MICROFON Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Microcirculation and vascular function in prediction of long-term outcomes of Fontan circulation.
IRAS ID
260755
Contact name
Antonio Corno
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Fontan procedure is done for those with only one working lower chamber of the heart called the single ventricle. This involves making connections between the two big heart veins that drain to the heart and the lung artery. But some of them operated for this procedure don’t do well as expected. They have increased pressure in veins (that carry impure blood), poor heart function and low oxygen levels in the blood. In particular, the organs below the chest such as kidney, liver and gut are affected and all of these predicts poor outcomes. The reason why Fontan procedure do not work well is poorly understood. The small blood vessels in the body or ‘microcirculation’ are very tiny and are less than 150 microns in diameter. These includes arterioles, capillaries and venules. The Fontan plumbing is very unique as heart does not pump the blood to the lung directly. This is because the two big heart veins that return impure blood are connected to the lung artery bypassing the heart. The energy from small blood vessels does this job. We believe that studying the small blood vessels and how it works may give us a clue why some of them does not do well after Fontan procedure. In this study we intend to do a series of painless tests outside the body (non-invasive tests) to check small blood vessel in the body, central blood pressure and its function. The exercises done with blood flow restriction to the legs had shown to young people by improving the health of calf muscle and blood vessel function. In this study we would like to check whether blood flow restriction exercise can be done in people operated for Fontan procedure as this has potential applications in the future.
REC name
Wales REC 7
REC reference
19/WA/0255
Date of REC Opinion
29 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion