Title

Predicting Successful Sleep Apnea Treatment With Acetazolamide in Heart Failure Patients
Physiological Study to Predict Successful Sleep Apnea Treatment With Acetazolamide in Heart Failure Patients
  • Phase

    N/A
  • Study Type

    Interventional
  • Study Participants

    29
The ultimate goal is to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology and resistance to effective treatment of sleep disordered breathing in patients with heart failure, with a focus on selecting patients that will benefit specifically from acetazolamide treatment.

The study addresses three primary hypotheses: 1) Acetazolamide treatment will reduce the apnea-hypopnea index and improve markers of heart-failure severity in heart-failure patients with sleep apnea. 2) Acetazolamide will provide the greatest improvement in patients with the most severe ventilatory control instability (strongest chemoreflex response to carbon dioxide; highest loop gain). 3) Acetazolamide will act primarily via stabilizing ventilatory control (reducing loop gain), rather than via improvement to upper airway anatomy, pulmonary congestion, and cardiac function.
Study Started
Aug 31
2011
Primary Completion
Dec 31
2016
Study Completion
Dec 31
2016
Results Posted
Jun 13
2018
Last Update
Jun 13
2018

Drug Acetazolamide

4 mg/kg, once daily before bed, for 7 days

  • Other names: Diamox

Drug Placebo

4 mg/kg, once daily before bed, for 7 days

Acetazolamide Experimental

Sugar pill Placebo Comparator

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria (Heart failure patients)

Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) <50%, or heart failure with preserved EF
Age 18-89

Exclusion Criteria:

severe obstructive respiratory disease
unstable heart failure status
recent use of positive airway pressure therapy
current use of opioids, benzodiazepines
severe kidney disease
severe anemia

Summary

Acetazolamide

Placebo

All Events

Event Type Organ System Event Term Acetazolamide Placebo

The Severity of Sleep Disordered Breathing (Apnea-hypopnea Index, AHI)

The frequency of apneas and hypopneas (apnea-hypopnea index) was assessed. The primary measure was the value for non-REM supine sleep. A higher value indicates more severe sleep apnea. A value above 15 indicates the presence of moderate-to-severe sleep apnea.

Acetazolamide

All participants

26.3
events per hour (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 22.7

Patients with sleep apnea

32.3
events per hour (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 22.1

Placebo

All participants

36.1
events per hour (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 27.8

Patients with sleep apnea

44.6
events per hour (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 25.3

Ventilatory Chemoreflex Sensitivity, "Loop Gain" Using Carbon Dioxide Pulses

Chemoreflex "loop gain" was assessed according to Sands SA et al AJRCCM 2017 Jan 15;195(2):237-246. Loop gain is a unitless ratio measure that describes the magnitude of the increase in ventilation that occurs in response to a prior reduction in ventilation ("disturbance") and has units of L/min per L/min. A larger value indicates a more sensitive and unstable control system predisposing to oscillatory breathing. Loop gain was measured on the time scale of 1 min (i.e. response to a 1 cycle/min sinusoidal disturbance, referred to as "LG1"). The procedure involved brief administration of 7% carbon dioxide in air for 0.5 min ("pulses"); tests were repeated every 3 min for 30 min while measuring ventilation and carbon dioxide levels at the nose with patients awake and supine. measured using 0.5 min pulses of carbon dioxide.

Acetazolamide

0.4
unitless (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 0.16

Placebo

0.49
unitless (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 0.14

Sympathetic Activity (Urinary Norepinephrine)

Urinary norepinephrine levels overnight

Acetazolamide

40.8
ug/g-creatinine (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 23.6

Placebo

35.0
ug/g-creatinine (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 17.3

Left-atrial Volume

Left-atrial volume index, echocardiography, bi-plane method. Lower values were considered a favorable outcome. We considered values ≤28 mL/m^2 to indicate normal left atrial volume. Values indicating graded left atrial enlargement were described as follows: mild (29-33 mL/m^2), moderate (34-39 mL/m^2), severe (≥40 mL/m^2).

Acetazolamide

34.3
mL/m^2 (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 12.1

Placebo

40.0
mL/m^2 (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 13.5

Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP)

Brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in morning

Acetazolamide

919.0
pg/ml (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 1320

Placebo

932.0
pg/ml (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 1403

Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index is a measure of self-reported sleep quality containing 19 questions that make up 7 component scores that are added to provide a total score. Total scores range from 0-21 (units on a scale) with higher scores representing reduced sleep quality. A score of 5 or more is interpreted as reduced sleep quality. The total score is reported.

Acetazolamide

6.7
units on a scale (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 3.6

Placebo

7.5
units on a scale (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 3.8

Age, Continuous

60
years (Mean)
Standard Deviation: 13

Race (NIH/OMB)

Sex: Female, Male

First Intervention (7 Days)

Acetazolamide First, Then Placebo

Placebo First, Then Acetazolamide

Washout (7 Days)

Acetazolamide First, Then Placebo

Placebo First, Then Acetazolamide

Second Intervention (7 Days)

Acetazolamide First, Then Placebo

Placebo First, Then Acetazolamide

Drop/Withdrawal Reasons

Acetazolamide First, Then Placebo

Placebo First, Then Acetazolamide