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Exhaled Breath Metabolomic Biomarkers in the Acutely Breathless Patient

Exhaled Breath Metabolomic Biomarkers in the Acutely Breathless Patient

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03672994
Acronym
EMBER
Enrollment
650
Registered
2018-09-17
Start date
2017-02-02
Completion date
2019-04-30
Last updated
2020-01-30

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Asthma, Breathlessness, Community-acquired Pneumonia, COPD, Healthy, Heart Failure

Keywords

Acute Breathlessness, Breathomics

Brief summary

An acute study carried out across three acute admissions units within Leicestershire. The study is aimed at discovery and validation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath. Participants will be recruited and tested within 24 hours of admission and once recovered, up to 6 months following discharge.

Detailed description

A prospective real world observational study carried out across three acute admissions units. Participants with self-reported acute breathlessness, with a confirmed primary diagnosis of either acute heart failure, community acquired pneumonia and acute exacerbation of asthma or COPD will be recruited within 24 hours of admission. These will be matched to healthy volunteers from a similar environment. Additionally, school age children admitted with severe asthma will be evaluated and breath samples will be collected. All participants will undergo breath sampling on admission and upon recovery, up to six months following discharge. A range of online technologies including: proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), gas chromatography ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS), atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation- mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) and offline technologies including gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCxGC-MS) will be utilised for VOC discovery and replication. For offline technologies a standardised CE marked breath sampling device (ReCIVA®) will be used. All recruited participants will be characterised using existing blood biomarkers including C - reactive protein (CRP), brain derived natriuretic peptide (BNP), Troponin-I and blood eosinophil levels and further evaluated using a range of standardised questionnaires, lung function testing including hand held forced oscillation technique (FOT) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), sputum cell counts and echocardiography for heart failure and COPD patients. Additional samples will be collected for bio-banking including urine, serum, plasma and sputum supernatants and plugs.

Interventions

None listed

Sponsors

Medical Research Council
CollaboratorOTHER_GOV
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK
CollaboratorOTHER
Loughborough University
CollaboratorOTHER
University Hospitals, Leicester
CollaboratorOTHER
Owlstone Ltd
CollaboratorINDUSTRY
B & S ANALYTIK GmbH
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Advion Biosciences Ltd
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
University of Leicester
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
5 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

(i) Able to give informed consent for participation in the study. (ii) Male or Female, aged 16 years or above (adult cohort) and 5-15 years for paediatric patients attending the acute care paediatric pathway. (iii) Capable (in the opinion of the EMBER clinical research investigator(s) of providing serial breath samples. (iv) Diagnosed with acute breathlessness as one of the primary indicator reasons by the clinical acute care team. This is not a requirement for healthy subjects or matched controls. (v) One of the indicator provisional diagnoses identified in section 7.1 following senior review by the clinical acute care team. This is not a requirement for healthy subjects or matched controls (vi) Able (in the Investigators opinion) and willing to comply with all study requirements. (vii) Willing to allow his or her General Practitioner and consultant, if appropriate, to be notified of participation in the study. (viii) Ability to understand English.

Exclusion criteria

(i) Female participants who are known to be pregnant, lactating or planning pregnancy during the course of the study. (ii) Current participation in a clinical trial of an investigative medicinal product or within 3 months or 5.5 half-lives of the IMP whichever is longer. (iii) Active or clinically suspected pulmonary tuberculosis (iv) In the opinion of the treating physician, breath sampling during the acute admission would be clinically unsafe or inappropriate due to the patient's condition or poor prognosis. Examples include malignancy or autoimmune disease with anticipated survival of under 1 year, and chronic renal replacement therapy. (v) Unable or unwilling to give informed consent by visit 1b. (vi) Any other significant disease or disorder which, in the opinion of the Investigator, may either put the participants at risk because of participation in the study, or may influence the result of the study, or the participant's ability to participate in the study.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Discovery of exhaled breath biomarkers0-6 monthsTo evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of metabolomic biomarkers in exhaled breath samples to identify acute breathlessness, defined as one or more of (i) patient defined acute breathlessness and/or a (ii) 1 unit increase in Extended Medical Research Council breathlessness score (eMRC)

