Short-term effects of octreotide on blood pressure and plasma catecholamines and neuropeptide Y levels in patients with phaeochromocytoma: a placebo-controlled trial

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Octreotide and Neuropeptide Y in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

The observation that phaeochromocytoma possess specific somatostatin binding sites led them to test the hypothesis that octreotide may have antisecretory potential in patients with phaeochromocytoma.

The researchers therefore compared the effects of octreotide and placebo on blood pressure and plasma catecholamines and neuropeptide Y.

Who Took Part

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

Ten consecutive patients referred to a tertiary care centre for the diagnosis and treatment of a phaeochromocytoma.

All patients then underwent surgery and tumoral somatostatin binding site density was determined by quantitative autoradiography.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

In this single-blind Octreotide study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

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

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

The timeline in the abstract includes one day.

Blood pressure was measured over 24 hours on each test day using an automatic ambulatory recorder.

Blood samples were collected before (at 0800 and 0900 h) and after (at 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300 and 1500 h) placebo or octreotide injection.

Plasma catecholamines were assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography and neuropeptide Y was determined using a two-site amplified enzyme immunoassay.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adrenal Gland Neoplasms, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Catecholamines, Neuropeptide Y, Octreotide and Pheochromocytoma.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, single-blind and placebo-controlled study of Octreotide and Neuropeptide Y in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension over one day.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1995 (Clinical endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Octreotide compound page and the Neuropeptide Y compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.