Leveraging Exercise Stress Echocardiography for Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Launched by DUKE UNIVERSITY · Apr 7, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is exploring a new way to help doctors understand if a patient’s chest pain or shortness of breath is caused by a condition known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Researchers want to see if taking extra images during a stress echocardiogram—a test that uses sound waves to look at the heart while the patient exercises—can provide more information about the heart's function and stiffness. This study aims to improve how doctors diagnose and treat patients experiencing these symptoms.

To participate in this trial, you need to be at least 50 years old and have a medically necessary stress echocardiogram due to shortness of breath or chest pain. However, if you have a known history of HFpEF or certain other heart conditions, you may not be eligible. If you join, you can expect to undergo the stress echocardiogram, where doctors will monitor your heart under exercise conditions and take images to assess its performance. It’s important to know that this study is not currently recruiting participants, but it aims to gather valuable insights to help improve heart health assessments in the future.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Clinically indicated exercise stress echo for the evaluation of exertional dyspnea or chest pain
• • Age ≥50 years
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Known history of HFpEF
• • LVEF \<50% on baseline echo study
• • History of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, amyloidosis, or pulmonary arterial hypertension, severe right ventricular dysfunction and severe valvular disease based on chart review or baseline echo study
• • History of organ transplant (heart, kidney, liver, lungs)
• • Severe pulmonary disease requiring ambulatory oxygen therapy
• • End-stage renal disease requiring long-term renal replacement therapy
• • Decompensated liver disease
• • Conditions that prevent accurate assessment of E/e' ratio (mitral prosthetic valve, severe mitral annular calcification)
• • Plan to use echo contrast agent during stress study (i.e. contrast agent needed for baseline study)
• • Patients from outside Duke health system with no plan for long-term care at Duke