Active clinical trials for "Shock"

Despite large efforts trying to improve diagnostic and therapy of sepsis have been made over the last decade (e.g. initiation of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, defining evidence based sepsis therapy bundles) the mortality of septic shock remains high and causes high socioeconomical burden of disease. The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the design and conduct of a projected full scale clinical trial.

The current definitions of neonatal shock/circulatory failure are outdated and inaccurate. This makes the development of evidence based protocols for its treatment very difficult. Furthermore these definitions often rely on invasive methods of monitoring in patients such as an arterial line. Since the advent of functional echocardiography in neonatology there has been increased interest in non-invasive measurements of neonatal circulatory failure. However research in this field has been confined to premature infants. The purpose of the this research is to look at non invasive methods of assessing an infants circulatory status in infants older than 33 weeks gestational age in order to fill the knowledge gap here and help in the development a new definition of neonatal circulatory failure.

The investigators hypothesize that there is a strong correlation between OSA and TBM/HDAC. Our hypothesis is based on the similarities in mechanism (airway collapse), symptoms (daytime and nocturnal dyspnea) predisposing conditions (obesity and neuromuscular abnormalities of the chest wall and the diaphragm), and effect of interventions (CPAP and BIPAP) in these diseases.

Although shock therapy is effective in terminating ventricular tachycardia (VT), it can be painful to the patient and repetitive shocks can decrease a patient's quality of life. Previous studies have suggested that one or more sets of aggressive device parameter settings may reduce the total number of shocks in primary prevention patients. In addition to shock therapies, antitachycardia pacing (ATP) is also available in ICDs to treat VT. The PROVIDE trial aims to prospectively study the effect of high detection rates, prolonged detection intervals, aggressive SVT discriminators, and extensive ATP therapy in prolonging the time to first shock in primary prevention patients.

Patients with severe infection can develop very low blood pressure. There are many mechanisms leading to this, and one of them appears to involve a hormone called vasopressin. In children as compared to adults, the mechanism and response to low blood pressure are different for reasons that are not clear. One possibility is the difference in the production and/or response to vasopressin. Vasopressin has become part of the treatment of children with low blood pressure in the setting of severe infection, when other treatment has failed, but its use is on the basis of animal and adult studies. The exact timing and dose is uncertain. In this research study, the patients will receive standard treatment for sepsis and septic shock, and the investigators will measure the blood levels of vasopressin and a related compound called copeptin (both are required to understand the mechanism of control involved). Blood will need to be taken from patients without any sepsis so as to be able to compare the values in health and in sickness. The patient groups the investigators have chosen for this are those children who will have blood taken anyway as part of their routine care. The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the body's hormonal response (with respect to vasopressin) to severe infection in children. The long-term aim is to improve the care of critically ill children with severe infection by using the most appropriate dose of vasopressin at the most appropriate time.

It is reported that high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a non-histone nuclear protein, can serve as an alarmin with damage associated molecular patterns to activate immune responses in the early stages of hemorrhagic shock (HS). However, the origin of HMGB1 and how it is released following HS is poorly understood. In this study, we teased out this mechanism. We try to record the concentration of serum HMGB1 protein following HS in clinical patients.

With a prevalence of more than 15% in ICU, septic shock today represents a real public health problem and remains the leading cause of mortality in ICU. Undernutrition is characterized by an alteration of the body composition and in particular by a loss of muscle mass. In intensive care, there are indirect elements suggesting a link between loss of muscle mass and prognosis. Muscle mass results from a balance between the pathway of proteolysis and that of protein synthesis, depending on many factors, not one of the most important are insulin. The protein PTP1B (Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase 1B), by the dephosphorylation of its numerous substrates, constitutes an endogenous regulator of numerous intracellular signaling pathways, including that of insulin. PTP1B could play a role in the protein synthesis abnormalities observed during sepsis leading clinically to impaired body composition including muscle body mass. Therefore, we propose to study the association between PTP1B and loss of muscle mass in patients in sepsis in resuscitation. The intestinal barrier plays an essential role in protecting against microbial luminal flora and the phenomenon of bacterial translocation. Zonulin is one of the major regulators of tight junctions, important actors in the intestinal barrier function. The increase in plasma zonulin levels, greater than 0.6 ng / mg, is directly correlated with increased intestinal permeability (16). However, elevation of plasma zonulin has never been evaluated in septic resuscitation patients. This is why we propose the evaluation of the association between plasma zonulin and the loss of muscle mass in these resuscitation patients.

Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) life support system can provide both cardiac and respiratory support to patients with heart and respiratory failure. It can save time for these patients to regain organ function or to receive transplantation. Both the investigators' team and Ince et al. from the Netherland found that the microcirculatory dysfunction is more severe in ECMO non-survivors. The next step of research is to find out the key factors that affect microcirculation in ECMO patients. Because the blood flow supplied by the venoarterial ECMO (VA-ECMO) is directly related to macrocirculation, this study aims to investigate the effect of adjustment of VA-ECMO blood flow on microcirculation. The investigators hope that the results of this study can help the medical team to improve the quality of ECMO care.

To determine whether Levosimendan infusion in patients with cardiogenic shock and cardiorenal syndrome refractory to standard inotropic therapy, improves hemodynamics and renal function, whilst being safe.

Prospective combined clinical validation of an algorithmic calculated mean systemic filling pressure (Pms-Nav) with the gold standard for Pms (Pms calculated from venous return curves during inspiratory hold procedures with incremental airway pressures; Pms-Insp). Secondary correlation between invasive cardiac output measurement versus 3D TOE and carotid echo doppler measured cardiac output.