Active clinical trials for "Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury"

In pediatric patients (newborns and infants weighing less than 10 kg) undergoing cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation postoperative bleeding represents a known complication with a significant impact on outcome. Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) for bleeding management is associated, particularly in this kind of patients, to volume overload and a significative increase of Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI), further worsening the postoperative outcome. In the adult patient FFP employment could be almost completely canceled by administration of concentrated hemostatic components - the fibrinogen concentrate and prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC). We designed this phase II pilot study to establish whether an analogous strategy, modified accordingly to pediatric physiology, could be safely and successfully applied in newborns and infants.

TRALI was defined as "acute noncardiogenic pulmonary edema typically occurs ≤ 6 hours following transfusion of plasma-containing blood products, such as packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, platelets, or cryoprecipitate." In critically ill patients, TRALI remains the leading cause of transfusion-related fatalities and is accompanied by a very significant morbidity and mortality. Survival in such patients is as low as 53% compared with 83% in acute lung injury (ALI) controls. The incidence of TRALi is likely underreported. In densely populated developing countries, incidence has not decreased due to lack of male-only strategy for plasma donation. TRALI is associated with systemic inflammation characterized by low anti-inflammatory cytokine as interleukin (IL)-10, increased pro-inflammatory cytokine as IL-8. Regulation of inflammation should include avoidance of overproduction of inflammatory mediators. So, it can be dampened not only by increasing IL-10 but also by decreasing IL-1β release. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase protein which is up-regulated during infections and inflammation. CRP was recently identified as a novel first hit in TRALI. Till now, there is no established treatment for TRALI beyond supportive care and monitoring. Recently, potential therapies have been reviewed, and it was concluded that the most promising therapeutic strategies are IL-10 therapy, downregulation of CRP levels, targeting reactive oxygen species (ROS) or blocking IL-8 receptors. So, antioxidants (such as high dose vitamins), were recommended for future studies as potentially effective treatment. Vitamin C hypovitaminosis is observed in 70% of critically ill despite receiving recommended daily doses. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of intravenous vitamin C (ascorbic acid) as a targeted therapy for transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) in critically ill patients in terms of IL-8, IL-10, CRP, SOD, malondialdehyde (MDA), vasopressor use, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU length of stay, 7-days mortality and 28-days mortality.

Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) is the most common cause of transfusion-related morbidity and mortality in the United States. It is very common and often unrecognized in the critically ill with the greatest incidence occurring in bleeding patients with liver disease. Plasma is the most blood component associated with this deadly complication and therefore patients with liver disease who frequently receive transfused plasma are at increased risk. The optimal plasma transfusion strategy for bleeding patients with liver disease is unknown and the investigators will evaluate this clinical question in a small pilot randomized controlled trial. The invstigators hypothesize that targetting a more restrictive INR Target (2.5) vs. an INR Target (1.8) will result in less hypoxemia, a TRALI surrogate without increasing bleeding complications.

This study is a prospective, non-randomized sequential cohort, open label, multi-center, non-inferiority, Phase IV surveillance study following transfusion of INTERCEPT PCs. The patient population will be hematology-oncology patients, including those undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), expected to require one or more PC transfusions. For each participating center, the study will start with a brief pilot run-in period with a group of at least 5 patients exposed only to conventional PCs. The purpose of this pilot run-in is to evaluate study logistics and data collection methods within each study center. Data from the pilot phase will be included in the data analysis for the treatment comparison. After the pilot run-in period, the study will be conducted in two sequential patient cohorts: 1) the Control cohort during which study patients will receive only conventional PCs, and 2) the INTERCEPT cohort during which patients will receive only INTERCEPT PCs. Patient enrollment at each Center will be monitored to target similar numbers of patients into the Control and Test Cohorts within each center. Centers may enroll Control and Test patients in ratios that vary from 2:1 to 1:2 due to institutional requirements to move rapidly to full INTERCEPT implementation, or due to availability issues with either Test or Control components. Within each Center, patient enrollment will be stratified in four categories: (1) chemotherapy only; and by use of conditioning regimens for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in (2) myeloablative conditioning, (3) non-myeloablative conditioning, and (4) reduced intensity using the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) criteria. Note time from last chemotherapy treatment to first study transfusion should be no more than 30 days. To ensure both Test and Control cohorts have a similar allocation ratio (±10% per category) among the conditioning regimen strata, enrollment caps will be set for the Test cohorts, hence no Test patients will be enrolled to a stratum once the cap for the given stratum is met. Eligible patients will be enrolled in open Test strata sequentially as long as there is sufficient Test PC inventory available. Enrollment may be delayed for the Test cohort if sufficient inventory of Test PCs is not available.

Transfusions cause more adverse events in children than in adults. Patients in pediatric intensive care units (PICU) are particularly exposed to transfusions of plasma-rich blood products (red blood cell (RBC), plasma and platelets) and the risk of adverse events after a transfusion is particularly high in this vulnerable population. Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI), an acute inflammation of the lungs that impairs gas exchange leading to acute respiratory failure, is one of the 2 most deadly transfusion complications in the general population. There is limited evidence on TRALI incidence and impact in critically ill children. This reduces the awareness of PICU team for this complication, and makes the decision process to transfuse particularly difficult. Moreover, acute lung injury is highly prevalent in critically ill children. It is therefore complex to ascertain if the high frequency of respiratory deteriorations observed after a transfusion in PICU is explained by the transfusion itself or by the evolution of the patient's critical illness. The investigators will conduct a cohort study of consecutive transfused critically ill children, with a control group of matched non-transfused children. The primary objective is to determine if transfusion of RBC, plasma and/or platelets in PICU is an independent risk factor of TRALI, and to compare the respiratory evolution in the two matched (transfused and non-transfused) groups. The secondary objectives will include the determination of the incidence rate, risk factors and clinical impact of TRALI in transfused PICU patients. The investigators will study both "classic TRALI" and "delayed TRALI".

A certain molecule floating in the blood may represent a risk of lung injury after a transfusion. We are determining whether detection of this molecule on a simple blood clotting test will predict the development of lung injury due to transfusion in bleeding patients with chronic liver disease.