Conditions: Heart Defects, Congenital Heart Failure, Congestive
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 230
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of administering an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) (enalapril) to infants with a functional single ventricle. The study will also compare the effect of ACE-I therapy to placebo on somatic growth and compare the effect of ACE-I therapy to placebo on signs and symptoms of heart failure, neurodevelopmental and functional status, ventricular geometry, function, and atrioventricular (AV) valve regurgitation. In addition, the study will determine the relationship between genetic polymorphisms linked to ventricular hypertrophy (enlarged heart) and the response to ACE-I therapy and compare the incidence of adverse events in subjects treated with ACE-I with those in subjects treated with placebo.

Detailed description:
BACKGROUND:

Growth impairment is common in infants and children with congenital heart disease, most often in the presence of congestive heart failure and/or cyanosis. Growth failure is noted in many infants with a single ventricle who manifest both cyanosis and heart failure that commonly persist after palliative surgery. Whether this impairment is related to persistent or progressive abnormalities in cardiac structure and function is not known. ACE-Is are widely used in the treatment of infants with severe congestive heart failure to improve cardiac function and somatic growth. The ability of an ACE-I to improve somatic growth in infants with a single ventricle has not been previously studied.

This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Boards/Research Ethics Boards of all participating clinical centers:

Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA

Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston Salem, NC

Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

This is a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of ACE-I in infants with a single ventricle. After stratification by ventricular anatomy, neonates will be randomly assigned to receive enalapril or placebo and then followed for 14 months.

Arms:
arm 1: Enalapril (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor) arm 2: Placebo (Ora-Plus and Ora-Sweet)

Interventions: intervention 1: Enalapril intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Enalapril to target dose of .4mg/kg/day divided to twice per day (BID) intervention 2: Participants will receive placebo

Protocol document: