Conditions: Anemia
Keywords: anemia unexplained anemia elderly geriatric older adults UAE over 65 salsalate PACTTE pactee aging aged old older
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 11
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether treatment of unexplained anemia in older adults and elevated inflammatory markers with oral salsalate can improve hemoglobin levels and improve physical activity and quality of life.

Detailed description:
There is well-defined morbidity and mortality associated with anemia in the elderly and the increasing proportion of elderly adults underscores the population's attributable risk of anemia. As a potentially modifiable factor, an urgent need exists to delineate the impact of anemia correction in the elderly. The Partnership for Anemia: Clinical and Translational Trials in the Elderly (PACTTE) consortium has been created to focus on treatment strategies for anemia in elderly patients. The data presented in this protocol provides a compelling rationale to evaluate the impact of an anti-inflammatory (Salsalate) in older anemic adults with elevated serum iL-6 levels.

Subjects will be 65 years or older adults with unexplained anemia and a elevated serum iL-6 ≥ 1.0 pg/mL.

Subjects will receive 750mg of salsalate or matching placebo (one pill) twice a day (am and pm) for one month. After one month the dose will be increased to 1500mg (2 pills) twice a day (am and pm) if the 750mg dose was tolerated for a further 5 months (for a total of 6 months)

The primary endpoint is to assess whether salsalate improves hemoglobin levels from baseline to 6 month visit.

Arms:
arm 1: Subjects randomized to active drug arm will receive 750mg of salsalate (one pill) twice a day (am and pm) for one month. After one month the dose will be increased to 1500mg (2 pills) twice a day (if the 750mg dose was tolerated) for a further 5 months. Total treatment time is 6 months. arm 2: Subjects randomized to the placebo arm will receive a matching placebo pill (one pill) twice a day (am and pm) for one month. After one month the dose will be increased to 2 matching placebo pills twice a day (if the one pill dose was tolerated) for a further 5 months. Total treatment time is 6 months.

Interventions: intervention 1: Salsalate intervention 2: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Salsalate 750mg tablet 1 pill bid for one month followed by Salsalate 750mg tablets 2 pills (1500mg) twice a day for a further 5 months (total duration of treatment will be 6 months) intervention 2: Placebo tablet - one pill twice daily for one month, followed by 2 pills twice daily for a further 5 months. Total duration of treatment is 6 months

Protocol document: