Active clinical trials for "Sepsis"

In our study, 17 septic, 43 sepsis-related acute kidney injury and 24 control patients were enrolled. Blood and urine samples were collected at the intensive care unit from acutely diagnosed septic and sepsis-related acute kidney injury patients at three time points (T1-3): T1: within 24 hours after admission; T2: second day morning; T3: third day morning of follow-up. Patients with malignancies needing palliative care, end-stage renal disease or kidney transplantation were excluded. Not more than one sample (venous blood, midstream spot urine) was collected from control patients. Serum and urinary actin levels were determined by quantitative Western blot. Urinary actin concentrations were expressed as µg/L, while serum actin levels were expressed as mg/L. Data were compared with laboratory and clinical parameters. Patients were categorized by the Sepsis-3 definitions and 30-day mortality data were investigated.

Secondary infections remain a major cause of mortality in critically ill patients, mainly because of high prevalence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms. Therefore strategies aimed to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumoniae (VAP) and bloodstream infections are of utmost important. There is robust data on selective digestive decontamination (SDD) efficacy in reduction of secondary infections in intensive care units (ICU) with low rates of antibacterial resistance. However the data received from hospitals with moderate-to-high rates of resistance is equivocal. This as an interventional parallel open-label study investigating the effect of selective digestive decontamination on the rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients admitted to the ICU with high prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria. Secondary outcomes include rates of bloodstream infections, mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, duration of ICU stay, resistance selection and overall antibiotic consumption.

Systemic hyperinflammatory states, e.g. triggered by infection/sepsis, represent a major challenge for modern medicine. After an initially localized onset, inflammation can extend to an excessive, uncontrolled inflammatory reaction affecting the entire body and can trigger circulatory failure with subsequent irreversible multiple organ failure. Despite all the medical advances made in recent years, sepsis continues to be a substantial problem, as almost all therapeutic approaches have failed to prove their efficacy to date. Mortality in this clinical entity thus remains extremely high. In Germany alone, more than 100,000 people suffer from sepsis or septic shock every year, nearly half of whom die despite optimal therapy. Thus, sepsis is the third most common cause of death, has major importance both from a medical but also from an economical viewpoint, and approaches that could contribute to its successful treatment need to be further developed and explored. If a patient experiences the spread of bacteria or their constituents in the blood stream due to an uncontrolled source of infection, the result is a deliberately triggered physiological defense reaction of the body. In many patients, however, there is a pathological dysregulation of these mechanisms, in a way that the defense reaction goes far beyond the physiological level required, resulting in an excessive immune response of the body, which is mainly facilitated by inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and chemokines. The immune response spreads throughout the body and also dissipates into organs unaffected by the original infection. In cases of such unwanted overshooting immune responses, an attempt to regain control of the described deleterious systemic events seems reasonable by removing the excess amount of cytokines from the blood, thus preventing or treating organ failure. In this context, current therapeutic approaches increasingly focus on the elimination of inflammatory mediators. In recent years, hemoadsorption, using a new adsorber (CytoSorb), has been used to treat sepsis and other conditions of hyperinflammation. The advantage of this therapeutic principle is that a wide range of inflammatory mediators are removed. In conjunction with the enormous elimination capacity, the effective and rapid reduction of mediators can be achieved. To date, there have been more than 61,000 treatments using this procedure worldwide without device-related side effects being reported. The investigators have been treating patients with this procedure for over 5 years with consistently very favorable results. Therefore, the investigators would like to expand and deepen their observations with the proposed project.

The goal of our study was to investigate whether different methods of dressing could lower catheter-associated bloodstream infections.

