Safety and efficacy of long-acting somatostatin treatment in autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Octreotide and Somatostatin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The fluid filling renal cysts in human polycystic kidneys is secreted chiefly by the tubular epithelium lining the cysts via secondary chloride transport.

Inhibiting this process by somatostatin therapy should induce shrinking of renal cysts.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Octreotide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Octreotide, giving a reference point.

Each person switched between Octreotide and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Volumes of kidney structures were evaluated by a two-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner; while glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated by iohexol plasma clearance.

What Was Measured

The fluid filling renal cysts in human polycystic kidneys is secreted chiefly by the tubular epithelium lining the cysts via secondary chloride transport.

The subject headings attached to it are Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Imaging, Three-Dimensional, Kidney, Octreotide, Polycystic Kidney, Autosomal Dominant and Tomography, X-Ray Computed.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Octreotide and Somatostatin.

Results are reported in around 10 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2005 (Kidney international), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.