Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Keywords: COPD aformoterol Helium Hyperpolarized helium Hyperpolarized Noble Gas MRI
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 16
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine efficacy of MR imaging with hyperpolarized helium-3 gas in COPD patients both before and after treatment.

Detailed description:
Hyperpolarized Helium Lung imaging has already been tested and proven to be scientifically possible in patients with a number of pulmonary disorders. However there is limited data on the sensitivity of this imaging technique, which would be essential for clinical use. This study is a double blinded study with two cohorts, each cohort being made up of patients with confirmed diagnosis of COPD. One group will receive a placebo while the other will receive treatment. A comparison of the data will resume once twenty patients have been consented and completed the study procedures.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients will be required to breath in individual 1 liter bags of gas while in an MRI to produce lung images. These bags of gas are each made up of 333mL of Helium-3 gas and 667mL of Nitrogen. The first three bags will be administered with a break between each of five to ten minutes. Then the drug aformoterol will be administered and an hour will pass. BROVANA (arformoterol tartrate) Inhalation Solution is supplied as 2 mL of arformoterol tartrate solution packaged in 2.1 mL unit-dose, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit-dose vials. Each unit-dose vial contains 15 mcg of arformoterol (equivalent to 22 mcg of arformoterol tartrate) in a sterile, isotonic saline solution, pH-adjusted to 5.0 with citric acid and sodium citrate. After administration of the drug, three additional bags of hyperpolarized helium-3 will be administered, again with five to ten minutes between each bag. arm 2: Patients will be required to breath in individual 1 liter bags of gas while in an MRI to produce lung images. These bags of gas are each made up of 333mL of Helium-3 gas and 667mL of Nitrogen. The first three bags will be administered with a break between each of five to ten minutes. Then the placebo (nebulized saline solution) will be administered (2.1 mL). After administration of the placebo, three additional bags of hyperpolarized helium-3 will be administered, again with five to ten minutes between each bag.

Interventions: intervention 1: Hyperpolarized Helium-3 intervention 2: Placebo intervention 3: Aformoterol
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Patients will be required to breath in individual 1 liter bags of gas while in an MRI to produce lung images. These bags of gas are each made up of 333mL of Helium-3 gas and 667mL of Nitrogen. The first three bags will be administered with a break between each of five to ten minutes. Then the intervention (drug or placebo) will be administered and an hour will pass. Then three additional bags will be administered, again with five to ten minutes between each bag. intervention 2: Subject will inhale a placebo (nebulized saline) with no drug. intervention 3: Subjects will receive the drug arformoterol prior to scanning

Protocol document: