Tests overnight heat on lying-down high blood pressure in autonomic failure
Tests abdominal heating pad versus sham overnight in autonomic failure patients with supine hypertension.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Where
- Nashville, United StatesSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Overnight Trials With Heat Stress in Autonomic Failure Patients With Supine Hypertension
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 20 people, planned
- Started
- 30 Jan 2017
- Expected to end
- 30 Dec 2026
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groupsOne group gets a sham (pretend) treatment, for comparison.
- Treatments tested
- Heating pad
- Sham control
- Record updated
- 16 January 2026
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for adults with primary autonomic failure who also have high blood pressure when lying down. It tests heat applied over the abdomen during the night.
- Age
- 18 to 80 years
- Sex
- Men and women
- Disease stage
- Primary autonomic failure (Parkinson Disease, Multiple System Atrophy or Pure Autonomic Failure) with supine hypertension, defined as SBP≥150 mmHg.
Main reasons for not taking part
- Pregnancy
- Significant heart, kidney or liver illness
- Contraindications to pressor agents
- Other factors that the investigator thinks would prevent finishing the study
- Clinically significant abnormal clinical, mental or laboratory tests
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 4 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Male and female patients, between 18-80 yrs., with primary autonomic failure (Parkinson Disease, Multiple System Atrophy, and Pure Autonomic Failure) and supine hypertension. Supine hypertension will be defined as SBP≥150 mmHg
- Patients able and willing to provide informed consent
Who cannot take part
- Significant cardiac, renal or hepatic illness, or with contraindications to administration of pressor agents or with other factors, which in the investigator's opinion would prevent the subject from completing the protocol including clinically significant abnormalities in clinical, mental or laboratory testing
- Pregnancy
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 80 years old?
Where in United States
- Autonomic Dysfunction Center/ Vanderbilt University Medical CenterNashville, United StatesContact: Emily C Smith, RNTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Patients with autonomic failure are characterized by disabling orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure on standing), and at least half of them also have high blood pressure while lying down (supine hypertension). Exposure to heat, such as in hot environments, often worsens their orthostatic hypotension. The causes of this are not fully understood. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether applying local heat over the abdomen of patients with autonomic failure and supine hypertension during the night would decrease their nocturnal high blood pressure while lying down. This will help us better understand the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, and may be of use in the treatment of supine hypertension.
The 2 groups in the trial
- Heat StressTreatment being tested
Passive heat-stress using a commercial heating pad applied on the trunk
Treatment: Heating pad
- Control (Non-heating)Sham treatment, for comparison
Commercial heating pad applied on the trunk but turned off
Treatment: Sham control
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- Overnight Trials to Compare the Effects of Controlled Heat Stress Versus Sham Control on Nocturnal Supine Hypertension in Autonomic Failure Patients
- Plain-language title
- Tests overnight heat on lying-down high blood pressure in autonomic failureGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 12 November 2026.
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT03042988, who can take part
- Record updated
- 16 January 2026