AzTrials
AzTrials

Arteritis, Giant CellPhase 3CECIBONCT03841734

Study of the Benefit of Early Treatment With an Endothelin Inhibitor (Bosentan) in Patients With Sudden Blindness Due to Giant Cell Arteritis: CECIBO

A Phase 3 study testing treatment in people with Arteritis, Giant Cell and Blindness and Low Vision, run by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice at 1 site in France.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
Search all trials

Trial summary

Giant cell arteritis , also named Horton's disease, is the most common vasculitis in subjects over 50 years old. The incidence increases with age : from 188 to 290 cases per million inhabitants per year, with a North-South gradient. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 50 years and older
What is being tested?
treatment
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
8 participants
Where
1 siteFrance
Study dates
4 Feb 2020to 26 Jul 2023
Phase
Phase 3
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 50 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Decreased visual acuity (BVA) <5 days, regardless of degree of severity, abrupt onset in the context of newly diagnosed or suspected Horton's disease at this loss of visual acuity
  • Able to sign the consent
  • Affiliated to the social security system
  • Already under conventional treatment of Horton's disease or the: requiring: Corticosteroids and + - anti-platelet aggregators and / or LMWH at the discretion of the referring physician for its vasculitis and + - immunosuppressive or biotherapy if necessary.

Who cannot join

  • Underlying hepatocellular insufficiency known
  • Patient under guardianship or curator
  • Hypersensitivity to the active substance or to any of the excipients
  • Moderate to severe hepatic insufficiency corresponding to class B or C of the Child-Pugh classification
  • Any other ophthalmological pathology explaining the sudden drop in vision: retinal detachment, retinal hemorrhage, posterior uveitis, nonarteritic arterial occlusion, cortical stroke
  • Serum levels of hepatic aminotransferases, aspartate aminotransferases (ASTs) and / or alanine aminotransferases (ALATs), greater than 3 times the upper limit of normal before start of treatment
  • Patient under treatment with cyclosporine A, antiretrovirals, glibenclamide or Rifampicin.
  • Pregnant or lactating women

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

France1 site
  • CH de Cannes

    Cannes

Other trials in France

About this study

Giant cell arteritis , also named Horton's disease, is the most common vasculitis in subjects over 50 years old. The incidence increases with age : from 188 to 290 cases per million inhabitants per year, with a North-South gradient.

The major risk of Horton's disease is blindness, unilateral, occurring in 15 to 20% of cases, sometimes preceded by episodes of transient amaurosis. The decrease in visual acuity is often brutal, irreversible and bilateral in 25 to 50% of cases. The mechanism of this blindness is an arterial ischemia: Acute Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy acute anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (90%), acute retro-bulbar ischaemic optic neuropathy (5%), occlusion of the central artery of the retina (5%).

Read more

The pathogenesis of this brutal ischemia is not fully understood. One of the hypotheses suggests that, during stimulation by an antigen of the environment, preactivated dendritic cells of the arterial wall would stimulate T lymphocytes. These will recruit cells that cause an inflammatory infiltrate polymorphic predominant at the media level. These lesions may be accompanied by destruction of the internal elastic lamina, with inconstant but pathognomonic presence of multinucleated giant cells. All arteries with internal elastic lamina can be affected by parietal inflammation, which results in stenosis and occlusion, explaining the ischemia.

The visual loss is usually abrupt and very severe, leaving the patient with definitely very low or no residual visual acuity.

Conventional treatment currently recommended includes systemic corticosteroid therapy at 1 mg / kg / day, preceded or not by 500 mg pulses of methylprednisolone , and associated with antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy (LMWH). Despite the decline in visual acuity thus occurred is then always final. Certainly loss of vision has a major impact on the quality of life of patients.

Apart from this lymphocytic inflammation, a process of vascular remodeling is at the origin of the vascular occlusion phenomenon. The endothelin system is a family of amino acids including 3 members: ET1, ET2 and ET3. ET1 is a potent vasoconstrictor. ET1 receptors (ETA and ETB) are expressed in the arteries of patients with giant cell arteritis . The expression of ET1 associated with proliferation of muscle cells in arteries will decrease under the effect of endothelin inhibitors. This has been shown during treatment of pulmonary hypertension. In giant cell arteritis , the endothelin system continues to be very active up to 8 days despite the introduction of systemic corticosteroids. Bosentan is a mixed endothelin receptor antagonist with affinity for both ETA and ETB receptors. This inhibitor is used in treatment of pulmonary artery hypertension, digital ulcerations of systemic sclerosis and critical peripheral arterial ischemia.

