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The IMPULSE Study: Pilot

NCT02044471 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 20

Last updated 2017-04-28

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Continuous-flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are an important tool in the treatment of end-stage heart failure, affording patients significantly improved quantity and quality of life. In recent years, tens of thousands of LVADs have been implanted worldwide, with nearly 1,000 at the Texas Heart Institute (THI). Despite the benefits from LVAD therapy, one major weakness is the high frequency of late strokes, reported up to 19%. CF LVADs minimize or remove the pulsatility within the blood system, introducing a new and incompletely understood physiology.

Increased sympathetic ("fight or flight" nervous system) tone secondary to lack of pulse in the blood system can cause high blood pressure, with subsequent hemorrhaging strokes (bleeding into the brain) are one possible explanation for this high adverse event rate in CF LVAD patients. A simple intervention to decrease the increased sympathetic tone is called "ischemic conditioning"; a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) is placed on the patient's arm to compress a major artery (ischemia) with subsequent release of the cuff (reperfusion) for set periods of time. This has been shown to reduce blood pressure and major adverse cardiovascular events in other patient populations.

We plan to conduct a trial to evaluate this intervention, ischemic conditioning, in patients with CF LVADs. We hypothesize that IC will cause a reduction in blood pressure and strokes in this patient population.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Remote Ischemic Conditioning (using Sphygmomanometer)

Patients in experimental arm will have validated protocol of Remote Ischemic Conditioning (using Sphygmomanometer): 5 minutes with blood pressure cuff inflated at 200 mmHg, then deflated for 5 minutes; repeated for 3 cycles. Patient in control group will not perform this.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Thoratec Corporation

    collaborator INDUSTRY

  • Baylor College of Medicine

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Gilberto Defreitas, RN · Baylor College of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-08-31
Primary Completion
2016-04-30
Completion
2016-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02044471 on ClinicalTrials.gov