Exenatide as a weight-loss therapy in extreme pediatric obesity: a randomized, controlled pilot study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Exenatide in the context of fat loss, obesity & body recomposition in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the effects of exenatide on BMI (primary endpoint) and cardiometabolic risk factors in nondiabetic youth with extreme obesity.

Why It Was Studied

Participants were equally randomized to phase-order (i.e., starting with control or drug therapy) then crossed-over to the other treatment.

The mean change over each 3-month phase was compared between treatments.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were children and teenagers, both men and women.

Twelve children and adolescents (age 9-16 years old) with extreme obesity (BMI ≥1.2 times the 95th percentile or BMI ≥35 kg/m(2)) were enrolled in a 6-month, randomized, open-label, crossover, clinical trial consisting of two, 3-month phases: (i) a control phase of lifestyle modification and (ii) a drug phase of lifestyle modification plus exenatide.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, open-label, crossover and pilot study.

Because people in this Exenatide study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Being open-label, the Exenatide study did not mask who received what.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Exenatide and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Exenatide study would be practical.

BMI, body fat percentage, blood pressure, lipids, oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT), adipokines, plasma biomarkers of endothelial activation, and endothelial function were assessed at baseline, 3-, and 6-months.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Exenatide, Glucose Tolerance Test and Minnesota.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and crossover study of Exenatide in people with fat loss, obesity & body recomposition.

The publication is from 2012 (Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Exenatide compound page, Fat loss, obesity & body recomposition research.