Active clinical trials for "Critical Illness"

Many patients who survive critical illness suffer from symptoms of anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after leaving the intensive care unit (ICU). Memories of frightening and delusional experiences in the ICU appear to be the strongest potentially modifiable risk factor. Research on the formation of fear and associated memories shows that if mitigating information about a traumatic event is introduced during the time between memory formation and its recall, the emotional experience of the memory can be modified in a positive manner. This means that in order to prevent mental health problems in critical illness survivors, psychological support needs to take place in parallel with medical treatment in the ICU. The Researchers hypothesize that early psychological support for the critically ill can decrease mental health morbidity in critical illness survivors. However, providing consistent psychological support intervention is a challenge for busy ICU clinicians. It is not feasible to hire behavioral medicine trained psychologists to become permanent ICU staff nationwide. Doulas, trained lay health care providers who provide emotional support to women in labor, have been identified as reliable yet affordable alternative. Given common elements of their services and our intervention, doulas are in an ideal position to administer early psychological support. The objective of this project is to refine and test a behavioral intervention to be administered in parallel with medical treatment in the ICU. This will be accomplished by training doulas in providing standardized psychological support intervention and refining the intervention based on stakeholder feedback

Critically ill patients are a group of patients with special needs during hospitalization. The vast majority of them is mechanically ventilated and requires continuous assessment of vital parameters. It is quite impressive that assessment of respiratory muscles, and specifically of the diaphragm, is lacking in the daily practice of ICU. The diaphragm-the main inspiratory muscle-is considered so important in ICU. A lot of time in ICUs is spent on weaning patients from mechanical ventilation. Although weaning from mechanical ventilation can be a rapid and uneventful process for the majority of the patients, it can be difficult in as many as 20-30% of them (1)(2). It is during weaning that the diaphragm becomes the major pathophysiological determinant of weaning failure or success. Weaning failure is defined as failing a spontaneous breathing trial or developing a post-extubation respiratory distress that requires re-intubation or non-invasive ventilation within 48 h following extubation (3). So, identification of reliable predictors of weaning failure may represent potential avenues of treatment that could reduce the incidence of weaning failure and its associated morbidity. Known predictors of weaning failure include chronic obstructive airway disease (3), cardiac failure(4-6), lung de-recruitment (7), pneumonia (8) and diaphragmatic dysfunction (9). Rapid shallow breathing index (RSBI) is a clinical predictor of failure of weaning from mechanical ventilation and it is widely used in clinical research and in practice (10). However, diaphragmatic ultrasonography could be a promising tool for predicting reintubation within 48 hours of extubation. As it permits direct assessment of diaphragm function. It should be mentioned that diaphragmatic dysfunction among patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) is commonly attributed to critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy. Mechanical ventilation, even after a short period of time, can also induce diaphragmatic dysfunction. Recent researches have shown that theophylline improves diaphragmatic contractility in isolated muscle preparations in animals and in normal human subjects. The question now does the theophylline have a significant role in critical ill patients with diaphragmatic dysfunction whether they are diabetic or not ?

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the treatment outcomes in patients with CRE infections.

study is to determine if proton pump inhibitors plus enteral nutrition is superior to enteral nutrition alone as a stress ulcer prophylaxis strategy in critically ill patients in terms of incidence of overt and significant GI bleeding related to stress gastropathy.

This is a single-center, prospective, randomized, comparative, double-blind controlled clinical study intended to establish 1) the optimal method of determining calorie requirements and 2) the optimal amount of protein supply in chronically ventilated patients.

We hypothesize that measurements of interstitial fluid (ISF) glucose by the FreeStyle Navigator (Abbot Diabetes Care), a continuous glucose monitoring system, will correlate with blood glucose (BG) values in surgical and ICU patients with a clinically useful degree of accuracy.

The primary objective of this study is to identify a correlation between the pH and pCO2 in arterial and venous blood. The secondary objectives include a correlation of pulse oximetry and arterial pO2 along with subgroup analyses of specific patient populations such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetic ketoacidosis, pneumonia, overdose, and trauma.

Direct muscle stimulation (DMS) method is one of the electrodiagnostic methods used in the diagnosis of critical illness myopathy (CIM) and critical illness neuropathy (CIN). The ratio of amplitude of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) obtained by nerve stimulation (nCMAP) to amplitude of CMAP obtained by DMS (dmCMAP) can be used to differentiate these two diseases. Although not certain, if the ratio is < 0.5, the diagnosis is thought to be consistent with CIN. The ratio > 0.5 is considered to be a finding supporting CIM. The investigators aimed to find the reference values of the ratio from healthy individuals. A monopolar needle electrode was used for DMS. The dmCMAP and nCMAP were recorded with a concentric needle. The ratio was calculated by using amplitudes of dmCMAP and nCMAP obtained from deltoid and tibialis anterior muscles.

Pain is a frequent symptom in the intensive care unit (ICU). Critical ill patients are often intubated and sedated which makes self-evaluation of pain impossible. Pupillary dilatation is a reflex directly related to stimuli such as pain, which can be measured by quantitative pupillometry. Several studies in ICU showed a significant relationship between pupillary diameter variation and pain. The nociception level index (NOL-index) is a recent noninvasive and continuous monitoring of pain essentially used in operating room. The aim of this study is to evaluate the pupillometry and NOL index in critical ill patients in sedated patients under mechanical ventilation during the mobilization plus toilet (described in literature as not painful procedure) and tracheal suctioning (described as a painful procedure)

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is commonly used in operating room (cardiac surgery), as well as in other critical care settings. A recent meta-analysis including only three randomized studies demonstrated that the use of a videolaryngoscope for transesophageal echocardiography probe insertion in anesthetized patients undergoing open cardiac surgery was associated with a significant reduction in the number of attempts. insertion and complications rate, compared with blind insertion or a laryngoscope-assisted insertion. ICU patients are usually intubated, with multiple complications, requiring high doses of catecholamines, and with frequent coagulation disorders. Many of these patients, during their stay in the ICU, require a transesophageal echocardiogram. On multiple occasions, due to the critical situation of the patients, due to edema, and coagulation alteration, the placement of the echocardiography probe can be difficult, leading to complications, such as gastric bleeding or lesions in the oropharyngeal mucosa. To avoid complications during the insertion of the TEE tube, the investigators consider it necessary to introduce it in the fewest possible attempts. The primary aim of the present study was to compare the success rate of TEE probe insertion at the first attempt betweenn the C-MAC videolaryngoscope assisted insertion and the blind insertion technique. The secondary aim was to compared differences between the 2 groups in the incidence of complications ( oropharyngeal mucosal injury, hematoma, ….), overall success rate, the number of insertion attempts, and the duration of insertions.