Up to 67% of patients undergoing heart surgery may experience complications after surgery. These complications may include longer stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), more time on a ventilator (also known as a breathing machine), longer overall stay in the hospital, having to return to the hospital soon after being discharged, and even death.
This research study is being performed to see whether RBT-1, an investigational new drug, can reduce complications after heart surgery
In this research study, you will have a 50% chance of being assigned to receive RBT-1 and a 50% chance of being assigned to receive placebo.
If you decide to participate, you will receive a single intravenous (IV) infusion (an infusion into your vein) of either: 1) RBT-1 at a dose level of 45 mg SnPP/240 mg FeS or 2) placebo in the form of normal saline (salt water solution). You cannot choose whether you are given RBT-1 or placebo.
Troponin I (cTnI) is a protein that is found in the heart muscle. When someone has a heart attack or other injury to the heart muscle, increased levels of cTnI can be measured in the blood and testing for cTnI in blood is used to help diagnose a heart attack and other heart conditions.
Troponin I (cTnI) is a protein that is found in the heart muscle. When someone has a heart attack or other injury to the heart muscle, increased levels of cTnI can be measured in the blood and testing for cTnI in blood is used to help diagnose a heart attack and other heart conditions.
The purpose of the study is to generate a bio bank of specimens for research. We will tissue that would otherwise be discarded from clinical or surgical procedure and information from medical records. We will also collect discarded blood, urines and sputum. Collecting samples will help to better understanding the mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, identify biomarkers for early diagnosis and to predict safety and efficacy of new therapies.
Current care patterns for patients with acute chest pain fail to provide optimal quality and value. To avoid missing acute
coronary syndrome (ACS), emergency physicians hospitalize >50% of patients who present to the Emergency Department with
chest pain. However, <10% are ultimately diagnosed with ACS, and this pervasive overtriage
costs $1013
billion annually.
The HEART Pathway, which was developed at Wake Forest Baptist Health (WFBH), is designed to improve care for patients with
chest pain. It uses a validated clinical decision aid and serial troponin measures to provide realtime
decision support to providers.
In our prior studies, the HEART Pathway decreased hospitalizations, stress testing, and hospital length of stay, without
increasing adverse events. These studies led to a learning health system project in collaboration with insurers, in which the
HEART Pathway was fully integrated into the WFBH EHR. Preliminary results demonstrate further reductions in hospitalizations
and stress testing. Given WFBH's success with the HEART Pathway, the next logical step is regional dissemination.
This project will leverage Carolinas Collaborative infrastructure to collect data specific to the HEART Pathway from all 4 health
systems, establishing rates of healthcare utilization and ACS outcomes for Emergency Department patients with chest pain in
the Carolinas. In addition, we will engage key stakeholders at each health system to develop an implementation strategy. This
proposal builds on our prior work and will provide pilot data essential for a larger grant application that will support rigorous
testing and implementation of the HEART Pathway across Carolinas Collaborative health systems.