An interventional study of InterVapor®-System in Emphysema or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, sponsored by IHF GmbH - Institut für Herzinfarktforschung. Recruiting at 12 sites in Germany. Open to participants aged 40 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-08-24.
Sponsored by IHF GmbH - Institut für Herzinfarktforschung · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Prospective, 2-arm, randomised (2:1), multicentre, open-label clinical trial in patients with severe emphysema. The intervention arm will be treated with Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in severe emphysema using thermoablation.The interventional treatment (bronchoscopic lung volume reduction) is compared with the usual conservative standard therapy (GOLD guidelines).
Currently, there is less data on the use of bronchoscopic thermoablation (BTVA) for the treatment of patients with emphysema. However, the current studies suggest with a high degree of certainty that bronchoscopic lung volume reduction for severe emphysema using thermoablation has the potential to be a necessary treatment alternative. The trial study should therefore contribute to proving the benefit of this procedure as an effective and safe treatment option in order to guarantee emphysema patients sufficient, appropriate and economical care, taking into account evidence-based medical knowledge.
382 studies on the registry are indexed under Emphysema; 59 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 224 is above the median of 60 across 245 interventional studies indexed under Emphysema.
Browse Emphysema studies →IHF GmbH - Institut für Herzinfarktforschung is the lead sponsor of 16 studies on the registry; 4 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
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.
From a breathing test (spirometry): how much air you can blow out in the first second. Often given as a percentage of what is expected for your age, height and sex.
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.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
FEV1
From a breathing test (spirometry): how much air you can blow out in the first second. Often given as a percentage of what is expected for your age, height and sex.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Life expectancy
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The intervention to be tested is bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (BTVA) using thermal ablation (InterVapor®, Uptake Medical, California, USA). This is performed in addition to standard conservative therapy in accordance with the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) Guidelines. The intervention can consist of a maximum of two partial interventions
Device: InterVapor®-System
Standard conservative therapy in accordance with the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) Guidelines without the use of a BTVA (patient-specific documentation of therapeutic measures).
The InterVapor System uses heated water vapor to ablate the airways and parenchyma within targeted regions of the lung. Lung remodeling occurs after an initial localized inflammatory response and a subsequent healing and repair. The remodeling of the tissue results in reductions in tissue and air volume in the targeted regions of the lung. The remodeled lung tissue does not re-inflate as a result of collateral ventilation. The lung volume reduction of diseased hyper-inflated lung segments after InterVapor treatment is expected to increase elastic recoil by reducing the most compliant segments of the lung, decompressing segments of healthier lung allowing for alveolar recruitment, and improving the mechanical efficiency of the respiratory muscles. These mechanical changes are anticipated to improve pulmonary function, exercise capacity and quality of life.
Change in patient-reported disease-specific quality of life
Change in patient-reported, disease-specific quality of life based on St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ-C) between randomisation and 9-month visit. The instrument has 3 domains (activity, symptoms, and impacts) and a total score. A Total and three-component scores are calculated: Symptoms; Activity; Impacts. Each questionnaire response has a unique empirically derived 'weight'. The lowest possible weight is zero and the highest is 100. Each component of the questionnaire is scored separately. Sum of maximum possible weights for each component and Total: Symptoms 566.2, Activity 982.9, Impacts 1652.8. Total (sum of maximum for all three components) 3201.9 Higher weights indicate worse outcomes. The difference in the domain scores and total score at follow-up visits relative to baseline will be calculated and reported.
Time frame: 9 months
Vital status
alive/dead
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Change in FEV 1
Change in forced expiratory pressure (FEV 1) in litres and percent
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Change in RV
Change in residual volume in litre and percent.
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Change in patient-reported, disease-specific quality of life
Change in patient-reported, disease-specific quality of life based on St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ-C) between randomisation and 9-month visit. The instrument has 3 domains (activity, symptoms, and impacts) and a total score. A Total and three-component scores are calculated: Symptoms; Activity; Impacts. Each questionnaire response has a unique empirically derived 'weight'. The lowest possible weight is zero and the highest is 100. Each component of the questionnaire is scored separately. Sum of maximum possible weights for each component and Total: Symptoms 566.2, Activity 982.9, Impacts 1652.8. Total (sum of maximum for all three components) 3201.9 Higher weights indicate worse outcomes. The difference in the domain scores and total score at follow-up visits relative to baseline will be calculated and reported.
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Serious Adverse Events
Rate of serious adverse events
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
6-minute walk test (6MWT)
Measures the distance (meter) in a 6-minute walk test.
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Severe excacerbations
Rate of severe exacerbations
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Mortality
All-cause mortality
Time frame: 3, 9 and 12 months
Plan to share: No — Data Sharing Processes All subject-level clinical, laboratory, and quality of life data will be preserved and shared with the Sponsor via eCRF. Shared data will be deidentified and original data will be main-tained at the investigator's site. Study design, recruitment progress and final results will be documented at clinicaltrials.gov. The trial data will be passed on to the extent permitted by the patient´s informed consent. Upon completion of the study, individual participant data will not be made available on data sharing repositories. The steering committee will decide on sharing study data upon reasonable request.
Started Apr 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Apr 2026, 24 months after the start.
Of 40 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Emphysema, half reached primary completion within 44 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 28 and three quarters within 58. This study's planned 24 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 60 studies reached it within 37 months; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 56.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
IHF GmbH - Institut für Herzinfarktforschung