Populations at high risk of Sepsis-Associated Acute Kidney Injury (SA-AKI) have been identified. Sources of sepsis, in particular, bloodstream infection, abdominal and genitourinary sepsis, and infective endocarditis, are associated with a higher likelihood of developing AKI. Similar to the poor outcome of patients with sepsis, delayed administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy was shown to be an independent predictor of the development of AKI. Incremental delays in antimicrobial delivery after the onset of hypotension showed a direct relationship with the development of AKI. The need for sensitive, simple and time-applicable biomarker to predict AKI development after renal insult is urgent. Serum creatinine (sCr) and urea are used routinely for the diagnosis of AKI. However, these parameters are not accurate for the diagnosis of AKI. Cystatin C. (CysC) is suggested to be a good biomarker because of its constant rate of production, almost filtered by glomeruli (99%), has no significant protein binding and not secreted by renal tubule. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is recently identified and extensively investigated as a most promising early marker of AKI. Urinary NGAL is not only effective in detection of AKI but also its degree of expression might distinguish among AKI, prerenal azotemia and chronic kidney disease, and it is detectable before the accumulation of serum creatinine. Ultrasonography (US) is used routinely to assess renal morphology. Renal Resistive Index (RRI) is a non-invasive Doppler-measured parameter that is directly correlated with intra-renal arterial resistance. RRI is defined as [(peak systolic velocity - end diastolic velocity)/ peak systolic velocity]. It theoretically ranges from 0 to 1 and it is normally lower than 0.7 with age differences. RRI calculation was found to be useful as an early indicator of the vascular resistance changes and in the determination of the optimal systemic hemodynamics required for renal perfusion. The aim of this study is to compare the ability of arterial renal resistive index (RRI), serum and urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), Cystatin C (CysC) in early diagnosis and predicting the persistence of acute kidney injury in septic patients.

Eurobact II will investigate the mortality and morbidity of hospital-acquired blood stream infections in patients treated in intensive care units (ICU). It will investigate the effects of the micro-organism and its characteristics, such as type and resistance to antibiotics on the infection and its consequences. It will also investigate the effects of the antibiotics and other treatments on survival of patients. Eurobact II will include patients from multiple ICUs in multiple countries.

The overall objective of this study is to utilize heart rate variability and respiratory rate variability in patients with sepsis to predict clinical deterioration and death. Our specific objectives are: To study the ability of a change in composite variability (∆CVI) assessment to act as a prognostic aid in predicting disease progression in sepsis. To study the effect that standard resuscitation interventions will have on the direction and magnitude of ∆CVI in patients with sepsis. B. Hypotheses H1: In the initial resuscitation of sepsis, a low or declining multi-parameter composite variability index (CVI) over 4 hours will predict a significant increase in the combined outcome of overt shock, organ dysfunction, and mortality. H2: In the initial resuscitation of sepsis, low volume fluid resuscitation (<20 cc/kg) over 4 hours will be associated with a low or declining CVI.

To diagnose acid base disturbances using blood gas analysis, multiple approaches are currently in use. These include the classic Henderson-Hasselbach bicarbonate approach and the physiochemical approach by Stewart1. All have shown to be mathematically compatible2. Diagnosing the metabolic component of acid base disturbances relies on the assessment of the so called ion gaps: the anion gap for the classic acid-base approach and the strong ion difference (SID) for the Stewart approach. This gap may unveil unidentified anions to provide a more accurate diagnosis. In particular they allow differentiating between relative hyperchloremia and other strong ions such as lactate, ketones, salicylates, citrate and ethylene glycol3. The accuracy of both gaps relies on the estimation of the weak acid dissociation: A-. This A- is dependent on the total concentration of weak acids (Atot) of which albumin is the most important and the effective dissociation constant for these (Ka), which determines the dissociated fraction of the Atot. This dissociation fraction needs to be accounted for in the ion gaps. This is reflected in the recommendation to correct the anion gap for albumin and incorporated in the SID which includes a factor for albumin by design3,4. However, the correction factor for albumin is currently based on data from animals and healthy volunteers4-9. In the critically ill albumin and protein content are very different compared to healthy volunteers, most notably in sepsis. Further, it is unknown if subunit composition of albumin is different in these patients. In addition, different protein species may be either up or downregulated in the critically ill1,8,9.Therefore from a pathophysiological point of view Atot and Ka and thus A- may differ in the critically ill. However it has not been previously investigated if and to what extent these matters affect Atot and Ka and therefore A- in this population. In addition, previous studies looking into this values showed a higher than expected value of unmeasured anions from the gap calculations. Despite rigorous experimental effort including high performance liquid chromatography, the origin of these unmeasured anions have not yet been elucidated17-20. However if the assumptions made in the Stewarts approach would not be valid, the existence of these unknown anions may have to be questioned. Thus it is of great interest to experimentally determine the exact contribution of the weak acids and their dissociation in sepsis. This could have major implications for these patients because different assumptions will ultimately lead to alterations in their calculated anion gap or SID. This may reduce unnecessary diagnostic test, alter final diagnosis and hence alter therapy. In this study the investigators aim to experimentally determine the Atot and Ka and thus their dissociated fraction A- in critically ill septic patients admitted to the intensive care unit by using in vitro CO2 tonometry, plasma dialysis and Marquardt regression analysis. In addition, as a control the investigators will do the same for patients admitted to the intensive care after routine cardiac surgery. Furthermore Atot and Ka values for both groups will be compared to values obtained from human volunteers in a previous study4. To achieve this, the investigators will plot CO2 versus pH titration curves from plasma samples of these patients. The investigators will then use Marquardt nonlinear regression analysis to quantify Atot and Ka and the SID by simultaneously solving for these parameters21. To make the quantification for Atot and Ka more robust, the investigators will also perform the same experiments after dialyzing the obtained plasma samples against a crystalloid solution of known composition in order to eliminate errors related to estimation of the SID. Finally, Atot and Ka values for both groups will be compared to values obtained from human volunteers in a previous study4. For application in the bicarbonate and base excess centred frameworks, Atot and Ka values will be related to albumin and protein content to update the correction factor for the anion gap in critically ill.

