Hydration Status Evaluation of Dehydrated Children With Experimental Devices

March 18, 2020 updated by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Hydration Status Evaluation on Admittance and During Rehydration of Dehydrated Children at Boston Children's Hospital, With Exploratory Hydration Assessment Devices

A pediatric study in collaboration with Boston Children's Hospital to review the performance of two novel hydration status measurement devices against standard clinical assessment methods, through repeated measurement of hydration status of dehydrated children admitted to the emergency department receiving rehydration therapy, followed by an at-home follow-up measurement once symptoms have resolved.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

This is a prospective cohort study to determine the performance of two prototype devices developed to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of physiological hydration state of dehydrated children. These children are patients presenting to the emergency department with varying degrees of dehydration.

Overview of study procedure:

  1. Initial identification of eligible patients. Patients will be initially identified by their chief complaint after registration and triage. Terms such as "Dehydration", "Gastroenteritis", "Diarrhea", "Vomiting", and or "Intolerance of POs" will be noted and those patients will be approached by study personnel for possible participation in the study.
  2. Screening and obtaining of consent After patients have been identified as meeting entry criteria for the study, the parents will be asked two screening questions: 1. How far of a distance do you live from the hospital? 2. Would you be interested in a study that includes a follow-up home visit? These questions will be used to gauge the ability of the family to realistically complete the study, as a research coordinator will be travelling to the home to conduct a follow up visit after symptom resolution.
  3. Study enrollment i. Risks and benefits of study participation will be discussed, as well as the consent process. After consent is obtained, a symptom survey will be administered to each patient and family to determine the degree of dehydration based on clinical assessment. Detailed information regarding onset and degree of symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, urine output and amount of oral fluid intake will be recorded. A similar survey was administered as part of a randomized control trial of Dextrose containing fluids, which was conducted in our Emergency Department, (Levy, Waltzman).

    ii. Each patient will have his/her weight obtained using a calibrated digital scale in a dry diaper or underwear with an appropriately sized gown. Then both study devices will be utilized by study personnel to obtain three triplicate measurements. Replicate measurements of capillary refill times will also be obtained in the same locations by visual inspection using a commercial stopwatch. Additional information including ambient room temperature, patient skin temperature and amount of applied pressure during the Capillary Refill Time measurements will be recorded.

    iii. After the initial measurements are obtained, the treating provider will be given a questionnaire outlining their assessment of the degree of dehydration of the patient and the study protocol. Patients will be treated per the discretion of the health care provider including admission to the hospital or discharge based on his or her clinical judgment. Device measurements will not be provided to the treating clinician. Measurements obtained from the device will have no bearing on the clinical treatment of the patients. All measurements obtained in relation to the study will be used solely for research purposes. Device measurements of capillary refill time and radio-frequency measurements, and initial weight will not be disclosed to treating staff.

    iv. Prior to either discharge from the emergency department or admission to the hospital, each participating family will be given a symptom log to serve as a method for objectively tracking degree of symptoms during the follow up period.

  4. Initial follow up and monitoring of symptom resolution:

    A research coordinator will call each patient's family by phone within 24-72 hours after initial enrollment. He or she will establish contact with the family and explain the follow up plan and monitoring for symptom resolution. Regular follow up by phone every 48 hours will continue until the symptoms have resolved; at which time an in-person follow up visit will be planned within 24-72 hours.

  5. In-person follow-up After the resolution of symptoms (vomiting and/or diarrhea), the research coordinator will travel to the residence of each patient and repeat the measurements including weight and device measurements. Again the weight will be performed on a calibrated digital scale with the patient in a dry diaper or underwear and an appropriately sized gown. Also, the study coordinator will ask the family/patient to answer questions related to the duration of the illness, and other visits with medical providers that have occurred in the interim. The radio-frequency and capillary refill time measurements will be stored in a secure de-identified server, and all remaining data will be recorded entered into a password-protected digital database using RedCap.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

137

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Boston Children's Hospital
      • Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, 02139
        • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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

1 year to 14 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Dehydrated children, indicated primarily by chief complaints or symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, gastroenteritis or intolerance of oral intake for less than or equal to 5 days

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Previously enrolled in this study
  2. Children with a pre-existing medical condition which may potentially affect either the course or nature of their current illness, or a skin condition which has the potential to alter their capillary refill time, specifically:

    a. Pre-existing medical conditions i. Immunosuppression (HIV, malignancy) ii. Existing gastrointestinal condition (Inflammatory bowel disease, Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis, or recent abdominal surgery within prior 30 days) iii. Uncorrected or palliated cardiac disease iv. Other chronic medical condition other than asthma or eczema (such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes, or patients with an indwelling devices such as gastrostomy, nasogastric or nasojejunal tube, or ventriculoperitoneal shunts

    b. Concern for surgical abdomen i. Abdominal trauma or head trauma as reason for visit ii. Potential surgical condition (concern for appendicitis, intussusception, malrotation, volvulus, bowel obstruction)

    c. Skin condition which may alter optical and radio-frequency measurements, or cause discomfort i. Acanthosis ii. Severe eczema covering all exposed testing sites to measure capillary refill iii. Burns

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?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Dehydrated Children

Children between the ages of 2 to 18 years of age presenting to the Emergency Department at Children's Hospital Boston with complaints such as "Dehydration", "Gastroenteritis", "Vomiting", and or "Intolerance of POs" be approached by study personnel for possible participation in the study.

Interventions:

  • Undertake and record a formalized clinical assessment of hydration status
  • Take a measurement of body weight on calibrated scales
  • "RF wristband" hydration status measurement
  • Measure capillary refill time with manual stopwatch
  • "CRT device" hydration status measurement
Undertake and record a standard formalized clinical hydration assessment
Standard body weight measurements conducted on calibrated scales
Take measurements with "RF wristband" radio-frequency non-invasive wrist-based hydration status assessment device
A standard visual assessment of capillary refill time, aided by the use of a stopwatch
Take measurements with "CRT device" for non-invasively quantitatively assessing Capillary Refill Time

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change in body weight (Weight at follow-up visit minus weight in emergency department)
Time Frame: 1-14 days
1-14 days
Change in capillary refill time as measured by experimental measurement device 1.
Time Frame: 1-14 days
1-14 days
Change in wrist water content as measured by experimental measurement device 2.
Time Frame: 1-14 days
1-14 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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

November 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 4, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 8, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

November 10, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 20, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 18, 2020

Last Verified

December 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1606619184
  • U54EB015408 (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.

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