Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease that results in severe activity limitation and death. There are few treatments for PAH and the available medications are expensive, difficult to administer and have significant toxicities. (-)-Epicatechin is a non-toxic compound that naturally occurs in foods such as tea, wine and chocolate. Clinical intervention studies using dark chocolate in normal volunteers and subjects at risk for or with established cardiovascular disease have demonstrated improvements in peripheral and coronary vascular endothelial function, blood pressure, lipids, glucose tolerance and inflammatory markers. Our study intends to examine the hemodynamics effects of purified (-)-epicatechin in subjects with pulmonary arterial hypertension. We hypothesize purified (-)-epicatechin will reduce pulmonary vascular resistance in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
A single dose of purified (-)-epicatechin will be administered orally to subjects after a regularly scheduled right heart catheterization. The subjects will be monitored for 5 hours and released.
UCSF
San Francisco, California, United States
Pulmonary Vascular Resistance Index
This study will assess acute hemodynamic effects, specifically effects on pulmonary vascular resistance index (PVRI), of a single dose of purified (-)-epicatechin in patients with patients with PAH.
Time frame: up to 5 hours after right heart catheterization
Endothelial function and hemodynamics
Secondary objectives are to determine if endothelial function, right heart function, nitric oxide and mitochondrial function improve following consumption of purified (-)-epicatechin.
Time frame: up to 5 hours after right heart catheterization
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