Diuretic Efficacy of Dexamethasone in Heart Failure

Hebei Medical University

Status and phase

Suspended

Phase 1

Conditions

Heart Failure, Congestive

Treatments

Drug: dexamethasone

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00263302

0512-e

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether glucocorticoids have potent diuretic effects in patients with congestive heart failure.

Full description

Glucocorticoids are known to have pronounced physiological effects in the kidney. Conventional teaching dictates that it should be used with caution in patients with congestive heart failure due to its fluid and sodium retention effects. Surprisingly, despite the widespread prevalence of this belief within the medical community, there are few data to support it. In fact, several small animal studies have documented its striking diuretic effects due to increased renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate without changes in the glomerular filtration fraction. We design this study to determine whether glucocorticoids have a potent diuretic effect in patients with heart failure.

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 80 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Congestive heart failure patients due to any cause
Patients with normal cortical function
Congestive heart failure patients who are on diuretic therapy
Clinically stable and body weight maintained the same for at least 3 days without signs of fluid retention

Exclusion criteria