An observational study in Osmolality Disturbance and Lab Interference, sponsored by State University of New York - Upstate Medical University. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-31.
Sponsored by State University of New York - Upstate Medical University · Observational
The goal of this observational study is to determine whether a clinically relevant dose of activated charcoal raises the serum osmolality and osmolal gap in a population of healthy volunteers. Secondarily to determine whether the same dose creates a false positive result using an enzymatic assay.
Participants will be asked to consume a dose of activated charcoal and have serial blood draws for laboratory measurements.
Healthy volunteers will be recruited and informed consent obtained. Exclusion criteria include acute illness or chronic condition requiring medication which would not be appropriate to discontinue due to risk for adsorption by activated charcoal.
Participants will fast prior to the study period and will have baseline laboratory measures (BMP, osmolality, ethanol, ethylene glycol). They will drink a dose of 1g/kg (max 100g) of activated charcoal suspension (Actidose Aqua) in water. Serial laboratory measurements will be made at 0.5, 1, 2,4, and 6 hours (including osmolality, osmolal gap, and ethylene glycol measured by enzymatic assay). These values will be compared to the pre-treatment values to determine if there is a change in the osmolal gap or ethylene glycol result from baseline.
This study is funded by the SUNY Upstate Department of Emergency Medicine and is approved by the IRB of the same institution.
75 studies on the registry are indexed under Anthrax; 12 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 8 is below the median of 99 across 16 observational studies indexed under Anthrax.
Browse Anthrax studies →State University of New York - Upstate Medical University is the lead sponsor of 157 studies on the registry; 18 are open to participants now.
Of its 11 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 4 (36%) have results posted.
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Healthy volunteers
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Exclusion Criteria:
Healthy volunteers to consume activated charcoal
Drug: Activated Charcoal
This is the only intervention
Osmol Gap Change
Delta serum osmolality and osmolal gap at time points 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours after Activated charcoal given
Time frame: 6 hours
Ethylene Glycol
Numeric result of ethylene glycol testing (measured by glycerol dehydrogenase assay) before and after charcoal.
Time frame: 6 hours
Plan to share: Undecided
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Oct 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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State University of New York - Upstate Medical University →