The purpose of the proposed project is to investigate measures of zinc status in relation to oxidative stress and inflammation in patients with sepsis. We hypothesise that zinc depletion can modulate inflammatory responses, leading to increased oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Sepsis is a severe infection is the leading cause of death in critically ill patients [1]. Zinc deficiency impairs overall immune function and resistance to infection [2]. In vitro exposure of monocytes to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) leads to decreased cellular zinc content [3] and zinc redistribution has been shown in human volunteers in response to LPS [4]. Zinc depletion occurs in hospitalized patients including those with infections, the elderly, alcoholics, trauma or burns [5-8], conditions which are common among critically ill patients with sepsis. In a mouse model of sepsis, zinc depletion prior to sepsis resulted in more inflammation and more severe organ injury and increased mortality [9]. In patients with sepsis, early feeding with zinc resulted in faster recovery of organ function compared with control [10]. Zinc status is likely to be compromised in the critically ill and that zinc depletion may affect inflammatory responses and recovery. Although zinc is not an antioxidant itself, it binds to metallothionein [11] and zinc supplementation decreases oxidative stress [12]. Oxidative stress has been consistently reported in patients with sepsis [13-15]. We have recently shown that protection of mitochondrial function with antioxidants can reduce organ damage in rats [16]. Pentraxin-3 is an inflammatory marker which is regulated in part by antioxidants and plays a key role in innate immunity [17]. The consequences of zinc deficiency may relate, in part, to its effects on nuclear factor NFκB, a transcription factor crucial to the signalling networks involved in sepsis [18]. Higher NFκB activity is associated with increased mortality in patients with sepsis [19,20]. It is likely that compromised antioxidant defences and inflammation occurs as a consequence of zinc deficiency. We propose to measure plasma zinc and metallothionein mRNA status in relation to inflammatory markers including key cytokines, pentraxin-3, markers of oxidative stress and antioxidant status in patients with sepsis.

This study aims to assess the effect of acute inflammation on arterial stiffness and microcirculation. Patients with severe sepsis will be compared with age-, sex- and cardiovascular risk factors-matched controls. The primary outcome is the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. The other outcome measures are: systemic hemodynamics (systolic, diastolic, mean and pulse blood pressures, heart rate, cardiac output, left ventricular ejection fraction, systemic vascular resistances), central hemodynamics (aortic systolic, diastolic, mean and pulse pressures, and augmentation index), thenar tissue oxygen saturation, biological makers of inflammation (plasma fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, matrix metalloproteinases -2, -9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1), and plasma catecholamine concentrations (epinephrine, norepinephrine).