Blood Management During ECMO for Cardiac Support
DeathSudden11 moreExtracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a lifesaving procedure used to treat severe forms of heart and/or lung failure. It works by the principal of replacing the function of these organs by taking blood from the patient, provide it with oxygen outside the body and return it to the patient in one continuous circuit. Because of the evaluability of better technology, the use of ECMO has exponentially risen over the last decade. This treatment is very invasive and carries a number of risks. It is mostly used in situations where it seems likely that the patient would otherwise die and no other less invasive measure could change this. Still in large registries 50-60% of patients die which is often due to complications associated with the treatment. One of the most important complication is caused by the activation of clotting factors during the contact with the artificial surfaces of the device. This can lead to clot formation inside the patient or the device. To counterbalance this anticoagulation is needed. Because of the consumption of clotting factors and the heparin therapy bleeding complications are also very common in ECMO. Clinicians are challenged to balance these competing risks and are often forced to transfuse blood products to treat these conditions, which comes with additional risks for the patient. Many experienced centres have reported thromboembolic and bleeding events as the most important contributor to a poor outcome of this procedure. However, no international study combining the experience of multiple centres to compare their practice and identify risk factors which can be altered to reduce these risks. This study has been endorsed by the international ECMONet and aims to observe the practice in up to 50 centres and 500 patients worldwide to generate the largest ever published database on this topic. It will concentrate on patients with severe heart failure and will be able to identify specific risk factors for thromboembolic and bleeding events. Some of these factors may be modifiable by change in practice and can subsequently be evaluated in clinical trials. Some of these factors may include target values for heparin therapy and infusion of clotting factors. This study will directly improve patient management by informing clinicians which measures are associated with the best outcome and indirectly helps building trials to increase the evidence further.
Platelet Reactivity in Septic Shock
Septic ShockThrombocytopenia3 moreCoagulation disorders and thrombocytopenia are common in patients with septic shock. Despite the clinical relevance of sepsis-induced thrombocytopenia, few studies have focused on the prediction of thrombocytopenia in this setting. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether platelets aggregometry and markers of platelets activation, such as mean platelet volume or platelet volume distribution width, could predict sepsis-induced thrombocytopenia in patients with septic shock and normal platelet count on the day of diagnosis.
Coagulation Changes Associated With COVID-19 Infection
COVIDDisseminated Intravascular Coagulation1 moreThis study will study the potential utility of the Quantra QPlus System in patients inflicted with COVID-19 disease.
Thrombomodulin-modified Thrombin Generation Assay (TGA-TM) in Patients With Critical Infections...
Disseminated Intravascular CoagulationCritical Illness5 moreInflammation and abnormalities in laboratory coagulation tests are inseparably tied. For example, coagulation abnormalities are nearly universal in septic patients. Coagulation disorders have also been reported in many patients with severe courses of Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). But it is difficult to assess these changes. Global coagulation tests have been shown to incorrectly assess in vivo coagulation in patients admitted to intensive care units. But other tests are available. Thrombin generation assay (TGA) is a laboratory test which allows the assessment of an individual's potential to generate thrombin. But also in conventional TGA the protein C system is hardly activated because of the absence of endothelial cells (containing natural thrombomodulin) in the plasma sample. Therefore the investigators add recombinant human thrombomodulin to a conventional TGA. Thereby the investigators hope to be able to depict in vivo coagulation more closely than global coagulation tests do.
Analysis of the Coagulopathy Developed by COVID-19 Infected Patients
SepsisBlood Coagulation Disorders3 moreIncreased D-dimers at admission of COVID-19 infected patients entering hospital due to a severe disease is a risk factor for death. Understanding this acquired coagulopathy is a prerequisite before specific interventional studies. The study investigators aim to apply a normalized and automated thrombin generation test (TGT), developed for testing the thrombotic risk (triggered by 5 pM Tissue Factor, with a purified thrombomodulin (TM) challenge) and to study its association with survival.
4G/5G Polymorphism of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Gene and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation...
Severe SepsisData on 4G/5G polymorphism of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene are limited in Asian patients with sepsis. Therefore, the investigators aim to prospectively investigate the incidence of 4G/5G polymorphism and its relationship with disseminated intravascluar coagulatin in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.
International Prospective Registry of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation
Disseminated Intravascular CoagulationObjectives: to evaluate the current diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for sepis-associated disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in a large prospective registry. Design: prospective, multicenter, international registry. Study population: patients 18 years or older with severe infection to be potentially associated with DIC will be eligible for the study. The clinical visits and monitoring of the patients will follow local routine practices. No specific imaging tests or laboratory evaluations will be required and patients will be evaluated and treated according to local policy. All the involved centers will be asked to update information on included patients at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 28 days after severe infection diagnosis. Study outcomes: The primary outcome of the study is the development of DIC. Secondary outcomes are thrombotic (arterial and venous) and bleeding events, overall mortality at 28 days. Study sample, feasibility, and analysis plan: We plan to enroll a minimum of 1000 patients.