Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Systemic Rapamycin (Sirolimus) to Prevent In-Stent Restenosis Following Pulmonary Artery Stent Placement
Brief Summary:
This is a research study to assess whether an oral medication can benefit some patients being treated for peripheral pulmonary stenosis (PPS), which is narrowing of the blood vessels that send blood to the lungs (pulmonary arteries).
In the cardiac catheterization laboratory, the investigators treat PPS by dilating the narrowed segments of pulmonary arteries using balloon catheters. Sometimes the investigators also place stents which are mesh tubes that help keep the narrowed vessel open. Some stents suffer from in-growth of tissue into the stents which causes recurrent obstructions inside the stent (i.e. making the opening inside the mesh tube narrow again), so called in-stent stenosis (ISS).
The purpose of this study is to use a medication that is approved for use in children (for a different purpose) to decrease the amount of cell ingrowth inside the stents (i.e. decrease the problematic in-stent stenosis). The medication is called rapamycin, also known as sirolimus (trade name Rapamune). It has antiproliferative properties which means that it slows down cell division which the investigators believe cause the recurrent narrowing inside stents.
Rapamycin is a medicine that can be taken by mouth as a liquid or pill or via a feeding tube. There will still be a need for interventions in the catheterization laboratory but the investigators hope that by taking this medicine some children would need fewer catheterizations in the future. Our early experiences with a few patients who have been treated with rapamycin due to in-stent stenosis in the pulmonary arteries suggest that it may be helpful.
In this study, patients and families who are interested in possibly trying this new approach will be randomized to sirolimus or no siro