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CompletedNCT01045525SAIGNEESUpdated May 23, 2023

Phlebotomy and Lifestyle and Diet Advices vs Lifestyle and Diet Advices Only in Patients With Dysmetabolic Liversiderosis

A Phase 3 interventional study of Phlebotomy and Lifestyle and diet advices in Liver Cirrhosis and Iron Overload, sponsored by Rennes University Hospital. Completed at 5 sites in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-05-23.

Sponsored by Rennes University Hospital · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
274
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Insulin resistance-associated hepatic iron overload (IR-HIO), also defined as dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome or dysmetabolic liversiderosis, is a common cause or iron overload in France, mainly in middle-age patients with increased serum ferritin levels associated with normal serum transferrin saturation, and normal serum iron concentration in the absence of other known cause of increased serum ferritin levels.

Treatment includes a combination of dietary measures and physical activity to correct metabolic disorders. Phlebotomies seem to be beneficial when serum ferritin level is high.

This study aims at comparing the effect of iron depletion (by phlebotomy) plus lifestyle and diet advices versus lifestyle and diet advices alone on blood glucose level and insulin sensitivity in subjects with IR-HIO in order to assess the benefits of phlebotomies on the reduction of risk of diabetes and cardiovascular associated complications.

Read the detailed description

Non applicable

02

Conditions studied

  • Liver Cirrhosis
  • Iron Overload

Keywords

  • Phlebotomy
  • Dysmetabolic liversiderosis
  • Hepatic Iron overload
03

In context

Liver Cirrhosis

1,298 studies on the registry are indexed under Liver Cirrhosis; 338 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 274 is above the median of 78 across 739 interventional studies indexed under Liver Cirrhosis.

Browse Liver Cirrhosis studies →

Lead sponsor

Rennes University Hospital is the lead sponsor of 451 studies on the registry; 51 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age over 18
  • Signed written
  • Ferritin ≥ 450 µg/L and ≤ 1500 µg/L
  • Hepatic iron overload proved by MRI or histological biochemical measurement (Iron hepatic concentration ≥ 50 μmol/g)
  • At least one of the following criteria :

    • > 25 kg/m²
    • Systolic blood pressure ≥ 140mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg or antihypertensive treatment
    • Abdominal obesity (waist measurement ≥ 94 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm for women)
    • Fasting triglyceridemia ≥ 1.7 mmol/L or triglyceride-lowering treatment
    • Fasting HDL cholesterol \< 1.03 mmol/L for men and \< 1.29 mmol/L for women or HDL cholesterol-elevating treatment
    • Fasting blood glycemia ≥ 5.6 mmol/L

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects deprived of their liberty by judicial or administrative decision
  • Pregnant women
  • Other causes of increased serum ferritin levels:

    • Inflammatory syndrome (CRP >10 mg/L) or inflammatory, immune or malignant diseases
    • Hyper-hemolysis
    • Alcohol consumption more than 210 g for men and 140 g for women per week within the year before inclusion
    • Haemochromatosis established by the C282Y homozygous genotype
    • Chronic hepatic cytolysis due to : viral infection (, ), alcohol, hyperthyroid disease, celiac disease, drug or immune hepatitis
    • Increased serum ferritin levels - cataract syndrome (familial cataract or personal history of cataract before 50 years of age)
    • Low ceruloplasmin level
    • Porphyria (cutaneous signs)
  • of phlebotomy

    • \<13 g/dL for men and \<12g/dL for women (threshold established by the French Blood Agency)
    • Congestive heart failure or coronary heart disease
    • Hepatic failure (TP\<60%), renal failure ( \<50mL/min) or respiratory insufficiency (chronic dyspnea)
    • Poor venous system
  • Fasting blood glycemia > 7 mmol/L or type 1 or type 2 diabetes, treated or not
  • Use of drugs known to have anti-steatotic effects : metformin, thiazolidinedione
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(7)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

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You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
274 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Phlebotomy + lifestyle and diet advices

    Procedure: Phlebotomy

  • Active comparator
    Lifestyle and diet advices

    Behavioral: Lifestyle and diet advices

Interventions

  • ProcedurePhlebotomy

    From 300 to 400mL for women; From 350 to 450mL for men

    Also known as: Non applicable

  • BehavioralLifestyle and diet advices

    2 Booklets with Dietary and physical activity advices

    Also known as: Non applicable

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Fasting blood glycemia (T0 of Oral Glucose Tolerance Test)

    Time frame: 12 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Rate of Body mass index > 25 kg/m²

    Time frame: 12 months

  2. Rate of systolic blood pressure ≥ 130mmHg or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 85 mmHg or antihypertensive treatment

    Time frame: 12 months

  3. Rate of abdominal obesity (waist measurement ≥ 94 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm for women)

    Time frame: 12 months

  4. Rate of fasting triglyceridemia ≥ 1.7 mmol/L or triglyceride-lowering treatment

    Time frame: 12 months

  5. Rate of fasting HDL cholesterol < 1.03 mmol/L for men and < 1.29 mmol/L for women or HDL cholesterol-elevating treatment

    Time frame: 12 months

  6. Rate of fasting glycemia ≥ 5.6 mmol/L

    Time frame: 12 months

  7. HbA1c value

    Time frame: 12 months

  8. Quality of life estimated with SF36 form and tolerance to treatment

    Time frame: 12 months

  9. Insulinoresistance indexes calculated at T0 and T30 min of Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT)

    Time frame: 12 months

  10. Biological markers: CRP, hyaluronic acid, fibrometer

    Time frame: 12 months

  11. myocardial deformation

    Two dimensional (2D) speckle tracking echocardiography (STE)

    Time frame: 12 months

07

Study locations

5 sites
  • Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital
    Clermont-Ferrand, 63058, France
  • La Roche Sur Yon Hospital
    La Roche Sur Yon, 85925, France
  • Lorient Hospital
    Lorient, 56100, France
  • Service des maladies du foie - Hôpital Pontchaillou
    Rennes, 35000, France
  • Saint-Malo Hospital
    Saint-Malo, 35400, France
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Laine F, Ruivard M, Loustaud-Ratti V, Bonnet F, Cales P, Bardou-Jacquet E, Sacher-Huvelin S, Causse X, Beusnel C, Renault A, Bellissant E, Deugnier Y; Study Group. Metabolic and hepatic effects of bloodletting in dysmetabolic iron overload syndrome: A randomized controlled study in 274 patients. Hepatology. 2017 Feb;65(2):465-474. doi: 10.1002/hep.28856. Epub 2016 Nov 10. PubMed 27685251 ↗
09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Jan 2010, a primary completion of Jun 2015 and a completion of Dec 2015. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jan 8, 2010
First posted
Jan 11, 2010
Start
Jan 2010
Primary completionActual
Jun 2015
CompletionActual
Dec 2015
Last update
May 23, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 23, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01045525
Collaborators
Ministry of Health, France
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 11, 2010
Start date
Jan 2010
Primary completion
Jun 2015
Completion
Dec 2015
Last update
May 23, 2023

Study contacts

Fabrice LAINE, MD
principal investigator · Rennes University Hospital
Eric BELLISSANT, MD, PhD
study chair · Rennes University Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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