Comparison of Vascular Function in Emergency Service Professionals

Vascular Function Clinical Trial

— FIRECOP  

Official title:

Comparison of Vascular Function in Emergency Service Professionals

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01813032
• Other study ID #: 11-SS-0085
• Secondary ID: PG/11/27/28842
• Status: Completed
• Start date: April 2012
• Est. completion date: April 2013

Study information

• Verified date: March 2013
• Source: University of Edinburgh
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Emergency Service Professionals have an increased risk of death from heart attacks when compared to the general public. All the emergency professions share similar responsibilities such as emergency call-outs and shift work. Heart disease is the commonest cause of on-duty death amongst fire-fighters accounting for 45% and compared with 22% in police officers and 15% in the general population. The unique risk to fire-fighters is likely to reflect a combination of factors including extreme physical exertion, mental stress, heat and pollutant exposure.

In this study the investigators will assess healthy career fire-fighters and age-matched healthy police officer control subjects following a sedentary period. The investigators will take blood samples to measure platelet activity (platelets are the particles in blood that help blood clot) and will examine how blood clots outside of the body. The investigators will then perform studies placing small needles in the arm to assess how the blood vessels respond following these duties. The investigators hypothesise that fire-fighters do not have pre-existing impairment of heart, blood or blood vessel function as a cumulative effect of their occupation, but rather these are acute and transitory effects following distinct fire-fighter duties. We therefore expect similar results in both occupational groups.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 36
• Est. completion date: April 2013
• Est. primary completion date: April 2013
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Male
• Age group: 18 Years to 60 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Non-smoking healthy firefighters

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current smoker

• History of lung or ischaemic heart disease

• Malignant arrhythmia

• Systolic blood pressure >190mmHg or <100mmHg

• Renal or hepatic dysfunction

• Previous history of blood dyscrasia

• Unable to tolerate the supine position

• Blood donation within the last 3 months

• Recent respiratory tract infection within the past 4 weeks

• Routine medication including aspirin and NSAIDs

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Atherothrombosis
• Emergencies
• Thrombosis
• Vascular Function

Intervention

Procedure:
• Forearm Vascular Study
Forearm venous occlusion plethysmography to measure forearm blood flow during intra-arterial infusion of the vasodilators Verapamil (10-100 µg/min), bradykinin (100-1000 pmol/min), sodium nitroprusside (2-8 µg/min) and Acetylcholine (5-20 µg/min).
• Badimon Chamber
Ex-vivo assessment of thrombus formation using the Badimon Chamber

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility	Edinburgh

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Edinburgh

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Forearm blood flow measured by venous occlusion plethysmography in response to infused vasodilators		following 48 hours off duty
Secondary	Ex-vivo thrombus formation using the Badimon chamber		following 48 hours off duty
Secondary	Plasma t-PA and PAI concentrations following infusion of bradykinin		During forearm study, following 48 hours off duty