Recruiting

Adrenergic Ab

Sponsor:

University of Calgary

Code:

NCT02673996

Conditions

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Phenylephrine

Isoproterenol

Study Details

Brief summary:

Objective: In this pilot study, we will test the hypothesis that patients with POTS (age 18-60 years) will have a higher percentage of functional antibodies to adrenergic receptors compared with control subjects without POTS.

Conditions

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome

Study ID

NCT02673996

Start date

Jan, 2016

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Dec 31, 2030

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 31, 2029

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have been previously diagnosed with POTS
  • Control subjects (patients not diagnosed with POTS)
  • Age between 18 - 60 years
  • Males and Females (Give that >80% of POTS patients are female, we will attempt to enroll a similar percentage of female control subjects)
  • Able and willing to provide consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Smokers
  • Overt cause for postural tachycardia, i.e., acute dehydration
  • Significant cardiovascular, pulmonary, hepatic, or hematological disease by history or prior testing
  • Highly trained athletes
  • Subjects with somatization or severe anxiety symptoms will be excluded
  • Use of drospirenone (a spironolactone analogue) containing oral contraceptive agent
  • Hypertension defined as supine resting BP>145/95 mmHg off medications or needing antihypertensive medication
  • Other factors which in the investigator's opinion would prevent the participant from completing the protocol, including poor compliance during previous studies or an unpredictable schedule
  • Unable to give informed consent

Study Design

Enrollment

125 participants

Anticipated

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

Patients with postural tachycardia syndrome; patients will receive both IV phenylephrine and IV isoproterenol

Healthy (control) Subjects

Healthy volunteers that are gender and age-matched (by groups) to the POTS patients; healthy subjects will receive both IV phenylephrine and IV isoproterenol

Interventions

Phenylephrine

incremental small doses of IV phenylephrine to find the dose that transiently raises systolic blood pressure by 25 mmHg

Isoproterenol

incremental small doses of IV isoproterenol to find the dose that transiently raises heart rate by 25 bpm

Primary outcome measure

  • The proportion of alpha-1 Ab titer positive subjects [ Time Frame: 1 Year (to measure Adrenergic antibody assay) ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Satish R Raj, MD, MSCI

403-210-6152autonomic.research@ucalgary.ca

Robert S Sheldon, MD, PhD

403-220-8191autonomic.research@ucalgary.ca

Locations

University of Calgary

Recruiting

Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 4Z6

Contacts

Satish R Raj, MD, MSCI

403-210-6152autonomic.research@ucalgary.ca

Robert S Sheldon, MD, PhD

403-220-8191autonomic.research@ucalgary.ca

More Information

Sponsor

University of Calgary

Last update posted

May 5, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Keywords

  • antibody
  • autoimmune
  • adrenergic
  • autonomic

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Calgary on 2026-05-05.