Active clinical trials for "Toxemia"

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.

The OMEPS trial is a randomized clinical trial in the western region of Saudi Arabia. Conducted to assess the safety and feasibility of olive oil as massage for preterm infants and if associated with reduced risk of Late-Onset 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.

With the rapid development of intensive care medicine, the mortality of patients with sepsis has decreased over the past decade, but it is still the leading cause of death in intensive care unit (ICU). As an important immune and metabolic organ, the liver plays a crucial role in host defense against invading pathogens and endotoxins, as well as maintenance of metabolic and immunological homeostasis. Some studies indicate that sepsis-associated liver dysfunction (SALD) has a substantial impact on the severity and prognosis of sepsis. Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are the second leading source of infection for sepsis after pneumonia in ICU, and are often related to high morbidity and mortality rates. Studies had found that the incidence of SALD in IAI patients was considerably higher than that of general population with sepsis. Moreover, the incidence of acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) in IAI patients was also much higher than that in sepsis patients with other site infections, as well as the degree of AGI was more serious according to guidelines proposed by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) in 2012. IAI can directly cause AGI, and a subset of patients usually progress to increased intra-abdominal pressure, which further aggravates AGI. The pathogenesis of SALD remains unclear so far, and its mechanism is complicated and elusive. Nevertheless, the unique anatomical structure of the liver make it has close association with the gut, growing evidence indicates that the gut microbiota and related metabolites are related to several liver disease. In case of sepsis, gut microbiota disorder and low microbial diversity can cause severe liver injury. An important mechanism for this phenotype is the gut-liver axis, which refers to gut microbial metabolites and nutrients are transported to the liver through the portal vein and hepatic artery to maintain the healthy metabolism of liver. Therefore, we initially conducted a retrospective study to investigate the relationship between the occurrence of AGI and SALD among IAI patients. Subsequently, a prospective study was performed to analyze and compare the diversity and composition of gut microbiota in IAI patients with or without SALD, respectively, and the dynamic changes in the gut microbiota during the first week after ICU admission were also investigated.

The aim of the study is to measure serum levels of myristic acid in septic patients and to compare them with myristic acid serum levels in patients with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome of non infective etiology and in healthy volunteers. Furthermore, other biomarkers of sepsis are evaluated in comparison with microbiological findings detected either by standard hemocultures or by molecular biological methods.

Abstract Background: Neonatal ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is a major hospital-acquired infection in acute care settings, associated with high mortality and poor outcome. VAP is considered a preventable infection if the risk factors are managed effectively. The purpose of this study is to evaluate prevalence of ventilator associated pneumonia, its causative organisms, its risk factors and outcome at our NICU. This study used CDC guidelines for infant's ≤1 year old to diagnose neonatal VAP, in period from April 2018 to March 2019.

The investigators' objective is to compare the risk of treatment failure* in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with sepsis and managed by procalcitonin guided therapy for stopping of antibiotics ('PCT- guided therapy' group) with those managed with standard practices based on the evidence based guidelines ('control' group). Children with suspected or proven sepsis will be randomized to the PCT guided group or the standard practices group and will be followed up for the outcome measures that include treatment failure and mortality. The investigators plan to enroll 560 patients over a period of 3 years. The investigators believe that the proposed study will provide the answer to reducing unnecessary antibiotic usage in the PICU without causing any harm to the patient in the form of treatment failure and/or mortality.

In 2016, the Third International Consensus proposed a new strategy to screen aggravating risk in patients with septic shock. This strategy is based on quick-SOFA and the SOFA score. The main objective is to compare the prognostic performance of SEPSIS 3 against the previous strategy SEPSIS 2 to predict the admission in intensive care unit or the intra-hospital death.

This prospective surveillance study will be conducted over a 2 year period to determine current rates of Early-Onset Sepsis (EOS)/ Early-Onset Meningitis (EOM), associated pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, signs and symptoms and infant outcomes.

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.