ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07404345APICATH-HDUpdated Feb 17, 2026

Low-Dose Apixaban Added to Standard Heparin Lock Versus Heparin Lock Alone to Prevent Tunneled Hemodialysis Catheters Dysfunction (APICATH-HD)

A Phase 4 interventional study of Apixaban and Heparin sodium lock solution in Hemodialysis Access Failure, Kidney Disease, End-Stage and Hemodialysis Catheter, sponsored by Hospital Civil de Guadalajara. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in Mexico. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-02-17.

Sponsored by Hospital Civil de Guadalajara · Phase 4, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
54
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This randomized, single-center, PROBE trial evaluates whether adding low-dose apixaban (2.5 mg orally every 12 hours) to standard intraluminal heparin lock prolongs primary functional patency of tunneled hemodialysis catheters compared with standard heparin lock alone. Adult patients on hemodialysis with a recently implanted, functioning tunneled catheter (≥8 days) will be randomized 1:1 and followed up to 24 months (or until catheter loss). Primary outcome is time to first intervention for catheter dysfunction or definitive catheter loss. Secondary outcomes include primary-assisted and secondary patency, thrombotic dysfunction, rescue procedures, catheter-related infection, bleeding (ISTH), and mortality. Outcomes adjudication will be blinded.

Read the detailed description

Design: Single-center, randomized (1:1), parallel-group, superiority trial with a PROBE strategy (open-label clinical management; blinded outcome adjudication by an independent committee).

Arms / Interventions Arm 1: Control - Heparin Lock Alone

Intervention Name:

Heparin Lock

Description:

Intraluminal heparin lock after each hemodialysis session as standard care. Heparin concentration is 1,000 IU/mL, with per-lumen volume equal to the priming volume specified by the catheter manufacturer.

Arm 2: Intervention - Apixaban Plus Heparin Lock

Intervention Name:

Apixaban

Description:

Intraluminal heparin lock identical to the control arm (standard care; heparin 1,000 IU/mL with per-lumen volume according to device priming volume), plus systemic anticoagulation with apixaban 2.5 mg orally every 12 hours.

Population: Adults (≥18 years) on hemodialysis with a tunneled double-lumen catheter (Palindrome®) in the internal jugular (right/left) or femoral (right/left) position, functioning and ≥8 days post-implantation, without early dysfunction.

Procedures: Per dialysis session, record prescribed/achieved blood flow, inline pressures, alarms, recirculation, line inversion, and lock details; document formal interventions for dysfunction (rt-PA instillation, related angioplasty, over-the-wire exchange), and evaluate infections using CDC criteria.

Follow-up: Each dialysis session and monthly safety/adherence checks; administrative censoring at 24 months or upon catheter loss/replacement, refractory infection, switch to AV access, transplant, death, or end of study.

Safety: Bleeding surveillance (ISTH). Temporary interruption rules for procedures/bleeding/concomitant drugs. Independent DSMB with one interim analysis at \~50% of primary events using O'Brien-Fleming boundaries.

02

Conditions studied

  • Hemodialysis Access Failure
  • Kidney Disease, End-Stage
  • Hemodialysis Catheter

Keywords

  • Hemodialysis
  • Tunneled central venous catheter
  • Catheter dysfunction
  • Catheter Failure
  • Catheter thrombosis
  • Apixaban
  • Heparin lock
  • End-stage kidney disease
  • Vascular access
  • Anticoagulation
  • PROBE trial
03

In context

Kidney Failure, Chronic

2,108 studies on the registry are indexed under Kidney Failure, Chronic; 273 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 54 is close to the median of 57 across 1,569 interventional studies indexed under Kidney Failure, Chronic.

Browse Kidney Failure, Chronic studies →

Lead sponsor

Hospital Civil de Guadalajara is the lead sponsor of 41 studies on the registry; 11 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 ≥18 years with end-stage kidney disease (CKD stage 5) receiving maintenance hemodialysis or initiating hemodialysis.
  • Recently placed tunneled, double-lumen central venous hemodialysis catheter (tunneled CVC) in place for ≥8 days, with a post-placement radiograph confirming adequate tip position.
  • Permitted catheter insertion sites: right internal jugular, left internal jugular, right femoral, or left femoral vein.
  • Adequate initial catheter function, defined as ability to achieve the prescribed extracorporeal blood flow (suggested ≥300 mL/min) for ≥8 days after catheter placement.
  • Conventional in-center hemodialysis schedule (2-3 sessions/week) at the study unit, with expected ability to complete follow-up for up to 24 months.
  • Written provided.
  • Willingness to receive only the protocol-assigned antithrombotic prophylaxis and to avoid non-study systemic anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents during the study period.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-tunneled hemodialysis catheter, subclavian catheter, or intracaval catheter placement not consistent with the protocol (e.g., catheter located in the SVC/IVC without a subcutaneous tunnel, or catheter location/site not permitted by the study).
  • Tunneled catheter placed \<8 days before randomization or radiographically confirmed catheter tip malposition at screening.
  • Active bleeding; active peptic ulcer disease; or gastrointestinal bleeding within the past 30 days; uncorrectable >1.5; count \<100,000/µL.
  • High bleeding risk (HAS-BLED score >3) or major bleeding that is active or recent.
  • Known coagulopathy; history of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT); or allergy/ to heparin, citrate, or rt-PA (alteplase).
  • Severe hepatic impairment (e.g., class C), clinically significant liver dysfunction that contraindicates DOAC therapy, or ongoing hemodialysis with regional citrate anticoagulation that cannot be modified per protocol.
  • Active catheter exit-site infection or bloodstream infection/bacteremia at the time of randomization.
  • Concomitant use of other systemic anticoagulants (e.g., warfarin, low-molecular-weight heparin, other DOACs) or high-intensity antiplatelet therapy (e.g., dual antiplatelet therapy).
  • Pregnancy or breastfeeding.
  • Women of who are unwilling to use a highly effective method during the study and for 48 hours after the last dose of study medication.
  • \<6 months, current palliative/hospice care, or planned kidney transplant within ≤3 months.
  • Concurrent participation in another clinical trial that could interfere with the study interventions or outcomes.
  • Venography demonstrating significant venous stenosis involving the superior vena cava (SVC) or inferior vena cava (IVC).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(9)

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

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.

