Active clinical trials for "Shock, Septic"

During Infection, oflfending microbes interact with the host immune system producing a downstream inflammatory cascade involving cytokines and other mediators, which in turn triggers a systemic response. The resultant effects linclude vasodilation, increased vascular permeability, myocardial depression, and impairment of the coagulation cascade, resulting in global imbalance of systemic oxygen supply and demand. During the late stage of sepsis, immunosuppression predominates, leading to multi-organ dysfunction and further clinical deterioration . Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection with two or three on Quick Sepsis-related organ failure assessment score (qSOFA). Septic shock is defined as the presence of sepsis and refractory hypotension to fluid management. Vasopressors are needed to maintain systolic blood pressure more than 90mmHg or mean blood pressure more than 65 mmHg . Experimental and Clinical evidence suggests that sepsis is associated with dysregulated response of Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that may involve any of the steps from cortisol production to cortisol use by cells . Glucocorticoid therapy for the treatment of septic shock remains controversial, with conflicting evidence regarding a mortality benefit. It has been used in patients with septic shock who remained hypotensive after fluid and vasopressor resuscitation. Fludrocortisone is a corticosteroid and acts as a powerful mineralocorticoid along with some additional but comparatively very weak glucocorticoid activity. Relative to cortisol, it is to 10 times the glucocorticoid potency but 250 to 800 times the mineralocorticoid potency . Fludrocortisone is added to hydrocortisone to provide additional mineralocorticoid potency. The rationale for adding mineralocorticoid treatment is that an experimental sepsis study showed marked nuclear factor NF-κB mediated down regulation of vascular mineralocorticoid receptors . Corticosteroids attenuate inflammation in various organs an effect partly related to inhibition of nuclear factor NF-κB. Improve cardiovascular function by restoring effective blood volume through increased mineralocorticoid activity and by increasing systemic vascular resistance through vascular α-Adrenergic responsiveness and reduces inflammation-mediated vasodilation .

This will be a randomized controlled unblinded pragmatic single-center pilot trial of the use of vasopressin vs. angiotensin II as a second-line vasopressor in patients with septic shock and persistent hypotension despite moderate-to-high doses of norepinephrine.

Fluid responsiveness prediction prior to fluid challenge administration is a topic of interest, which has been extensively investigated, but remains challenging. In clinical practice, functional hemodynamic tests (FHT) consisting of maneuvers that affect cardiac function and/or heart-lung interaction, have been introduced in order to identify fluid responders and non-responders without fluid challenge administration. Changes in cardiac output induced by the Passive Leg Raising (PLR) test reliably predicted the increase in cardiac output to volume expansion. New approaches have been recently developed based on changes in respiratory dynamics, such as a transient increase in tidal volume, or a lung recruitment maneuver or an end-expiratory occlusion (EEO) test. The EEO leaded to an increase in venous return, cardiac preload and stroke volume in preload-responsive patients. The authors found that an increase in cardiac output ≥ 5% during a 15-s EEO reliably predicted its response to a 500-ml saline infusion. However, in order to identify the rapid and transient increase in cardiac index during the EEO, continuous and instantaneous cardiac output monitoring is necessary. Pulse contour analysis methods provide a beat-to-beat estimation of cardiac output and had been used in most of studies validating the EEO test. Carotid doppler is a non-invasive, bedside, easy to use ultrasound technique that measuring blood flow peak velocity (CDPV) and duration of systolic component of each cardiac cycle (from the onset to dicrotic notch- Flow time - FT) allows a reliable estimation of fluid status and could be an interesting alternative to track changes in SV and cardiac output.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the administration of a short acting beta-blocker in terms of effective increase in stroke volume (at least 15%) after 4 hours initiation of therapy in septic shock in patients with a hyperkinetic profile after 12-24 hours of care. This research seeks to demonstrate that the proportion of patients with an increase in the systolic ejection superior or equal to 15% (relative to baseline) at four hours is different between the two arms of the study: (1) an experimental arm where patients receive an esmolol infusion according to a predetermined procedure and (2) a control arm where patients receive a saline infusion according to a predetermined procedure.

A growing number of critically ill patients survive intensive care to be discharged from hospital. However, critical illness and prolonged bedrest are associated with muscle wasting with subsequent implications for recovery of normal physical function. Thus, one year after discharge, survivors of septic shock have reported prolonged and severe impairment of physical function. Early interventions employed in the ICU to counteract loss of muscle mass may potentially improve physical outcome and reduce the overall burden of critical illness. As a potential supplement to physical therapy, transcutaneous electric muscle stimulation (TEMS) is a non-invasive method directed at maintaining skeletal muscle function through artificially induced contractions that are independent of patient efforts. TEMS has previously proven effective at preventing loss of muscle mass and force in a number of non-ICU patient groups, but has only been assessed sparsely in an ICU population where both immobilisation and systemic inflammation are present. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of early TEMS on muscle volume in patients admitted to the intensive care unit with septic shock. The investigators hypothesized that this intervention would preserve muscle volume during septic shock.

Study of the lipid metabolism under glycemic control in septic patients who got an university 14 bed ICU. Hypothesis: establish a relationship between lipid metabolism alterations and glycemic control or infusion of exogenous insulin

The purpose of this study is to perform a pilot study to assess the potential use of Bevacizumab (a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor) in sepsis.

Use of brain natriuretic peptide to evaluate the cardiac function in the course of meningococcal septic shock or severe sepsis.

Validation of CARPET prognostic model for septic shock after allo-HSCT: a multicenter, prospective, and cohort study

The aim of this study is to find the utility of red cell distribution width and lactate/albumin ratio as prognostic markers in sepsis and septic shock patients.