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RecruitingNCT04205604DOPA PETUpdated May 1, 2026

18FluoroLDOPA PET Imaging for the Detection and Localization of Focal Congenital Hyperinsulinism

A Phase 2 interventional study of 18F-Fluoro Dopa Imaging in Congenital Hyperinsulinism, sponsored by Miguel Pampaloni. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 0 Days to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-01.

Sponsored by Miguel Pampaloni · Phase 2, Interventional, and Diagnostic

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 3 years 1 month after the study started (first participant enrolled Nov 2016, registered Dec 2019).
  • Started Nov 2016; still recruiting 10 years later.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
50
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
0 Days to 18 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

The goal of this project is to determine the role of FDOPA/PET as a pre-operative diagnostic imaging procedure for differentiating focal and diffuse forms of congenital hyperinsulinism and locating focal lesions in the pancreas to guide surgical resection.

Read the detailed description

Congenital hyperinsulinism (HI) is the most common cause of recurrent and persistent hypoglycemia, presenting early in infancy. Patients who fail medical therapy usually require resection of the diseased pancreas(partial or subtotal pancreatectomy) to control this disorder. Over half of patients undergoing surgery have a focal area of islet cell dysfunction that is curable with resection. These focal lesions are areas of adenomatosis consisting of a clone of beta-cells that express a paternally-derived mutation of the KATP channel due to loss of heterozygosity for the maternal allele. Current imaging techniques cannot differentiate focal and diffuse forms of hyperinsulinism, nor can they locate focal areas of disease within the pancreas before surgery. L-DOPA is taken up by some neuroendocrine cells, including pancreatic islet cells, and stored as dopamine in secretory granules. Recent studies show that positron emission tomography (PET) following administration of 18F-fluoro-L-DOPA (FDOPA) can distinguish focal and diffuse forms of HI and accurately locate focal lesions within the pancreas.

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Conditions studied

  • Congenital Hyperinsulinism
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In context

Congenital Hyperinsulinism

38 studies on the registry are indexed under Congenital Hyperinsulinism; 6 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 50 is above the median of 17 across 30 interventional studies indexed under Congenital Hyperinsulinism.

Browse Congenital Hyperinsulinism studies →

Lead sponsor

Miguel Pampaloni is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

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

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
0 Days to 18 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

  • Any age, but primarily infants 0-6 months given typical age of initial presentation.
  • Children with diagnosis of FoHI or DiHI based on clinical criteria (fasting hypoglycemia accompanied by inadequate suppression of plasma insulin, inappropriately low plasma free fatty acid and plasma-hydroxybutyrate concentrations, and an inappropriate glycemic response to glucagon injection)

    o confirmed by genetic testing for mutations in ABCC8 and KCNJ1 was1.

  • Hypoglycemia uncontrolled with medical management (diazoxide, octreotide).
  • Able to withdraw medications in time to wash out prior to the scheduled PET scan.
  • Patients fulfilling criteria above but with uncontrolled hypoglycemia after initial surgical management (partial or near-total pancreatectomy)
  • Normal hepatic and renal function.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Treatment with other, , medications for hyperinsulinism (nifedipine, glucagon).
  • Patients with hepatic or renal insufficiency.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

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.

Line of therapy

A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.

“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.

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Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Diagnostic
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
50 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Single Arm,

    Patients with clinically diagnosed congenital hyperinsulinism

    Drug: 18F-Fluoro Dopa Imaging

Interventions

  • Drug18F-Fluoro Dopa Imaging

    Imaging with 18F-Fluoro Dopa PET Imaging

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Sensitivity of Imaging

    To determine the sensitivity and specificity of FDOPA PET/CT in differentiating focal and diffuse forms of HI in infants with medically refractory hypoglycemia

    Time frame: four weeks

  2. Accuracy of Imaging

    To determine the accuracy of FDOPA PET/CT localizing areas of islet cell adenomatosis within the pancreas in patients with focal HI, by identifying the area of abnormal uptake of the raioligand

    Time frame: four weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Semiquantitative Imaging Assessment

    o determine whether data from FDOPA PET/CT can accurately quantify pancreatic islet cell mass in patients with HI (normal pancreas, areas of adenomatosis in focal HI and diseased pancreas in diffuse HI) by quantifying the standardized uptake value (SUV) of FDOPA of and correlating with histologic findings.

    Time frame: four weeks

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Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • University of California, San Francisco
    San Francisco, California 94143, United States
    Recruiting
    • Miguel Hernandez Pampaloni, MD, PhD · Contact415-353-1886
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References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 1, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04205604
Lead sponsor
Miguel Pampaloni
Responsible party
Miguel Pampaloni (Associate Professor of Radiology & Medicine, University of California, San Francisco) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Dec 19, 2019
Start date
Nov 3, 2016
Primary completion
Dec 1, 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 1, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
May 1, 2026

Study contacts

Miguel Hernandez Pampaloni, MD, PhD
principal investigator · University of California, San Francisco

Oversight

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

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No contact was published for this record. The registry link below has the sponsor’s details.

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