Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Motility in Crohn's 2

Crohn Disease Clinical Trial

— MIC2  

Official title:

Reduced Intestinal Motility in Inflammatory Crohn's Disease

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03052465
• Other study ID #: 15/EM/0003
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: February 9, 2017
• Last updated: October 24, 2017
• Start date: November 16, 2015
• Est. completion date: March 7, 2017

Study information

• Verified date: February 2017
• Source: University of Nottingham
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Crohn's disease (CD) is becoming more common. One of the main features of this disease is weight loss and malnutrition with symptoms such as tummy aches and bloating. These problems have a strong negative effect on the patients' quality of life but the causes of these problems are not well understood. Enteroendocrine cells are nutrient sensors in the bowel that secrete special chemicals (called hormones) that control appetite and the movements all the gut. The investigators think that this control mechanism goes wrong in Crohn's patients and they have set off to do more research on this. Looking at the inside work of the gut has always been difficult and at times unpleasant for patients, however recent developments in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are allowing the investigators to study the workings of the gut in greater detail and without discomfort for the patients.

Our main objective is to investigate the difference in small bowel motility between CD patients with active ileal disease and healthy volunteers.

Description:

Background: Poor nutrition in Crohn's disease (CD) is common but poorly understood. Apart from disease burden and repeated surgery, reduction in appetite might be an aetiological factor.

Enteroendocrine cells (EC) are intraluminal nutrient sensors. They play a pivotal role in orchestrating physiological functions in the gastrointestinal tract. Sensing the nutrient content of the lumen, they secrete multiple peptides and amines that control gut secretory and motor functions. CD patients with small bowel inflammation show increased expression in EC peptides with exaggerated postprandial responses in anorectic EC hormones. This is associated with symptoms of nausea and anorexia, with EC-peptide expression decreasing to normality in remission.

There has been a longstanding interest on the effect of CD on gastric emptying and gastrointestinal motility. Recent technological advances have allowed us to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure both disease activity and intestinal motility.

Reduced intestinal motility has been recently shown in CD patients with active terminal ileal disease. A significant negative correlation is observed between terminal ileal motility and histological, biochemical and radiological measures of disease activity. Intestinal hypomotility may be observed in proximal unaffected segments of small bowel as well.

An increase in EC activity could potentially lead to altered appetite and symptoms of nausea through delayed gastric emptying and most importantly delayed small bowel transit. This mechanistic link has not been described and present findings have not been correlated to patient symptoms. This work can potentially open a new therapeutic pathway in CD therapy. Optimisation studies in healthy volunteers (HV) are urgently needed.

Aims & Hypothesis: In intestinal inflammation due to CD, the observed up-regulation of fasting and postprandial EC peptides may correlate with a delayed whole gut transit specifically small bowel transit and gastric emptying.

Experimental protocol and methods: 15 Crohn's patients and 20 Healthy volunteers will be recruited. Standard MRI exclusion criteria will apply.

This study will have an open-label design. The subjects will be asked to fast from 2000 h. They will be asked to fill in a questionnaire to ensure adherence to the study day restrictions.

On the day of the scan, they will only be allowed a small glass of water on waking. They will undergo a baseline fasting scan at 0900 hours (defined at t = -45 min time point), together with a fasting baseline blood sample. At 0925 hours, they will be asked to eat their test meal within a maximum time of 20 min so that at 0945 hours the subjects will undergo a first immediate postprandial scan (defined as t = 0 min). This will be followed with data collection (MRI, questionnaire data and blood samples) time points every 15 min for the first 60 min and every 30 min up to 270 min.

At each time point, the positioning of the subject, setup and data collection will take ~15min. After the first 60 min, at completion of data collection at each time-point, the volunteers will be kept sitting upright in a quiet lounge next to the scanner. At each time point, volunteers will fill a 100mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) symptoms questionnaire scoring their feeling of fullness, bloating, distension, abdominal pain/discomfort and nausea. The VAS anchors were from 'not' to 'extremely'. Participants will be given a meal at the end of the study.

Participants will be then given a volume (750mls-1000mls) of contrast agent to drink (within 45 minutes) and a further MRI scan (time=30 minutes) will be undertaken to quantify disease activity. Participants will be given a meal at the end of the study. This is not part of the research protocol.

MRI scanning will be carried out supine on either a 1.5T or 3.0 T Philips Achieva MRI scanner (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands) depending on availability. Fasting and post-prandial plasma tests: On the morning of the test, a 10 ml fasting blood sample will be drawn in aprotonin/EDTA tubes (BD-361017, BD Diagnostics, Oxford). Samples will be measured every 15 min to 270 min. Samples will be centrifuged at 4000 rpm for 5 min and stored on ice. Measurement of plasma peptides: All EC peptides (GLP-1, PYY) will be analysed through ELISA techniques (Millipore, UK). Serum CCK will be measured by RIA (Euro Diagnostic Products, Sweden). Total EC plasma peptide response will be presented as per individual time points and compositely as area under the curve (AUC).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 36
• Est. completion date: March 7, 2017
• Est. primary completion date: March 7, 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 75 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with active Cronh's disease

• Body Mass Index (BMI): 18-30 Kg/m2

Exclusion Criteria:

• Smokers.

• A history of bowel resections or any gastric surgery.

• History of pancreatic insufficiency, thyroid disease or/and diabetes.

• Protein-pump inhibitor usage or any medication that affects gastric emptying or small bowel transit.

• Any potential participants scoring very highly on the depression scale questionnaire.

• Standard MRI exclusion criteria (e.g. pacemaker).

• Malignant disease

• Stricturing or penetrating disease

• Smoking history

• History of bowel resections or any gastric surgery

• Significant cardiovascular or respiratory disease

• Current Infection

• Neurological or cognitive impairment

• Significant physical disability

• Significant hepatic disease or renal failure

• Subjects currently (or in the last three months) participating in another research project

• pregnancy or breastfeeding

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Crohn Disease

Intervention

Other:
• Test soup meal feeding intervention
Cream of chicken soup (400g) (or mushroom for vegetarians) (Heinz, Wigan, UK) used as a test meal intervention. The nutrient content /100g is: energy (kcal) 51, protein (g) 1.5, carbohydrate (g) 4.7, fat (g) 2.93

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre	Nottingham	Nottinghamshire

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Nottingham	University College, London

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Primary Outcome Measure: MRI small bowel motility index (arbitrary units)	MRI small bowel motility index (arbitrary units)	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	Gall bladder contraction	Gall bladder contraction from MRI images	From fasting baseline to 60 min postprandially
Secondary	Gastric volumes	Gastric emptying from gastric volumes time courses	From fasting baseline to 150 min postprandially
Secondary	Small bowel water content	Small bowel water content from MRI images	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	Plasma GLP-1	Postprandial GLP-1 peptide response	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	Plasma PYY	Postprandial PYY peptide response	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	Plasma CCK	Postprandial CCKpeptide response	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	Satiety: satiety VAS scores	Satiety VAS scores	From fasting baseline to 270 min postprandially
Secondary	MaRIA score	Magnetic resonance index of activity	360 min postprandially