Heart Rate Variability in Response to Metformin Challenge



Status:Completed
Conditions:Fibromyalgia, Neurology, Gastrointestinal, Diabetes, Pain
Therapuetic Areas:Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Musculoskeletal, Neurology, Rheumatology
Healthy:No
Age Range:18 - Any
Updated:1/5/2018
Start Date:July 2015
End Date:February 2016

Use our guide to learn which trials are right for you!

Diseases caused by brain energy supply defects can be innate (fibromyalgia secondary to
familial mitochondrial disorders) or acquired (tardive dyskinesia or weight gain associated
with prolonged antipsychotic use). Patients with these possible mitochondrial disorders will
provide a baseline resting heart rate sample, ingest low-dose metformin (500 mg), and then
provide an additional sample 2 hours later.

Doctors need to develop tests which inexpensively and reliably evaluates brain metabolism.
Current diagnostic tests sample other tissues which often run on different fuels (fats),
utilize unproven and often insensitive brain imaging scanners, or sequence thousands to
millions of base-pairs of DNA. All of these tests are expensive. None of these tests
accurately or completely capture the interactions between the 1000s of proteins involved in
brain metabolism.

The investigators suspect that mathematical analysis of the resting heart rate may provide
some insight into brain metabolism. The brain controls heart rate in response to changes in
blood pressure and blood gases like carbon dioxide and oxygen. Tight control of heart rate is
necessary to make sure that the brain has the right mix of fuel and air. Because the brain
can't respond instantly to changes in its fuel supply, this system acting as a biological
carburetor has a natural oscillatory rhythm that can be monitored just like frequencies on
the radio.

The investigators propose to amplify these rhythms by modestly metabolically stressing the
brain with metformin, a inhibitor of complex 1 in the mitochondria.

Inclusion Criteria:

EITHER chronic neurogenic pain meeting American College of Rheumatology criteria for
fibromyalgia or previous/current exposure to antipsychotic medications

Exclusion Criteria:

- recent infection,

- renal failure,

- pre-existing cardiac disease,

- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

- inability to participate in informed consent,

- lack of transport to return home from study site,

- severe fasting intolerance or hypoglycemia,

- history of stroke-alike episode,

- uncontrolled migraine or cyclic vomiting,

- diabetes on insulin or sulfonylurea,

- non-English speaker,

- medications with strong effects on baseline heart rate variability
We found this trial at
1
site
Woodinville, Washington 98072
Phone: 425-481-0429
?
mi
from
Woodinville, WA
Click here to add this to my saved trials