Ivabradine for Heart Rate Reduction During Exercise in Healthy Adults

Heart Rate Reduction Via Oral Ivabradine During Exercise in Healthy Adults to Understand Heart Rate/Work-rate Relations: A Pilot Dose-selection Study

During exercise, working muscles require more oxygen. The heart meets this demand in two ways: by beating faster (heart rate) and by pumping more blood with each beat (stroke volume). Heart rate increases steadily with exercise intensity until exhaustion, but the amount of blood pumped with each beat tends to plateau at moderate intensities. Why the amount of blood pumped with each beat becomes limited before heart rate, however, is not well understood.

Studying these mechanisms is difficult because most drugs that lower heart rate also affect how strongly the heart pumps, making it hard to separate the two effects. One medication that can help with this is ivabradine, which is used to treat people with heart disease who have high resting heart rates. It slows the heart rate without changing how strongly the heart pumps.

This study will investigate whether ivabradine lowers heart rate during exercise in healthy younger and older adults, and whether a higher dose lowers heart rate more. The results will help us better understand how heart rate influences the heart's ability to supply oxygen to the body during exercise, and what limits the ability to exercise as people age.

Participants will:

• Attend three visits at SportsCardiologyBC in Vancouver
• Complete a cycling exercise test at each visit to measure heart rate and how hard they can exercise
• Take ivabradine (a heart-rate-lowering medication) before the exercise test at Visits 2 and 3 (a lower dose at Visit 2 and a higher dose at Visit 3)
• Be monitored for side effects including slow heart rate, visual symptoms, and headache.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy Adult
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Ivabradine (single oral dose)

Detailed Description

Heart rate and stroke volume are generally considered as two independent factors which influence cardiac output, yet they are interlinked by cellular (e.g., calcium handling) and hemodynamic (e.g., diastolic pressure decay) mechanisms. Delineating how heart rate and stroke volume influence cardiac output and exercise capacity, even within healthy individuals, has historically been experimentally difficult as pharmacologic perturbations, such as beta-adrenergic antagonists, influence both heart rate and heart muscle performance. Ivabradine selectively reduces heart rate in a dose-dependent manner, without impacting myocardial contractility, cardiac afterload, or venous return. However, it has largely been studied in clinical outcome trials in adults with heart failure, or safety studies in younger healthy adults. As such, there is a knowledge gap on how ivabradine influences heart rate and exercise capacity in healthy younger and older adults.

Study Purpose To characterize the effects of two single doses of ivabradine (7.5 mg and 12.5 mg) on heart rate during incremental exercise in younger and older healthy adults.

Exploratory Aim To assess the safety and tolerability of two single doses of ivabradine (7.5 mg and 12.5 mg) in younger and older healthy adults.

Hypothesis Ivabradine will produce dose-dependent reductions in peak exercise heart rate and heart rate/work-rate relationships (anticipated to be approximately 10-15%, on average).

Research Design Unblinded, non-randomized, repeated measures design.

Study Visits Visit 1 (1.5 hours): Screening, consent, assessments of anthropometrics, seated heart rate and blood pressure, a resting 12-lead electrocardiogram, and a cardiopulmonary exercise test with 12-lead electrocardiogram. Pre-menopausal females will also be required to complete a urine pregnancy test and confirm a negative result prior to participation.

Visits 2 and 3 (4 hours each): A single oral dose of ivabradine will be administered at each visit: 7.5 mg at Visit 2 and 12.5 mg at Visit 3. Doses are administered in this fixed order so that all participants are observed at the lower dose before proceeding to the higher dose.

Following drug administration, participants will be seated and observed for 90 minutes with continuous heart rate monitoring and blood pressure recorded at 15-minute intervals. Participants will then complete an incremental exercise test on a cycle ergometer with 12-lead ECG monitoring, following the same work-rate protocol used in Visit 1. Following exercise, participants will be seated and observed for 120 minutes with continuous heart rate monitoring and blood pressure recorded at 15-minute intervals.

Statistical Analysis Data will be analyzed using SPSS Statistics (v.30, IBM Inc). Normality will be assessed by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Omnibus testing will be conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA), the Friedman test, or the Kruskal-Wallis test with significant effects tested post hoc. If all compared groups or conditions approximate a normal distribution, data will be presented as mean ± standard deviation with paired comparisons made using t-tests. Otherwise, data will be presented as median (inter-quartile range) with paired comparisons made using the Mann-Whitney U or Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests. Associations will be explored with Pearson correlations and linear regression.

