Conditions: Asthma
Keywords: Asthma obesity exacerbation asthmatics fat overweight adipose tissue leptin adiponectin pioglitazone Actos wheezing Pittsburgh Pennsylvania pulmonary lung
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 23
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Asthmatics who are significantly overweight tend to have more severe symptoms, more flare ups, and are more likely to have poorly-controlled asthma when compared to other asthmatics.

Researchers believe this occurs because excess adipose tissue (fat) in the body can cause higher-than-normal levels of leptin and lower-than-normal levels of adiponectin in the blood.

The researchers of this study are testing a medication called pioglitazone in overweight asthmatics because they believe it can help regulate leptin and adiponectin and that this may improve symptoms of asthma.

Detailed description:
Participants in this study will be randomly assigned (like the flip of a coin) to pioglitazone or a placebo (an inactive pill). They will be given study medication to take everyday for 12 weeks (3 months).

Participants will complete a number of asthma-related questionnaires and a variety of pulmonary function tests. Participants will undergo physical exams, an electrocardiogram, and blood sampling to measure leptin, adiponectin, markers of inflammation, blood cell counts, glucose levels, BNP hormone levels, and liver function.

To monitor participants throughout the study, follow-up visits will be done at 2, 6, and 12 weeks after starting study drug. At these visits many of the pulmonary function tests and questionnaires will be repeated.

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None

Interventions: intervention 1: pioglitazone intervention 2: placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: pioglitazone tablets: 30 mg/day for 2 weeks; then increased to 45 mg/day until week 12 (approximately 3 months) intervention 2: matching placebo (inert tablet)

Protocol document: