Susanne Breuer Votruba, Ph.D., R.D.

Research Nutritionist:
Obesity and Diabetes Clinical Research Section, Phoenix Epidemiology & Clinical Research Branch
Scientific Focus Areas: Clinical Research
Clinical Trials
Open studies conducted by NIDDK Principal Investigators appear below. Study statuses may include the following:
- Open: Recruiting - Currently recruiting participants and open to everyone who meets eligibility criteria.
- Open: Active, Not Recruiting - Participants are receiving an intervention or being examined, however new participants are not being recruited or enrolled.
- Open: Enrolling by Invitation - People in a particular population were selected in advance and invited to participate. The study is not open to everyone who meets the eligibility criteria.
- Open: Available for Expanded Access - Patients who are not participants in the clinical study may be able to gain access to the drug, biologic, or medical device being studied.
Studies Seeking Patients
Predicting Weight Gain and Weight Loss Associated With Overeating or Fasting
This study will investigate how to better predict why some individuals gain or lose weight
more easily than others. It will examine whether the increase in the amount of energy a body
burns in 24 hours with overeating or the decrease over 24 hours with fasting can help
determine how easily someone gains or loses weight.
Healthy people between 18 and 60 years of age who have a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5
kg/m(2) and 24 kg/m(2) (for overfeeding study) or a BMI greater than 27 kg/m(2) with a body
weight less than 350 pounds (weight loss study) may be eligible for this study. The study
requires a 10-week admission to the NIH Clinical Center (2-week baseline, 6-week
overfeeding/weight loss, 2-week post-weight change).
Participants undergo the following tests and procedures during the hospital admission:
- Medical history, physical examination and laboratory studies
- Questionnaires to assess eating behavior, food preferences, body composition, and
activity level
- Body composition assessment (height, weight, waist circumference, and fat mass and
muscle content through DXA and MRI scans)
- Oral glucose tolerance test
- Meal test to measure the response of certain hormones to food
- Activity monitors to determine activity level
- Metabolic chamber study to measure calories burned over 24 hours and monitor body
temperature
- Free-living energy use study to measure calories burned under normal home conditions
over 7 days
- Fat and muscle biopsies
- Dietary intervention: Measurements of food intake and energy loss over a 6-week
overfeeding (1.5 times the subject s normal food intake) or weight loss (one-half the
subject s normal food intake) program
Followup procedures after the inpatient stay:
- Height and weight measurements at 6 months (overfeeding study participants) and monthly
for the first year, at 3-month intervals for the second year, and then yearly for 3 more
years (weight loss study participants)
- Yearly visits (2-night inpatient stay) for all participants for repeat meal test, DXA,
oral glucose tolerance test, behavioral questionnaires and, in women who can become
pregnant, pregnancy test
The trial is Open with a status of Active, not recruiting.
Investigator: Susanne Votruba, Ph.D.
The Food Intake Phenotype: Assessing Eating Behavior and Food Preferences as Risk Factors for Obesity
The prevalence of obesity in the United States has reached alarming proportions with 33% of
adults over the age of 20 being overweight. Obesity is more than twice as prevalent, however,
in the Pima Indians of Arizona. Although there have been a number of advances in our
understanding of the genetics of obesity, the environmental influences on the genetic
expression of obesity requires further investigation.
In an effort to understand some of the influences on the high prevalence of obesity in the
Pima Indians, the present study was designed to investigate eating behaviors and food
preferences, most especially the preference for high fat foods, in sib-pairs of Pima Indians
who have been previously genotyped in our genomic scan for loci linked to diabetes/obesity.
Most specifically, we will utilize several questionnaires and methods of assessing eating
behavior and the preference for high fat foods to create a food intake phenotype. In
addition, we will study Caucasians so that comparisons can be made between these two groups.
We will make these evaluations by assessing eating behavior, food preferences including usual
fat intake and preferences for high fat foods, body image perceptions, and energy
expenditure. It is hoped that the data gathered from this study will elucidate some of the
risk factors for the development of obesity among the Pima Indians.
The trial is Open with a status of Recruiting.
Investigator: Susanne Votruba, Ph.D.
Referral Contacts: Kateri A Ware (602) 200-5300