Conditions: Pulmonary Hypertension
Keywords: Sedation Pulmonary Hypertension Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Pulmonary Vascular Resistance
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 4
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Clinical dose escalation drug trial to evaluate the effect of 3 different doses of dexmedetomidine on the pulmonary vascular bed in pediatric subjects with elevated pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). The study will be conducted in 2 parts, with part 1 incorporating stopping rules to optimize safety of the drug in this population. The second part of this study will evaluate if the lowest safest dose, as determined in part 1, is adequate to provide effective sedation during a cardiac catheterization procedure.

Detailed description:
Clinical dose escalation drug trial to evaluate the effect of 3 different doses of dexmedetomidine on the pulmonary vascular bed in pediatric subjects with elevated pulmonary vascular resistance. The study will be conducted in 2 parts, with a pilot phase incorporating stopping rules to optimize safety of the drug in this population. Study subjects will include pediatric subjects with Pulmonary Hypertension (PHTN).

Part 1: This will be the dose escalation phase of the study. Twenty four evaluable subjects will be enrolled. Subjects will include pediatric subjects with pulmonary hypertension (PVR\>4WU) undergoing hemodynamic cardiac catheterization and vasoreactivity drug testing. Cohorts of 8 evaluable subjects will receive dose level 1, dose level 2, or dose level 3 of Dexmedetomidine (DEX). The dose will be escalated to the next dose of DEX once all subjects have been enrolled in the preceding DEX dose cohort, and safety has been established at that level. Inadequate sedation despite the highest dose of DEX at each level will be considered a treatment failure on an intention to treat basis. Part 2: This part of the study will be conducted after the pilot phase is safely completed, and the full complement of subjects will be recruited.

Arms:
arm 1: To study safety of DEX with regard to effect on PVR; There will be 3 study groups (n=8 per group). The groups will be based on DEX doses as follows- Group 1 - Bolus 1 mcg/kg followed by infusion 0.7 mcg/kg/hr Group 2 - Bolus 1.5 mcg/kg followed by infusion 1.05 mcg/kg/hr Group 3 - Bolus 2 mcg/kg followed by infusion 1.4 mcg/kg/hr

Interventions: intervention 1: Dexmedetomidine
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: This is a single center, dose escalation study of Dexmedetomidine in pediatric subjects with pulmonary hypertension (PVR\>4WU) undergoing hemodynamic cardiac catheterization and vasoreactivity drug testing. Cohorts of 8 evaluable subjects will receive dose level 1, dose level 2, or dose level 3 of Dexmedetomidine.

Protocol document: