting adherence, reducing SBP, and improving other physiological functions. High-resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) is a time-efficient (5 minutes per session) lifestyle intervention consisting of 30 inspiratory maneuvers performed against a high resistance. Preliminary data suggest 6-weeks of IMST performed 6 days/week reduces SBP by 9 mmHg in adults with above-normal SBP (i.e., greater than 120 mmHg) at baseline. Importantly, this reduction in SBP is equal to or greater than the reduction in blood pressure typically achieved with time- and effort-intensive healthy lifestyle strategies like conventional aerobic exercise. However, these results need to be confirmed in an appropriately powered clinical trial with a longer, guideline-based treatment duration. Furthermore, the influence of IMST on functions impaired by above-normal SBP (endothelial, cerebrovascular, cognitive) needs to be determined, as do the mechanisms through which IMST exerts beneficial effects. Accordingly, we will conduct a randomized, blinded, sham-controlled, parallel group design clinical trial to assess the efficacy of 3-months of IMST (75 percent maximal inspiratory pressure) vs. brisk walking (40-60% heart rate reserve; an established healthy lifestyle strategy) for lowering SBP and improving endothelial, cerebrovascular, and cognitive function in adults age 50 years and older with above-normal SBP. I hypothesize IMST will lower SBP and improve endothelial function by decreasing oxidative stress and increasing nitric oxide bioavailability. I also hypothesize IMST will improve cerebrovascular and cognitive function, and that these improvements will be related to reductions in SBP and improvements in endothelial function. I also expect adherence to the intervention to be excellent (over 80 percent of all training sessions completed at the appropriate intensity). To test my hypothesis, I will recruit 102 adults age 50 years and older who have SBP >/= 120 mmHg. Subjects will undergo baseline testing for casual (resting) SBP, 24-hour ambulatory SBP, endothelial function, arterial stiffness, cognitive function, and cerebrovascular function. Innovative mechanistic probes including pharmaco-dissection with vitamin C, analysis of biopsied endothelial cells, and high-throughput metabolomics, will be performed to assess oxidative stress and nitric oxide bioavailability at baseline. After baseline testing, subjects will be randomized to perform either 3-months of high-resistance IMST or brisk walking. Subjects will train 6 days/week with one training session supervised in the laboratory and the other 5 performed unsupervised at home. Following 3 months of training, subjects will redo all the tests that were done during baseline testing to assess training-induced changes in SBP, physiological functions, and underlying mechanisms. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not an MRI technique (quantitative magnetization transfer or qMT) in narrowing human kidneys is feasible, reproducible, and predicts recovery. Read Less

The PCOT study is a multi-site randomized trial of patients 70 years or older with high BP. The main goal of the study Preventing Cognitive Decline by Reducing BP Target Trial (PCOT) is to conduct a large pragmatic clinical trial (PCT) to test the hypothesis that patients who receive care with a combination of clinical decision support (CDS) and team-based care delivered in primary care practices will have better blood pressure control and a lower incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia than patients receiving usual medical care. Patients will be recruited from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Health & Hospital System. Read Less

The main purpose of research is to examine and understanding the development of hypertension in obese adults with insulin resistance. Findings from our studies will identify unique mechanisms that can be targeted to limit increases in vascular dysfunction and reduce the excessively high prevalence of hypertension and risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study is testing the health of the blood vessels and the activity of the nerves that control the blood vessels in adults with insulin resistance. The extent to which ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) improves the function of the blood vessels will be determined. The primary outcome is blood pressure, which is the result of blood vessel health and activity of the nerves, and the reduction in blood pressure that is observed with ascorbic acid. Read Less

The investigator aims to assess the extent to which a brief exercise intervention improves systemic growth factor concentrations, reverses loss of systemic vascular networks and hypertension, and by extension, improves neurocognition. To test the investigator's hypothesis that increased cardiovascular fitness will correlate with improved vascular density, the investigator proposes the innovative use of retinal density scans. Read Less