Fontan Associated Liver Disease

March 21, 2024 updated by: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Can Ultrasound Liver Stiffness Pre-Fontan, Post-Fontan, or Change Over Time Predict Onset and Severity of Fontan-Related Complications, Including Fontan-Associated Liver Disease

Fontan-associated liver disease (FALD), including the development of cardiac cirrhosis and liver neoplasms (benign and malignant), occurs in a majority of patients with congenital heart disease palliated with the Fontan operation. However, the specific phenotype (fibrosis only, fibrosis + lesions, etc.) of disease and severity/timing of onset are variable. Chronic passive congestion of the liver due to the absence of a functional sub-pulmonary ventricle and resultant chronic central venous hypertension is suspected to be one of the chief drivers of FALD and recent work has demonstrated that ultrasound shear wave elastography can be used to noninvasively detect and measure the degree of liver congestion. Chronic passive congestion of the liver may also be a predictor of other Fontan-related complications, such as protein losing enteropathy, plastic bronchitis, and intractable ascites.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

50

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

  • United States
    • Ohio
      • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45229
        • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

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 3 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

N/A

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All patients that are undergoing a Fontan Palliation during cardiothoracic surgery.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Single ventricle physiology congenital heart disease undergoing Fontan operation;
  2. ≤5 years of age at the time of stage 3 Fontan operation;
  3. Ability to return for follow-up imaging.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Inability to undergo ultrasound imaging.
  2. Non-English speaking patients, as breath-hold is required for US shear wave elastography in older children due to excursion of the liver with breathing.

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

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Prospective

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pre/Post Fontan Liver Stiffness Changes
Time Frame: 5 years
to determine if there are differences between patients with regard to liver stiffness (hepatic congestion) pre- and post-Fontan operation or with regard to change in liver stiffness over time. This information will be used to drive future hypothesis-driven research related to predicting Fontan-related outcomes based on measured liver stiffness.
5 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Correlate liver stiffness measurements with clinical outcomes at 3-, 5-, and 10-years post stage 3 Fontan operation
Time Frame: 10 years
  1. Time to anatomic Fontan pathway obstruction or physiologically high resistance, need for Fontan pathway intervention, need for cardiac transplant evaluation or actual transplantation, and need for mechanical cardiac support evaluation or actual implementation (e.g., ventricular assist device)
  2. Lymphatic abnormalities (e.g., protein losing enteropathy, plastic bronchitis, intractable ascites)
  3. FALD

i. MRI outcomes (e.g., increased liver stiffness [do US and MRI measures of liver stiffness correlate?], portal hypertension, development of focal liver lesions) ii. Liver laboratory assessments (e.g., ALT, AST, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, GGT) iii. PELD score iv. VAST score v. Need for liver transplant evaluation or actual transplantation d. Available biopsy (liver and cardiac) data e. Available cardiac catheterization data f. Available cardiac echocardiography and/or cardiac MRI data
10 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

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 (Actual)

January 18, 2018

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 11, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 11, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

April 16, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 22, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 21, 2024

Last Verified

March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2017-7816

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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