Being tested
treatment
Medical subject headings
Giant Cell Arteritis, Blindness, Vision, Low

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • treatmentDrug

    8 patients will be treat with bosentan at 145 mg per day during 14 days

Study groups in NCT03841734
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Treatment bosentanExperimentalNot described
Receives: Drug: treatment

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Visual acuity calculated according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study

    Measured: 3 months

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Visual acuity calculated according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study

    Measured: 1 month

  2. Goldman's one-sided visual field

    Measured: 3 months

  3. Numbers of adverse event and serious adverse events

    Measured: 16 days

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted15 Feb 2019
  2. Study start4 Feb 2020
  3. Primary completion26 Jul 2023
  4. Study completion26 Jul 2023

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
8 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT03841734
Sponsor's protocol ID
18-AOIP-01
Acronym
CECIBO
Status last verified
Jun 2026
First submitted
5 Feb 2019
Last updated
18 Jun 2026
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • Chaigne-Delalande S, de Menthon M, Lazaro E, Mahr A. [Giant-cell arteritis and Takayasu arteritis: epidemiological, diagnostic and treatment aspects]. Presse Med. 2012 Oct;41(10):955-65. doi: 10.1016/j.lpm.2012.07.011. Epub 2012 Aug 31. French.

    PubMed 22940467
  • Watelet B, Samson M, de Boysson H, Bienvenu B. Treatment of giant-cell arteritis, a literature review. Mod Rheumatol. 2017 Sep;27(5):747-754. doi: 10.1080/14397595.2016.1266070. Epub 2017 Jan 13.

    PubMed 27919193
  • Salvarani C, Cantini F, Hunder GG. Polymyalgia rheumatica and giant-cell arteritis. Lancet. 2008 Jul 19;372(9634):234-45. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61077-6.

    PubMed 18640460
  • Gonzalez-Gay MA, Garcia-Porrua C, Llorca J, Hajeer AH, Branas F, Dababneh A, Gonzalez-Louzao C, Rodriguez-Gil E, Rodriguez-Ledo P, Ollier WE. Visual manifestations of giant cell arteritis. Trends and clinical spectrum in 161 patients. Medicine (Baltimore). 2000 Sep;79(5):283-92. doi: 10.1097/00005792-200009000-00001.

    PubMed 11039076
  • Weyand CM, Goronzy JJ. Medium- and large-vessel vasculitis. N Engl J Med. 2003 Jul 10;349(2):160-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra022694. No abstract available.

    PubMed 12853590
  • Bienvenu B, Ly KH, Lambert M, Agard C, Andre M, Benhamou Y, Bonnotte B, de Boysson H, Espitia O, Fau G, Fauchais AL, Galateau-Salle F, Haroche J, Heron E, Lapebie FX, Liozon E, Luong Nguyen LB, Magnant J, Manrique A, Matt M, de Menthon M, Mouthon L, Puechal X, Pugnet G, Quemeneur T, Regent A, Saadoun D, Samson M, Sene D, Smets P, Yelnik C, Sailler L, Mahr A; Groupe d'Etude Francais des Arterites des gros Vaisseaux, under the Aegis of the Filiere des Maladies Auto-Immunes et Auto-Inflammatoires Rares. Management of giant cell arteritis: Recommendations of the French Study Group for Large Vessel Vasculitis (GEFA). Rev Med Interne. 2016 Mar;37(3):154-65. doi: 10.1016/j.revmed.2015.12.015. Epub 2016 Jan 29.

    PubMed 26833145
  • Weyand CM, Schonberger J, Oppitz U, Hunder NN, Hicok KC, Goronzy JJ. Distinct vascular lesions in giant cell arteritis share identical T cell clonotypes. J Exp Med. 1994 Mar 1;179(3):951-60. doi: 10.1084/jem.179.3.951.

