Physiological Effects Ketone Ester in Heart (KEHeart)

September 19, 2025 updated by: Christopher Nguyen, The Cleveland Clinic

Physiological Effects of Dietary Supplement Ketone Ester on the Heart

The study is aimed to phenotype with cardiac MRI the physiological effects of ketone esters on the heart. Patients with heart failure will be recruited and given ketone esters or placebo in a randomized fashion. Cardiac MRI will be performed at baseline and after 12weeks follow up.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

50

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

    • Ohio
      • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44195
        • Cardiovascular Innovation Research 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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • heart failure EF < 40%

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Claustrophobia
  • Contraindicated implanted device

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Placebo given that mimics taste, weight, and size of the interventional supplement mirroring the same time points as the ketone ester supplement group. Mirrored imaging with MRI as well.
Added to water or lemonade 3 times per day.
Experimental: Ketone ester supplement
Ketone ester given daily for 12 weeks and scanned before and after intervention with MRI.
Added to water or lemonade 3 times per day.
Other Names:
  • delta G

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction
Time Frame: Pre-intervention and up to 12 weeks after intervention
Measured with cardiac MRI the left ventricular ejection fraction at two points and then delta is calculated
Pre-intervention and up to 12 weeks after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Creatine concentration
Time Frame: Pre-intervention and up to 12 weeks after intervention
Measured with cardiac MRI the creatine concentration at two points and then delta is calculated
Pre-intervention and up to 12 weeks after intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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.

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)

June 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 9, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 27, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

June 29, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 24, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 19, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23-570

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

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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