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.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Child-Pugh class

A score of how well the liver works in people with liver disease such as cirrhosis: class A is mild, B moderate and C severe.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
54 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Heparin sodium lock solution

    Heparin sodium catheter lock solution (1,000 IU/ mL) instilled into each lumen of the tunneled hemodialysis catheter at the end of each dialysis session, using a volume equal to the catheter manufacturer's priming volume per lumen. The same lock protocol is used in both study arms.

    Drug: Heparin sodium lock solution

  • Experimental
    Apixaban

    Standard catheter care including intraluminal heparin lock per unit protocol, plus apixaban 2.5 mg orally every 12 hours, initiated after randomization (T0) and continued until administrative censoring at 24 months or earlier catheter loss/removal/exchange, modality change, kidney transplant, withdrawal, death, or end of study. Temporary interruptions, bleeding events, and adherence are recorded per protocol.

    Drug: Apixaban · Drug: Heparin sodium lock solution

Interventions

  • Apixaban 2.5 mg orally every 12 hours, initiated after randomization (TO) and continued until administrative censoring at 24 months or earlier catheter loss/removal/exchange, modality change, kidney transplant, withdrawal, death, or end of study. Temporary interruptions, bleeding events, and adherence are recorded per protocol.

  • DrugHeparin sodium lock solution

    Heparin sodium catheter lock solution (1,000 IU/mL) instilled into each lumen of the tunneled hemodialysis catheter at the end of each dialysis session, using a volume equal to the catheter manufacturer's priming volume per lumen. The same lock protocol is used in both study arms.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Clinically significant catheter dysfunction

    Time from randomization to the first clinically significant catheter dysfunction event, defined as either: (1) use of intraluminal thrombolytic therapy (alteplase/rt-PA), or (2) definitive catheter loss (permanent catheter removal or over-the-wire exchange) due to catheter dysfunction. The following are not considered events for the primary outcome: line reversal, flushing with crystalloid, postural changes, or radiography with subsequent manipulation unless they are followed by thrombolytic use or definitive catheter loss.

    Time frame: From randomization (T0) up to 24 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Minor catheter dysfunction requiring simple maneuvers.

    Time from randomization to the first episode of catheter dysfunction managed with simple maneuvers only, defined as any of the following performed to restore adequate dialysis without thrombolytic therapy or catheter exchange: line reversal, flushing/permeabilization with crystalloid, patient repositioning, or radiography followed by catheter manipulation/repositioning. Episodes that subsequently require alteplase/rt-PA or definitive catheter loss are counted as primary outcome events (and are not classified as 'minor').

    Time frame: From randomization (T0) up to 24 months

  2. Rescue procedures for catheter dysfunction (number of procedures per participant)

    Total number of protocol-defined rescue procedures performed for catheter dysfunction per participant during follow-up (line reversal, flushing/permeabilization with crystalloid, patient repositioning, or radiography followed by catheter manipulation/repositioning)

    Time frame: Up to 24 months

  3. Catheter-related infection rate (per 1,000 catheter-days)

    Rate of catheter-related infection events defined using CDC criteria, expressed as events per 1,000 catheter-days during follow-up. Catheter-days are calculated from randomization until catheter removal/exchange or censoring.

    Time frame: Up to 24 months

  4. Major bleeding (ISTH)

    Occurrence of major bleeding events defined according to ISTH criteria during follow-up.

    Time frame: Up to 24 months

  5. Clinically relevant non-major bleeding (ISTH)

    Occurrence of clinically relevant non-major bleeding events defined according to ISTH criteria during follow-up.

    Time frame: Up to 24 months

  6. All-cause mortality

    Death from any cause during follow-up.

    Time frame: Up to 24 months

07

Study locations

1 site
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — De-identified individual participant data (IPD) that underlie the results reported in publications will be shared upon reasonable request.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Clinical study report, Analytic code

Time frame: Beginning 6 months after primary publication and ending 5 years thereafter

Access criteria: Requests will be reviewed by the study steering committee. Data will be shared with qualified researchers for methodologically sound proposals, after approval and execution of a data use agreement. Only de-identified data will be provided; no direct identifiers will be shared

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 17, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07404345
Lead sponsor
Hospital Civil de Guadalajara
Responsible party
Juan Alberto Gomez Fregoso (Principal Investigator, Hospital Civil de Guadalajara) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 11, 2026
Start date
Mar 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Mar 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 1, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 17, 2026

Study contacts

Jenifer M Langarica Lopez, Nephrology fellow
Contact
jeni.langarica@gmail.com
+523221127583
Manuel Arizaga Napoles, Nephrologist
Contact
man.arizaga.napoles@gmail.com
+523317476634
Juan A Gomez Fregoso, Nephrologist
principal investigator · Antiguo Hospital Civil de Guadalajara "Fray Antonio Alcalde" (Servicio de Nefrología)

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 not yet recruiting, as verified in Feb 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Apixaban

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