An interventional study of Thoracentesis in Congestive Heart Failure(CHF) and Pleural Effusion Due to Congestive Heart Failure, sponsored by Albany Medical College. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-30.
Sponsored by Albany Medical College · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The goal of this study is to assess if removal of fluid around the lungs (pleural effusion) by a routine procedure called as thoracentesis is helpful to decrease shortness of breath in hospitalized patients with congestive heart failure and have pleural effusion.
Researchers will compare thoracentesis with medical therapy to medical therapy alone to see if one treatment is superior to the other treatment in relieving shortness of breath.
Participants will :
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is the most common cause of pleural effusions.The presence of clinically significant pleural effusions in hospitalized patients with CHF has been associated with increased hospital length of stay and mortality.The treatment of CHF-related pleural effusion (CHF-PE) typically involves heart failure management such as diuresis. The role of therapeutic thoracentesis in managing heart failure-related effusions is not well established. There is only one randomized controlled trial that assessed the effect of therapeutic thoracentesis in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (≤45%) and a sizable pleural effusion. This study showed that upfront large volume thoracentesis in addition to medical therapy did not result in improved outcomes, including median days alive out of the hospital over 90 days, hospital length of stay, mortality, or quality of life. However, this trial excluded patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Few studies show that HFpEF is a more common and prevalent cause of heart failure-related pleural effusion as compared to those with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
In this randomized controlled trial, the investigators will compare the clinical outcomes of hospitalized patients with acute decompensated heart failure and pleural effusion who receive therapeutic thoracentesis in addition to medical therapy as compared to the no thoracentesis group.
Primary objective of this study is to assess the effect of upfront therapeutic thoracentesis in addition to the medical therapy in hospitalized patients with acute decompensated heart failure and moderate to large effusion on degree of dyspnea relief as measured by VAS score
Secondary objectives are to examine the effect of thoracentesis on secondary outcomes such as index hospital length of stay, 90-day hospital free survival, quality of life, hospital readmission rate at 90 days and complications related to thoracentesis.
6,331 studies on the registry are indexed under Heart Failure; 1,396 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 216 is above the median of 76 across 4,049 interventional studies indexed under Heart Failure.
Browse Heart Failure studies →Albany Medical College is the lead sponsor of 81 studies on the registry; 14 are open to participants now.
Of its 17 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 3 (18%) have results posted.
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.
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
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.
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.
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.
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.
LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Thoracentesis and medical therapy
Procedure: Thoracentesis
Only medical therapy
pleural fluid will be removed
Dyspnea
Degree of dyspnea will be assessed as by using a validated 100 mm visual analog scale in participants of both groups. Dyspnea will be assessed using a 100 mm visual analog scale (VAS). The VAS consisted of a horizontal straight line with endpoints defining extreme limits, with the left end marked as "no trouble" (0 mm) and the right end as "very much trouble" (100 mm). A higher VAS score indicated more severe dyspnea. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was defined as ≥ 14 mm improvement on this 100 mm scale, adapted from the established 24-hour VAS dyspnea threshold for clinical practicality in our setting.
Time frame: 30 days
Proportion of patients achieved clinically significant decrease in mean VAS dyspnea score
Proportion of patients achieved clinically significant decrease in mean VAS dyspnea score over the first 30 days after the enrollment
Time frame: 30 days
Bendopnea
Patient will be instructed to bend forward at the waist and aim to touch ankles and maintain this position for 60 seconds. Patient will inform the investigator as soon as the dyspnea occurs, and the time of onset of bendopnoea and degree of dyspnea will be recorded.
Time frame: 5 days
Quality of life- KCCQ12
The investigators will use Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-12) to assess quality of life. This is based on 12 questions. Score ranges from 0 to 100. Higher score means better health.
Time frame: 30 days
Hospital free day at day 90
Number of hospital-free days at day 90 post-randomization, defined as the total number of days alive and not hospitalized from the date of randomization to 90 days
Time frame: 90 days
All-cause mortality
All cause mortality
Time frame: 90 days
Adverse events
Complications related to thoracentesis (Hemothorax, pneumothorax, need for additional pleural procedures) or medical therapy.
Time frame: upto 30 days
Plan to share: Yes
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Feb 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Feb 2029, 36 months after the start.
Of 1,118 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Heart Failure, half reached primary completion within 29 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 16 and three quarters within 50. This study's planned 36 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 1,354 studies reached it within 31 months; a quarter within 16 and three quarters within 52.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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