Genetics of Airway Responsiveness and Lung Function

To perform a genome-wide search for genes affecting two phenotypes related to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a Chinese population.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Airway responsiveness and lung function, endpoints with a strong genetic basis, are central to the obstructive airway diseases (asthma and COPD). In contrast, the dissection of the underlying genes requires unique sample resources, accurate and comprehensive phenotyping, and an efficient study design. To address to this three-pronged challenge, a genomic screen brought together a large, homogenous, mostly untreated sample from Anhui, China, a wealth of expertise in asthma phenotypes, and a potent study design based on extreme discordant sib pairs.

Since this approach utilized an extant asthmatic family population, no support for data collection was required. The primary focus of the study was two intermediate phenotypes related to asthma and COPD: airway responsiveness (characterized by increased responsiveness to histamine methacholine or other nonspecific agonists and measured by the slope of the dose response relationship) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1). Since both traits are continuous, the appropriate study design considered only siblings with extremely discordant phenotypes. For many studies, this strategy was not feasible due to the thousands of families that must be phenotyped to identify a sample of such siblings. The plan was to utilize the organization of a well-established network in China to collect 150 extreme discordant sib pairs of each intermediate phenotype. For airway responsiveness, the estimated power from this sample, equivalent to roughly 600 concordant sib pairs, was intended to surpass the power of all existing studies, including the U.S. Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Asthma. Further, with similar power, this was the first study to test for linkage to FEV1. Moreover, to further augment power, potential phenotypic heterogeneity was reduced by stratifying the analyses by total and specific serum IgE levels, skin test reactivity, peripheral blood eosinophilia, respiratory symptoms, age, gender, bronchodilator response, and cigarette smoking.

The study completion date listed in this record was obtained from the "End Date" entered in the Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS) record.

Study Type

Observational

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 100 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

No eligibility criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Xiping Xu, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 1997

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2002

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 25, 2000

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 25, 2000

First Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2000

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 16, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 15, 2016

Last Verified

August 1, 2004

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 5071
  • R01HL056371 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Lung Diseases, Obstructive

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