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CompletedNCT03008642Poly-COUpdated Sep 19, 2025

CO-Rebreathing in Comparison to Isotopic Red Cell Volume Determination in the Diagnosis of Primitive and Secondary Polycythemia

An interventional study of CO-Rebreathing technique at diagnosis of polycythemia in Polycythemia, sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Amiens. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-09-19.

Sponsored by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Amiens · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The optimized CO-Rebreathing is an efficient method to evaluate the red cell mass and has been used in the vast majority of studies in sport medicine. However, this method has never been evaluated on a large scale in the diagnosis of primitive or secondary polycythemia. The standard procedure to evaluate the red cell mass is based on isotopic measurement using Cr51-labelled red cells, but its lack of availability in many centers highlights the need for a non-invasive and rapid alternative method. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and validate the CO-Rebreathing method in this set of indications.

Read the detailed description

The definition of a true polycythemia is stricto sensu an increased red cell mass (RCM) above 125% of the expected value depending on the size and the weight of the patient. However, this measurement requires an isotopic labeling of red cells and is not available in most of the hospitals. Therefore, the diagnosis of polycythemia, and particularly Polycythemia Vera (PV) is based on routine red blood cells parameters, i.e. hemoglobin level and hematocrit. If these parameters are efficient in marked polycythemia, discrepancies have been observed in milder cases. Two situations where a RCM evaluation is particularly required can be described:

  • In patients with a hematocrit level between 52 and 60% (men) or between 48 and 56% (women) in order to limit invasive investigations to patients with a confirmed polycythemia diagnosis
  • In JAK2V617F positive myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) with hematocrit and hemoglobin levels under the PV cut-off in order to discriminate between masked PV and essential thrombocythemia CO-Rebreathing is a fast, non invasive alternative method for RCM evaluation. It is based on the high affinity of carbon monoxide (CO) for hemoglobin. The decrease in the HbCO percentage after CO inhalation is dependent on the total hemoglobin mass from which RCM can be obtained. The investigators propose a tri-centric study evaluating CO-Rebreathing as an alternative tool to measure RCM in the diagnosis of polycythemia in the two categories of patients described above.
02

Conditions studied

  • Polycythemia

Keywords

  • Polycythemia
  • CO-Rebreathing
  • red cell mass determination
  • myeloproliferative neoplasms
03

In context

Polycythemia

32 studies on the registry are indexed under Polycythemia; 12 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 60 is below the median of 67 across 22 interventional studies indexed under Polycythemia.

Browse Polycythemia studies →

Lead sponsor

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Amiens is the lead sponsor of 586 studies on the registry; 185 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
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

  1. Adult patient
  2. obtained
  3. Requirement of an isotopic red cell mass determination:

    a - Hematocrit between 52 and 60% (men) or 48 and 56% (women) with no argument for a PV (JAK2V617F negative, EPO level normal/high).

    b - Patients with a JAK2V617F positive MPN and a hematocrit level between 46 and 50% (women) or 48 and 52% for men.

  4. No recent vascular event (\<6 mois)
  5. No unstable coronaropathy
  6. Non smoking since 24 hours.
  7. \<2
  8. Negativity of pregnancy test/effective for childbearing age women,
  9. Health insurance

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Recent venous event \<1 months, cerebral stroke \< 6 mois)
  2. Evolutive cardiopathy (\< 6 months)
  3. Chronic Respiratory failure
  4. Smokers with no withdrawal in the last 24 hours before CO-Rebreathing
  5. Basal HbCO>7% the day of CO-Rebreathing
  6. Pregnant or breast feeding women
  7. Patient enable to give an
  8. Inclusion in an interventional clinical trial in the last three months.
  9. Any to lung function testing
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

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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ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
60 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    CO-Rebreathing

    The intervention consists in one red cell mass determination using the CO-Rebreathing technique at diagnosis of polycythemia, in addition to the regular tests performed in this indication, including RCM isotopic measurement.

    Other: CO-Rebreathing technique at diagnosis of polycythemia

Interventions

  • OtherCO-Rebreathing technique at diagnosis of polycythemia

    The intervention consists in one red cell mass determination using the CO-Rebreathing technique at diagnosis of polycythemia, in addition to the regular tests performed in this indication, including RCM isotopic measurement.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. equivalence of RCM determination by CO-Rebreathing in comparison to the traditional isotopic measurement in the diagnosis of polycythemia

    The primary outcome is to prove the equivalence of RCM determination by CO-Rebreathing in comparison to the traditional isotopic measurement in the diagnosis of polycythemia.

    Time frame: 1 month

Secondary outcomes

  1. AE / SAE / EI

    Incidence, grade type according to NCI-CTCAE v4.0

    Time frame: 1 month

  2. Cumulative incidence of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications

    Cumulative incidence of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications List according to PT1 protocol.

    Time frame: 1 month

  3. Deaths and causes

    Deaths and causes

    Time frame: 1 month

  4. Analysis of the results of VGTCO and VGTi

    Analysis of the results of VGTCO and VGTi as a function of hemoglobin and hematocrit

    Time frame: 1 month

07

Study locations

1 site
  • CHU Amiens Picardie
    Amiens, Picardie 80054, France
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Maaziz N, Georges M, Basille D, Gallet M, Gardie B, Diouf M, Garcon L, Girodon F. Carbon monoxide rebreathing method is a reliable test to evaluate the red cell mass in polycythaemia. Br J Haematol. 2024 Feb;204(2):706-709. doi: 10.1111/bjh.19169. Epub 2023 Dec 3. No abstract available. PubMed 38044575 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 19, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03008642
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 2, 2017
Start date
Apr 1, 2019
Primary completion
May 1, 2020
Completion
May 1, 2020
Last update
Sep 19, 2025

Study contacts

Loïc GARCON, professor
study director · CHU Amiens-Picardie
Lydia ROY, Doctor
principal investigator · CHU Henri Mondor, France
Marjolaine GEORGES, Doctor
principal investigator · Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Dijon

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Sep 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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