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Glaucoma is among the leading causes for irreversible blindness worldwide. While lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) remains the mainstay of therapy, there are still some patients who progress despite wellcontrolled IOP. There is evidence from several studies that ocular blood flow and its regulation is impaired in patients with glaucoma. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has been used in the treatment for glaucoma in some countries for several years due to its IOP lowering effect. In addition, there is also evidence that THC features neuroprotective effects and improves ocular hemodynamics. Dronabinol is a synthetic THC that is legally available in several European countries. It has the advantage that exact dosing of THC is possible in contrast to previously applied administration forms such as smoking. Due to its legal status in the past, data about the effect of THC on ocular blood flow and its regulation are sparse. This holds true for basic research in healthy subjects as well as in patients with glaucoma.The aim of the present study therefore is to investigate whether single administration of THC alters optic nerve head (ONH) blood flow in healthy subjects. In addition, other parameters for ocular blood flow will be measured, in particular retinal blood flow, retinal oxygen saturation and retinal neurovascular coupling. The study will be conducted in a randomized, double-masked, placebocontrolled, two-way cross-over design. Subjects will receive 5mg dronabinol on one study day. This dose is the recommended starting dose for some indications in clinical practice. Other studies investigating retinal hemodynamics or IOP after administration of THC also have used similar or slightly higher doses.
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| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| healthy subjects | Experimental |
| |
| healthy volunteers | Placebo Comparator |
|
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dronabinol | Drug | Capsules containing 5 mg Dronabinol |
| |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Optic nerve head blood flow | To determine the total blood flow in the eye, OCT measurements were performed with a rectangular scanning pattern around the optical nerve head. | 60 minutes |
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| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Retinal vessel diameter (DVA) | The DVA allows for the real time measurement of retinal vessel diameters in vivo. The DVA is a commercially available system (IMEDOS, Jena, Germany) which comprises a fundus camera, a video camera, a real time monitor and a personal computer with an analyzing software for the accurate determination of retinal arterial and venous diameters. Every second a maximum of 25 readings of vessel diameter can be obtained. For this purpose the fundus is imaged onto the charge coupled device chip of the video camera. The consecutive fundus images are digitized using a frame grabber. In addition, the fundus image can be inspected on the real time monitor and, if necessary, stored on a video recorder. Evaluation of the retinal vessel diameters can either be done online or offline from the recorded video tapes |
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
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| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna | Vienna | 1090 | Austria |
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| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D013759 | Dronabinol |
| ID | Term |
|---|---|
| D002186 | Cannabinoids |
| D013729 | Terpenes |
| D006838 | Hydrocarbons |
| D009930 | Organic Chemicals |
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| Placebo |
| Other |
capsules identical in appearance to dronabinol |
|
| 30 minutes |
| Retinal oxygen saturation (DVA) | In particular, retinal oxygen saturation measurement is based on the image analysis by the DVA software of two monochromatic fundus images as recorded by a standard DVA. In an image, obtained by the camera and filter assembly, the operator has to mark the vessel of interest by a mouse click. The vessel is traced automatically applying the following procedure. The vessel walls are located as photometric edges in the vicinity of the mouse cursor in the green channel image. If edges are determined, the search is continued in their proximity. | 30 minutes |
| Retinal blood velocities | We observe bi-directional blood flow and pulsatility of blood velocity in retinal vessels with a Doppler detection bandwidth of 12.5 kHz and a longitudinal velocity sensitivity in tissue of 200μm/s. | 15 minutes |
| THC plasma concentration | Measurements of ocular hemodynamics will be started one hour after administration, since maximum plasma levels are reached 60-120 minutes after administration. | 120 minutes |