Sample Size Justification Based on existing literature describing the effect of ivabradine on heart rate during exercise in healthy adults, a sample size of 20 provides 95% power to detect a 5 beats per minute difference between 7.5 mg and 12.5 mg trials, assuming a standard deviation of 5 beats per minute and a two-tailed alpha of 0.05 adjusted for three post-hoc paired t-tests.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 20
• Phase: Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Stephen P Wright, PhD; Phone Number: 604-806-9292; Email: stephen.wright@ubc.ca
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Nathaniel Moulson, MD, MPH; Phone Number: 604-822-9494; Email: nathaniel.moulson2@vch.ca

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 2B5
      • SportsCardiologyBC, UBC Hospital
      • Contact: Stephen P Wright, PhD; Phone Number: 604-806-9292; Email: stephen.wright@ubc.ca

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy males and females aged 19-39 years, and 60-79 years
• Engaging in regular aerobic exercise (e.g., running, cycling, swimming, hiking, field, ice, or racquet sports) at least once per week

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of any cardiovascular condition, including hypertension
• Use of any chronic medication
• History of any respiratory condition, including asthma
• Smoking, including cannabis or vaping in the past year
• History of diabetes mellitus, cancer, hepatic, renal or any other chronic illness
• Seated blood pressure ≥130/90 or <100/60 mmHg
• Body mass index <20 or >32 kg/m2
• Non-sinus rhythm or abnormalities on 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG)
• Pregnant, breastfeeding, or women of childbearing potential not using appropriate contraception
• Current or recent (past year) participation in >150 minutes per week of moderate-vigorous intensity exercise (to avoid endurance training-related bradycardia)
• Any condition that prevents vigorous exercise from being performed safely
• Seated resting heart rate <60 beats per minute
• Prolonged QT interval (e.g., long QT syndrome)
• Sick sinus syndrome, sino-atrial block or third-degree atrio-ventricular block
• Use of strong cytochrome P450 (CYP3A4) inhibitors (e.g., nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, ketoconazole), which can increase ivabradine levels in the blood to potentially unsafe levels
• Use of verapamil or diltiazem, which are moderate CYP3A4 inhibitors and also lower heart rate, posing a risk of excessive bradycardia when combined with ivabradine
• Lactose intolerance, as ivabradine contains lactose
• Known allergy/hypersensitivity to ivabradine or to any ingredient in the formulation or component of the container

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Ivabradine; All participants receive two single oral doses of ivabradine in a fixed sequence across separate experimental visits.

Drug: Ivabradine (single oral dose); A single oral dose of ivabradine is administered at each experimental visit, in a fixed order: 7.5 mg at Visit 2 (one 7.5 mg tablet), and 12.5 mg at Visit 3 (one 7.5 mg + one 5 mg tablet). Ivabradine is a selective hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated transmembrane (HCN4) channel inhibitor that reduces heart rate without affecting myocardial contractility.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Heart rate, peak	Highest heart rate achieved during the cardiopulmonary exercise test.	Within 30 minutes of exercise onset

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Heart rate, resting	Average heart rate over the 15 minutes of rest prior to the cardiopulmonary exercise test.	Within 15 minutes prior to exercise onset
Heart rate/work rate	Highest heart rate divided by the highest work rate achieved during the cardiopulmonary exercise test.	Within 30 minutes of exercise onset
Incidence of visual symptoms	Frequency of self-reported visual symptoms (phosphenes) assessed by standardized symptom questionnaire at 15-minute intervals during pre- and post-exercise observation periods.	Within 4 hours post-dose administration
Incidence of headache	Frequency of self-reported headache assessed by standardized symptom questionnaire at 15-minute intervals during pre- and post-exercise observation periods.	Within 4 hours post-dose administration
Incidence of bradycardia	Frequency of: (1) resting heart rate <60 beats per minute; (2) resting heart rate <50 beats per minute; and (3) a decrease in resting heart rate of >10 beats per minute from pre-dose baseline, assessed by continuous heart rate monitoring during pre- and post-exercise observation periods.	Within 4 hours post-dose administration

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 10, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 16, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 21, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 22, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 20, 2026
• Last Verified: July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Exercise; Cardiac output; Exercise capacity; Stroke volume; Heart rate regulation
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Motor Activity; Heterocyclic Compounds; Heterocyclic Compounds, 2-Ring; Heterocyclic Compounds, Fused-Ring; Benzazepines; Ivabradine
• Other Study ID Numbers: H25-03915

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No