Background: Some newborn babies develop abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lung. This condition is called persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). Babies with PPHN present with breathing difficulties and low oxygen levels.Traditionally such babies are managed with respirators and administration of a special gas called nitric oxide. In many cases, babies do not improve in spite of these measures. A new class of drugs called endothelin receptor antagonists are being tested for PPHN.
Method: We systematically reviewed the medical literature through December 2015 to gather current evidence on the use of this class of drugs in newborn babies.
Results: We found very limited data from two included studies for the use of this class of drugs in newborn babies. Overall, the quality of evidence was considered low because of the very small sample size and methodological issues in the included studies.
Conclusion: More research is needed to find out if endothelin receptor antagonists are useful in newborn babies with PPHN. At present the use of these medications for this condition can not be recommended.
閱讀完整摘要
Endothelin, a powerful vasoconstrictor, is one of the mediators in the causation of persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN). Theoretically, endothelin receptor antagonists (ETRA) have the potential to improve the outcomes of infants with PPHN.
目的
To assess the efficacy and safety of ETRA in the treatment of PPHN in full-term, post-term and late preterm infants.
To assess the efficacy and safety of selective ETRAs (which block only the ETA receptors) and non-selective ETRAs (which block both ETA and ETB receptors) separately.
搜尋策略
CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases were searched until December 2015.
選擇標準
Randomised, cluster-randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials were eligible.
資料收集與分析
Two review authors independently searched the literature, selected the studies, assessed the risk of bias and extracted the data. A fixed-effect model was used for meta-analysis. We used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach to assess the quality of evidence.
主要結果
Two randomised controlled trials of ETRA met the inclusion criteria. Both studies utilized oral Bosentan. The first study was done in a setting where inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) therapy was not available. Forty-seven infants (≥ 34 weeks' gestation) were randomised to receive either Bosentan or placebo. The second study was a multicentre study where iNO therapy was the standard of care for PPHN. Twenty-one infants were randomised to receive either 'iNO plus Bosentan' or 'iNO plus placebo'.
In the first study, there was no significant difference in the incidence of death before hospital discharge between the Bosentan and placebo groups (1/23 vs 3/14; RR 0.20, 95% CI 0.02 to 1.77; RD −0.17, 95% CI −0.40 to 0.06). A higher proportion of infants in the Bosentan group showed improvement in oxygenation index (OI) at the end of therapy (21/24 vs 3/15; RR 4.38, 95% CI 1.57 to 12.17; RD 0.68, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.92; number needed to treat for a beneficial outcome (NNTB) 1.5). The duration of mechanical ventilation was lower in the Bosentan group (4.3 ± 0.9 vs 11.5 ± 0.6 days; MD −7.20, 95% CI −7.64 to −6.76). There was no significant difference in adverse neurological outcomes at six months (0/23 vs 4/14; RR 0.07, 95% CI 0.00 to 1.20; RD −0.29, 95% CI −0.52 to -0.05). The study suffered from a high risk of attrition bias since 8/23 infants in the placebo group were excluded from various analyses. Since the protocol for the study could not be accessed, the study suffered from unclear risk of reporting bias.
In the second study, there was no significant difference in the incidence of treatment failure needing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) between the 'iNO plus Bosentan' vs 'iNO plus placebo' groups (1/13 vs 0/8; RR 1.93, 95% CI 0.09 to 42.35; RD 0.08, 95% CI −0.14 to 0.30). There was no significant difference in the median time to wean from iNO ('iNO plus Bosentan': 3.7 days (95% CI 1.17 to 6.95); 'iNO plus placebo': 2.9 days (95% CI 1.26 to 4.23); P = 0.34). There were no significant differences in the OI 0, 3, 5, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours of treatment between the groups. There were no significant differences in the time to complete weaning from mechanical ventilation (median 10.8 days (CI 3.21 to 12.21) versus 8.6 days (CI 3.71 to 9.66); P = 0.24). The study had unequal distribution to the Bosentan group (N = 13) and the placebo group (N = 8). The methods used for generating random sequence numbers and allocation concealment were unclear, resulting in unclear risk of selection bias.
Both studies reported that Bosentan was well tolerated and no major adverse effects were noted. Data from the two studies was not pooled given the heterogenous nature of the clinical settings and the modalities used for the treatment of PPHN.
Overall, the quality of evidence was considered low, given the small sample size of the included studies, the numerical imbalance between the groups due to randomisation and attrition, and unclear risk of bias on some of the important domains.
作者結論
There is inadequate evidence to support the use of ETRAs either as stand-alone therapy or as adjuvant to inhaled nitric oxide in PPHN. Adequately powered RCTs are needed.
