Description Module
The Description Module contains narrative descriptions of the clinical trial, including a brief summary and detailed description. These descriptions provide important information about the study's purpose, methodology, and key details in language accessible to both researchers and the general public.
Description Module path is as follows:
Study -> Protocol Section -> Description Module
Description Module
Ignite Creation Date:
2025-12-25 @ 3:21 AM
Ignite Modification Date:
2025-12-25 @ 3:21 AM
NCT ID:
NCT03648905
Brief Summary:
Background:
The autonomic nervous system controls automatic body functions. Researchers want to improve the tests used to diagnose autonomic failure. Orthostatic hypertension is a drop in blood pressure when a person stands up. Researchers want to focus on this sign of autonomic failure.
Objective:
To improve testing for conditions that cause autonomic nervous system failure.
Eligibility:
People ages 18 and older in one of these categories:
* Their blood pressure drops when they get up.
* They have had a heart transplant or bilateral endoscopic thoracic sympathectomies or have had or will have renal sympathetic ablation
Design:
All participants will be screened with:
* Medical history
* Physical exam
* Blood and urine tests
Some participants will be screened with:
* Heart and breathing tests
* IV placement into an arm vein
* Tilt table testing: Participants lie on a table that tilts while an IV is used to draw their blood.
Participants may stay in the hospital for up to 1 week depending on their tests. Tests may include repeats of screening tests and:
* Sweat testing: A drug is placed on the skin to cause sweating. Sensors on the skin measure moisture.
* Lumbar puncture: A needle is inserted between the bones in the back to collect fluid.
* MRI and PET/CT scan: Participants lie on a table that slides into a scanner. For the PET/CT, a small amount of a radioactive chemical will be injected with a small amount of a radioactive chemical.
* Bladder catheter placement to collect urine
* Skin biopsies: A punch tool removes a small skin sample.
* Tests to see how the pupils react to light
* Smelling tests
* Thinking and memory tests
* Questionnaires
Participants may have a visit about 2 years later to repeat tests.
Detailed Description:
Objective: In dysautonomias, altered function of one or more components of the autonomic nervous system adversely affect health. A subset of dysautonomias consists of chronic autonomic failure (CAF) syndromes. A key sign of CAF is orthostatic hypotension (OH) due to sympathetic neurocirculatory failure (neurognic OH, or nOH). Primary CAF has been classified based on clinical manifestations into three forms - pure autonomic failure (PAF), multiple system atrophy (MSA), and Parkinson's disease with OH (PD+OH). All three forms involve deposition of the protein alpha-synuclein (AS) in neurons (PD, PAF) or glial cells (MSA), and therefore are called autonomic synucleinopathies. Clinical assessment alone often is inadequate for distinguishing among these conditions in individual patients. This observational study continues and expands on Protocol 03-N-0004, "Clinical Laboratory Evaluation of Primary Chronic Autonomic Failure." The overall objective is to refine and conduct multi-modality testing of catecholaminergic and autonomic systems in patients with CAF. The goals are to: (a) improve the differential diagnosis of CAF via laboratory biomarkers; (b) track the natural history of CAF by follow-up testing; (c) apply clinical laboratory biomarkers to gain insights into underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of CAF; and (d) build up rosters of well characterized patients for future experimental therapeutic trials.
Study Population: The study population consists of patients with neurodegenerative CAF identified by on-site screening at the NIH Clinical Center. Comparison groups include control patients with iatrogenic CAF (e.g., status-post cardiac transplantation, pre/post bilateral thoracic sympathectomies) or PD without OH (PD No OH), and Healthy Volunteers (HVs). MSA patients are included, to build up a subject roster for a planned clinical trial.
Design: This is an observational pathophysiology/natural history study with a planned duration of 5 years. Descriptive statistics will be done in diagnostic groups with neurodegenerative CAF.
Outcome Measures: The study is hypothesis generating/exploratory. The primary outcome measure is results of clinical laboratory research tests. Neurobehavioral rating scales include the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Uniform Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Neurochemical data are from assays of catechols and related compounds in plasma or cerebrospinal fluid. Neuroimaging data are from 18F-DOPA, 18F-dopamine, 13N-ammonia, and 11C-methylreboxetine positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning and MRI. Immunofluorescence microscopy is used to quantify immunoreactive tyrosine hydroxylase and AS in skin biopsy samples. Correlation analyses are done among individual values for outcome measures.
Study:
NCT03648905
Study Brief:
Protocol Section:
NCT03648905