Exercise in Gulf War Illness (GWI)

Gulf War Illness Clinical Trial

Official title:

Exercise in Gulf War Illness (GWI)

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01291758
• Other study ID #: 2009-229
• Secondary ID: USAMRMC PR# W81X
• Status: Completed
• Start date: July 2009
• Est. completion date: September 2012

Study information

• Verified date: August 2019
• Source: Georgetown University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine if submaximal exercise by bicycle stress tests with pulmonary measurement of VO2MAX plus maximal isometric hand grips on 2 consecutive days causes a higher level of "exertional exhaustion" in GWI compared to healthy veterans (HVets).

Description:

Subjects sat on upright bicycles for preexercise symptoms, respiratory gases, EKG, and vital sign measurements.

Submaximal exercise began at low resistance with increases every 30 to 60 seconds until 70% predicted heart rate was reached by 5 minutes. Subjects maintained their pace until 25 minutes, then resistance was increased incrementally to increase to 85% predicted heart rate (approximately sufficient to reach anaerobic threshold).

Symptoms, respiratory gases, EKG, and vital signs were measured every 5 minutes, at peak of exercise, and 5 minute intervals after exercise.

The identical exercise protocol was used approximately 24 hr later. Secondary outcomes were assessed by comparisons from before exercise to after the second bicycle exercise stress test.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 50
• Est. completion date: September 2012
• Est. primary completion date: September 2012
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 38 Years to 86 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Evidence of military enlistment between August 1, 1990 and July 31, 1991, and deployment for 30 consecutive days to:

• Persian Gulf waters and adjacent land areas

• Other global locations

• U.S. only

• Status prior to 1990 and 1991:

• Active duty

• National Guard

• Reserves

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current active duty military personnel

• Any one who was not active duty military personnel between August 1, 1990 and July 31, 1991

• HIV/AIDS; pregnancy or lactation; potential hepatitis; drug addiction; chronic inflammatory, infectious, or autoimmune medical illnesses not associated with GWI; incarceration; dementia, other cognitive limitation; or reliance on a care-giver in order to respond to the questionnaires and other study tests.

Amputations of one or both hands and forearms will be permitted but hand grip tests will not be tested

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Gulf War Illness
• Persian Gulf Syndrome
• Syndrome

Intervention

Diagnostic Test:
• Submaximal bicycle exercise stress tests performed 24 hr apart
Submaximal bicycle exercise stress tests were performed for 25 min at 70% predicted heart rate, then ramped up to 85% predicted heart rate. Subjects could stop when they felt they had reached their maximum effort if before reaching 85% predicted heart rate.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Georgetown University	Washington	District of Columbia

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Georgetown University	U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (9)

Baraniuk JN, Casado B, Maibach H, Clauw DJ, Pannell LK, Hess S S. A Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - related proteome in human cerebrospinal fluid. BMC Neurol. 2005 Dec 1;5:22. — View Citation

Casado B, Zanone C, Annovazzi L, Iadarola P, Whalen G, Baraniuk JN. Urinary electrophoretic profiles from chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome/fibromyalgia patients: a pilot study for achieving their normalization. J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 2005 Jan 5;814(1):43-51. — View Citation

Fukuda K, Nisenbaum R, Stewart G, Thompson WW, Robin L, Washko RM, Noah DL, Barrett DH, Randall B, Herwaldt BL, Mawle AC, Reeves WC. Chronic multisymptom illness affecting Air Force veterans of the Gulf War. JAMA. 1998 Sep 16;280(11):981-8. — View Citation

Gray GC, Reed RJ, Kaiser KS, Smith TC, Gastañaga VM. Self-reported symptoms and medical conditions among 11,868 Gulf War-era veterans: the Seabee Health Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2002 Jun 1;155(11):1033-44. Erratum in: Am J Epidemiol. 2005 Feb 1;161(3):302. — View Citation

Janssen B, Hohenadel D, Brinkkoetter P, Peters V, Rind N, Fischer C, Rychlik I, Cerna M, Romzova M, de Heer E, Baelde H, Bakker SJ, Zirie M, Rondeau E, Mathieson P, Saleem MA, Meyer J, Köppel H, Sauerhoefer S, Bartram CR, Nawroth P, Hammes HP, Yard BA, Zschocke J, van der Woude FJ. Carnosine as a protective factor in diabetic nephropathy: association with a leucine repeat of the carnosinase gene CNDP1. Diabetes. 2005 Aug;54(8):2320-7. — View Citation

Rayhan RU, Ravindran MK, Baraniuk JN. Migraine in gulf war illness and chronic fatigue syndrome: prevalence, potential mechanisms, and evaluation. Front Physiol. 2013 Jul 24;4:181. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2013.00181. eCollection 2013. — View Citation

Rayhan RU, Stevens BW, Raksit MP, Ripple JA, Timbol CR, Adewuyi O, VanMeter JW, Baraniuk JN. Exercise challenge in Gulf War Illness reveals two subgroups with altered brain structure and function. PLoS One. 2013 Jun 14;8(6):e63903. doi: 10.1371/journal.po — View Citation

Rayhan RU, Stevens BW, Timbol CR, Adewuyi O, Walitt B, VanMeter JW, Baraniuk JN. Increased brain white matter axial diffusivity associated with fatigue, pain and hyperalgesia in Gulf War illness. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58493. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.00584 — View Citation

Rayhan RU, Zheng Y, Uddin E, Timbol C, Adewuyi O, Baraniuk JN. Administer and collect medical questionnaires with Google documents: a simple, safe, and free system. Appl Med Inform. 2013;33(3):12-21. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	To assess the alterations due to exercise in Gulf War Veterans	Difference in duration of exercise between first and second submaximal bicycle exercise stress test	02/2009-09/2012

External Links

•   Laboratory Website