2 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) is a condition that can lead to blood loss in the gastrointestinal tract and low blood counts or anemia. 1,2 GAVE is commonly associated with liver disease, kidney disease and autoimmune immune problems, but can also be seen in patients without those problems. 2-4 It is common for GAVE to cause hospitalization of patients and significant blood transfusion requirements. Given these problems, effective treatment of GAVE is needed to reduce these potential problems. These treatments are performed by a gastroenterologist through a flexible endoscope most often with argon plasma coagulation (APC).5-7 APC is only partially successful at eradicating GAVE and often entails repeated endoscopic procedures. Therapy with APC can also cause ulceration at times resulting in acute bleeding. Cryoablation is an attractive alternative to APC as it should not cause increased blood loss and case reports suggest that ablation may be achieved with limited number of endoscopic sessions. Prior problems with endoscopic cryotherapy include the high flow of gas and risk of perforation.8,9 A recent retrospective investigation by this group has evaluated the first generation cryotherapy balloon, demonstrating clinical safety and efficacy for GAVE.10 A new balloon cryotherapy spray device was recently developed and does not require venting. In this study we plan to prospectively evaluate the use of balloon cryotherapy to treat GAVE. We predict that the therapeutic response of balloon cryotherapy will be greater than 80% effective at achieving clinical success or the loss of overt bleeding and need for packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion at 6 months after treatment.
The purpose: To determine the safety and efficacy of Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) HALO Ultra system in patients with Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia patient cohort (GAVE). Research design: This is a prospective observational study. Procedure Used: Radiofrequency Ablation Risks and potential benefits: There are no risks associated with this study as it is a retrospective chart review. Potential benefits include the knowledge gained from this study which may be of help to patients in the future. Importance of knowledge that may reasonably be expected to result The knowledge gained from this study may be of help to other patients in the future.