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Utility of Breath-holding Test in Systemic Sclerosis

Utility of Breath-holding Test for Assessment of Pulmonary Disease Severity in Patients With Systemic Sclerosis

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT04484948
Enrollment
120
Registered
2020-07-24
Start date
2020-08-12
Completion date
2023-05-31
Last updated
2023-06-02

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

Conditions

Systemic Sclerosis

Keywords

Breath-holding test, Six minute walk test, Systemic sclerosis

Brief summary

This study aims to evaluate the utility of breath-holding test as a marker of pulmonary disease severity in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Detailed description

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown etiology with high morbidity and mortality. SSc manifests by fibrosis of skin and internal organs. Although the underlying mechanisms are still subject to investigation, endothelial dysfunction and abnormal immune response are thought to contribute to vascular dysfunction and fibrosis in SSc. Pulmonary involvement, such as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a major cause of death in SSc. Although the 6MWT is generally used for evaluating PAH and ILD, the utility in SSc is undetermined. Several investigators have found weak or moderate correlations of 6MWT in pulmonary involvement in SSc. The 6MWT is influenced by the status of all organ systems involved in exercise (pulmonary, cardiac, peripheral vascular, neuromuscular unit and muscle metabolism) as well as by specifics of test conditions. There is a pressing need for new, practical method which corroborates the current 6MWT for the evaluation of pulmonary disease severity in SSc. Breath-holding test (BHT) is one of the most useful methods for assessing the sensitivity of peripheral chemoreflex. Recent studies have demonstrated that BHT was correlated to pulmonary function test. BHT can be safely conducted and doctors handle a medical emergency during test easily as well. Therefore, this study evaluates the utility of BHT as surrogate marker of pulmonary involvement in patients with SSc.

Interventions

OTHERscleroderma health assessment questionnaire (SHAQ), BHT, and 6MWT

1. Participants will perform the SHAQ. 2. BHT and 6MWT will be performed in the randomized way for each participant. 3. For BHT, the participants will be told to sit comfortably on a chair, and breath normally. After 1 minute, they were required to make a maximum expiration followed by a maximum inspiration and to hold the breath as long as possible at maximum inspiratory level. This procedure was repeated three times, with 5-minute intervals between the tests. 4. 6MWT will be performed according to the ATS guidelines. 5. Information on CXR, TTE, and PFT (FVC%, DLCO%) will be obtained from the medical record if the data was obtained within 3 months. If not, the tests will be performed. 6. BHT and PFT will be followed by six months after the first breath-holding test to confirm the responsiveness. 7. Additional 30 patients with systemic sclerosis will be collected to perform the test-retest reliability of BHT.

Sponsors

Seoul National University Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
19 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* A diagnosis of systemic sclerosis according to 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria * Must understand and voluntarily sign an informed consent form including writing consent for data protection

Exclusion criteria

* The resting oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry \< 90% in room air * Unstable angina or myocardial infarction during the previous month * Patients considered unable to the breath-holding test or 6 minute walk test

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Correlation of breath-holding test with Borg Dyspnea IndexDay 1 at inclusionBorg Scale on a 0-10 point

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Correlation of breath-holding time with 6 minute walk test (6MWT) distanceDay 1 at inclusion6MWT distance measured in meters according to American Thoracic Society guidelines
Correlation of breath-holding time with oxygen saturation during 6MWTDay 1 at inclusionOxygen saturation monitored by wearable pulse oximeter (Radius PPG™ Tetherless Pulse Oximetry, Masimo Corp., Irvine, CA, USA)
Correlation of breath-holding time with pulmonary function indicesDay 1 at inclusionPulmonary function indices including FVC (%) and DLCO (%)
Correlation of breath-holding time with data on the echocardiographyDay 1 at inclusionEchocardiography including left ventricular ejection fraction and pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (mmHg)
Correlation of breath-holding time with scleroderma health assessment questionnaire (SHAQ)Day 1 at inclusionSHAQ ranging from 0 to 3

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
Changes of oxygen saturation during of 6MWTDay 1 at inclusionOxygen saturation monitored by wearable pulse oximeter (Radius PPG™ Tetherless Pulse Oximetry, Masimo Corp., Irvine, CA, USA)
Responsiveness of breath-holding testMonth 6 at inclusionCorrelation of Δbreath-holding test and ΔPulmonary function indices after 6months
Reliability of breath-holding testDay 1, and Day 7~Day14 at inclusionAdditional 30 patients collection for test-retest reliability
Development of the machine learning model to predict pulmonary parametersYear 2 at inclusionDeveloping two cohorts: Cohort 1 for training a ML model and internal validation; and Cohort 2 for external validation
Changes of oxygen saturation during breath-holding testDay 1 at inclusionOxygen saturation monitored by radius or forehead pulse oximeter (Masimo Corp., Irvine, CA, USA)

Countries

South Korea

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 17, 2026