    PubMed 8113687
  • Terrades-Garcia N, Cid MC. Pathogenesis of giant-cell arteritis: how targeted therapies are influencing our understanding of the mechanisms involved. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2018 Feb 1;57(suppl_2):ii51-ii62. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kex423.

    PubMed 29982777
  • Lozano E, Segarra M, Corbera-Bellalta M, Garcia-Martinez A, Espigol-Frigole G, Pla-Campo A, Hernandez-Rodriguez J, Cid MC. Increased expression of the endothelin system in arterial lesions from patients with giant-cell arteritis: association between elevated plasma endothelin levels and the development of ischaemic events. Ann Rheum Dis. 2010 Feb;69(2):434-42. doi: 10.1136/ard.2008.105692. Epub 2009 Mar 15.

    PubMed 19289383
  • Dimitrijevic I, Andersson C, Rissler P, Edvinsson L. Increased tissue endothelin-1 and endothelin-B receptor expression in temporal arteries from patients with giant cell arteritis. Ophthalmology. 2010 Mar;117(3):628-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2009.07.043. Epub 2009 Dec 24.

    PubMed 20036012
  • Planas-Rigol E, Terrades-Garcia N, Corbera-Bellalta M, Lozano E, Alba MA, Segarra M, Espigol-Frigole G, Prieto-Gonzalez S, Hernandez-Rodriguez J, Preciado S, Lavilla R, Cid MC. Endothelin-1 promotes vascular smooth muscle cell migration across the artery wall: a mechanism contributing to vascular remodelling and intimal hyperplasia in giant-cell arteritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2017 Sep;76(9):1624-1634. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210792. Epub 2017 Jun 12.

    PubMed 28606962
  • Regent A, Ly KH, Groh M, Khifer C, Lofek S, Clary G, Chafey P, Baud V, Broussard C, Federici C, Labrousse F, Mesturoux L, Le Jeunne C, Vidal E, Brezin A, Witko-Sarsat V, Guillevin L, Mouthon L. Molecular analysis of vascular smooth muscle cells from patients with giant cell arteritis: Targeting endothelin-1 receptor to control proliferation. Autoimmun Rev. 2017 Apr;16(4):398-406. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2017.02.006. Epub 2017 Feb 14.

    PubMed 28232168
  • Matucci-Cerinic M, Denton CP, Furst DE, Mayes MD, Hsu VM, Carpentier P, Wigley FM, Black CM, Fessler BJ, Merkel PA, Pope JE, Sweiss NJ, Doyle MK, Hellmich B, Medsger TA Jr, Morganti A, Kramer F, Korn JH, Seibold JR. Bosentan treatment of digital ulcers related to systemic sclerosis: results from the RAPIDS-2 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011 Jan;70(1):32-8. doi: 10.1136/ard.2010.130658. Epub 2010 Aug 30.

    PubMed 20805294
  • Narvaez J, Garcia-Gomez C, Alvarez L, Santo P, Aparicio M, Pascual M, Lopez de Recalde M, Borrell H, Nolla JM. Efficacy of bosentan in patients with refractory thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger disease): A case series and review of the literature. Medicine (Baltimore). 2016 Nov;95(48):e5511. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000005511.

    PubMed 27902617
  • Ly KH, Liozon E, Fauchais AL, Vidal E. [Pathophysiology of giant cell arteritis]. Rev Med Interne. 2013 Jul;34(7):392-402. doi: 10.1016/j.revmed.2013.02.037. Epub 2013 Mar 23. French.

    PubMed 23528439

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A Phase 3 study testing treatment in people with Arteritis, Giant Cell and Blindness and Low Vision, run by Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice at 1 site in France.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 8 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 18 Jun 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in France. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

What does this phase mean?

Phase 3 studies compare the treatment with the current standard treatment or a placebo in a large group, to confirm how well it works and watch for side effects.

Not every study follows the same path, and some studies (observational studies, device studies) have no phase.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Visual acuity calculated according to the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (time frame: 3 months). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03841734, which also lists 15 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 18 Jun 2026.

Free account

Log in to keep searching

You’ve used your 3 free searches. AzTrials is free: log in or create a free account to keep searching clinical trials and save the ones you want to follow.

Create a free accountLog in