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
B-type naturitic peptide (BNP)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood biochemistry
RNA (PAXgene)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood Biochemistry
Patient defined breathlessnessvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Participants are asked to provide information on their state of breathlessness
COPD Assessment Test (CAT) (Questionnaire)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Evaluation and rehabilitation education guidance on the respiratory and motor functions of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The CAT has a scoring range of 0-40, with Since COPD is a progressive disease, a fi xed target score for all patients cannot be set. In Practice, a target for improvement in individual patient CAT scores may be set, based on an holistic assessment of the patient. A change of 2 units suggests a meaningful difference. This test should be used in conjunction with the eMRC and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) to determine COPD health assessment of participants.
NASA task load indexvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Evaluation breath testing work load using mental, physical, temporal, performance, effort and frustration. Participants are asked to mark a scale based on how demanding the task was for each of the domains above.
Asthma quality of life questionaire (AQLQ)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Evaluation quality of life in asthmatic patients based on their level of activity, symptoms, environment and emotion.
Asthma control questionnaire (ACQ)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Measure of asthma control
extended Medical Research Council (eMRC) Dyspnea Scalevisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Assessing respiratory breathlessness symptoms (Grade 0-5b, with Grade 0 being breathlessness with strenuous exercise to Grade 5b being breathlessness for daily activities like dressing).
Visual analogue score (VAS) total and individual dyspnoea, cough and wheeze (100mm) scoresvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)The participant is asked to place a mark (X) on the scale at the point that best describes their health currently. Minimum score 0mm (better outcome), maximum score 100mm (worse outcome) for each section of the scale (dyspnoea, cough, wheeze).
NewYork Heart Association Dyspnoea score (NYHA)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Assessing grades of breathlessness specifically designed for heart failure patients
Sputum collection for assessment of purulence, cytology and metagenomicsvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Participants are asked to provide a spontaneous sputum sample assessing purulence, cytology and metagenomics
Pre and post bronchodilator (BD) spirometry to assess lung functionvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)To assess lung function
fraction exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) assessing airway inflammationvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)To assess airway inflammation in asthmatics. Patients are asked to blow into a mouthpiece for few seconds which detects the amount of exhaled nitric oxide.
Hand held oscillometry assessing small airway lung functionvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)To assess small airway lung function
Quadriceps ultrasound measuring quadriceps size as a degree of frailtyvisit 1a (first visit)To assess degree of frailty and muscle breakdown during hospital admission. Participants have their quadriceps muscle size measured using an ultrasound machine.
Four meter gaitvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)physical performance - measure of frailty
Exacerbation historyvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)participants are asked to provide information on recent exacerbations of airway disease
DECAF score assessing in hospital mortality in COPD patientsvisit 1a (first visit)DECAF score has a minimum score of 1 (better outcome) and a maximum score of 6(worse outcome) used for assessment of severity of COPD exacerbation measures eMRC score, Eosinopenia, consolidation, acidemia and atrial fibrillation
CURB65 score assessing mortality in Pneumonia patientsvisit 1a (first visit)CURB65 is used in assessment of 30 day mortality of Pneumonia based on confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure and age.Scores range from 1 (better outcome) to 5 (worse outcome)
BTS asthma severity scorevisit 1a (first visit)BTS asthma severity score is used in assessment of asthma severity based on peak flow, respiratory rate, oxygen levels, altered level of consciousness, arrythmia, hypotension, cyanosis, silent chest and respiratory effort. Patients are then classified into mild (better outcome), moderate, severe and life threatening (worse outcome).
Meta analysis global group in chronic heart failure (MAGGIC - risk calculator)visit 1a (first visit)Assessment of heart failure severity based on age, gender, diabetes, COPD, heart failure diagnosed in the last 18 months, current smoker, NYHA class, b blockers, ACEI or ARB, BMI, systolic BP, creatinine and ejection fraction
Sputum differential Cell Countvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Differential Cell Count to assess inflammation at exacerbation events.
Breath volatile organic compound (VOC) profilingvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Participants are asked to provide a breath sample to measure VOC using Compact Mass Spectrometer (CMS), Gas chromatography ion mobility spectrometer (GC-IMS), gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GC-MS), Proton transfer reaction time of flight mass spectrometer (PTR-Tof-MS), gas chromatography gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCxGC-MS).
Serum/Plasma Inflammatory Biomarkersvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)To assess systemic inflammation. Plasma/ serum biomarkers are exploratory and we do not have a specific list of biomarkers yet.
Full blood count (FBC)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood Biochemistry
C-reactive protein (CRP)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood Biochemistry
Troponin-Ivisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood Biochemistry
DNA (PAXgene)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Blood Biochemistry
Smoking status, calculated using pack years (no. of cigarettes smoked per day X no. of years smoked divided by 20visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
BMI in kg/m^2visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Gendervisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Heart ratevisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Vital signs
Blood pressurevisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Vital signs
Oxygen saturationsvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Vital signs
Temperaturevisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Vital signs
Medical historyvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)medical history
Current medicationsvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Medical history
Physical examinationvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Physical examination
12 lead Electrocardiogram (ECG)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)cardiac function
Echocardiogram (ECHO)visit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)cardiac function
Agevisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Heightvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Weightvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Ethnicityvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Demographics
Review of adverse events and serious adverse eventsvisit 1a (first visit), visit 2 (0-6 months)Review of untoward medical occurrences
Chest Xrayvisit 1aRespiratory function

Countries

United Kingdom

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 21, 2026