View clinical trials related to Critical Illness.
Filter by:This study measures the cardioventilatory coupling in critically ill patients during mechanical ventilation in controlled mode (pressure controlled) and in patient-driven mode (pressure support and neurally adjusted ventilatory assist).
High "on treatment" platelet reactivity is defined as a poor pharmacodynamic response to the administration of acetylsalicylic acid or clopidogrel. acetylsalicylic acid and clopidogrel are drugs commonly used to reduce platelet activity and prevent cardiovascular events. High "on treatment" platelet reactivity is associated with a higher cardiovascular event rate. Ticagrelor and prasugrel, like clopidogrel both P2Y12 inhibitors are effective in treating patients with High "on treatment" platelet reactivity to clopidogrel. Critically ill patients are a unique population with altered pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. Gastrointestinal dysmotility with associated altered resorption and impaired microvascular function occur frequently in critically ill patients and may lead to altered resorption of orally administered drugs. The investigators will test a minimum of 100 patients treated with 100mg acetylsalicylic acid per os and 100 patients treated with 75mg clopidogrel per os to calculate the prevalence of high "on treatment" platelet reactivity. 30 patients with high "on treatment" platelet reactivity to acetylsalicylic acid will be randomized to three new treatment groups. In the first group patients will receive 200mg acetylsalicylic acid per os, in the second group 100mg acetylsalicylic acid intravenously and in the third group 81mg chewable acetylsalicylic acid. Each group will contain 10 patients. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics will be reassessed to evaluate the new treatment. 36 patients with high "on treatment" platelet reactivity to clopidogrel will be randomized to receive either an additional loading dose of 600mg clopidogrel (n=24) or to continue normal treatment as a control group (n=12). Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics will be reassessed and those patients, who are tested again to have high "on treatment" platelet reactivity in spite of the additional loading dose, will now be randomized to receive either ticagrelor or prasugrel. The investigators expect about six patients per group. The twelve patients in the control group will continue normal treatment (75mg/day) until the end of the study. Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of ticagrelor and prasugrel will be assessed. Any patient, who is tested again with high "on treatment" platelet reactivity in spite of receiving prasugrel or ticagrelor, will be finally switched to the opposite drug and a final high "on treatment" platelet reactivity testing will be conducted. 16 patients who are treated with 10mg prasugrel per os will be tested for HTPR and if positively tested will be switched to 2x90mg ticagrelor per os per day. Platelet reactivity will be reassessed to test whether switching the medication benefits the patients.
Troponins are sensitive and specific markers of cardiac injury. Critically ill patients frequently have elevated troponins. In this population, distinguishing patients with elevated troponins from those with myocardial infarction is difficult. However, troponin elevations on their own seem to be associated with an increased risk of death. The optimal treatment of patients with type 2 myocardial infarction or non ischemia related troponin elevations during critical illness is unclear. There are no trials in the ICU setting to guide management. This study is a 1-month pilot cohort study of troponin screening in 4 Ontario intensive care units. The objective of this pilot study is to evaluate the ability to perform a larger study, which will determine the prevalence, incidence and risk factors for elevated troponin values, how patients with elevated troponin values are treated as a baseline, and the incidence of myocardial infarction in critically ill patients. Knowing the prognostic impact of these conditions and understanding current management will thereafter guide researchers and clinicians on the importance of carefully evaluating potential risk-modifying therapies.
Platelets play a central part not just in homeostasis and thrombosis as the primary effector cells, but they are also key cells in the regulation of the immunological response to various stressors. After activation, platelets release their granules which store different inflammatory mediators that induce coagulation, recruit further platelets, activate complement, attract neutrophils and leukocytes and regulate the vascular tone. Platelets activated by systemic inflammation and infection, may also contribute to the development of multiple organ failure. Thus, inhibition of platelet activation may have beneficial effects on critically ill patients. the investigators hypothesize that acetylsalicylic acid reduces the mortality of medical intensive care unit patients. In a retrospective study acetylsalicylic acid use was associated with a substantial reduction in a medical intensive care unit population (Winning et al., 2010). The investigators will conduct a randomized, double-blind study including 460 patients (2x230), who will be randomized to receive 100mg acetylsalicylic acid(daily, intravenous) or a placebo (0,9% sodium-choride solution) to assess whether acetylsalicylic acid reduces the mortality of medical intensive care unit patients. Main outcome criteria will be 28/90day-mortality. Furthermore the investigators will assess whether acetylsalicylic acid reduces the risk of suffering thromboembolic complications. Post-mortem examinations will be conducted in all patients who die in the course of the study. Furthermore we will assess bleeding rates, intensive care unit mortality and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of acetylsalicylic acid in the intensive care unit population.
Enteral alimentation is the preferred modality of support in critical patients who have acceptable digestive function and are unable to eat orally, but the advantages of continuous versus intermittent administration are surrounded by controversy. This prospective, randomised study was designed to compare two enteral feeding methods with respect to changes in levels of leptin and ghrelin in ICU.
The intensive care unit (ICU) team needs to know what effects acetaminophen has in critically ill patients. Acetaminophen is better known as Tylenol. It is the drug given to reduce fever. Most research that has looked at how safe and effective this drug is, has been done with healthy people. Those studies tell us it is safe and works well to bring down fever. This may not be true for the ICU patient. Some research found acetaminophen was not as good at reducing fever as expected in the ICU. Fever helps to fight infection so it may help patients get better, but it is also stressful. When you have fever, you to need more oxygen, and your heart beats faster. If you have a fever after brain injury, you are less likely to make a full recovery. In patients with brain injury, a weak heart or trouble breathing we should treat fever. If we can predict how well acetaminophen will reduce fever, we can decide if this drug is enough, or other treatments are also needed. If you do not have problems with your brain, heart, or lungs, it is safe to not treat fever. When you give this drug to treat fever, the body cools itself by sweating, and bringing hot blood to the skin's surface. These changes do not affect healthy people. Research suggests ICU patients may be at risk for sudden drop in blood pressure. Our study will answer 2 questions: 1) When acetaminophen is given to treat fever in ICU patients, are they more likely to have a drop in blood pressure? 2) How much will acetaminophen reduce fever in ICU patients? We will study ICU patients with a fever who can safely get, or not get this drug. This information will help us decide when and how to treat fever in the ICU.
Previous research on intensive care unit (ICU) survivors shows that rehabilitation is challenging, because of patients experiences of disease related problems both under and after treatment. Approximately 20 % of patients die within hospital, up to 80% suffer from hallucinations and nightmares, deal with paranoiac experiences, chronic pain and other symptoms and disability (Angus et al 2004; De Letter et al 2001; Ely et al 2001; Nelson et al 2006; Van den Berghe et al 2001; Van den Berghe et al 2003) . A recent study shows that 28% of intensive care survivors have chronic pain that reduce their health related quality of life (Boyle et al 2004). The aim of this study is to perform a survey about prevalence of pain type, and which consequences this causes when it comes to function and quality of life up to 12 months after the ICU stay. 1. What type of pain has ICU survivors and how do pain change over time, related to treatment/rehabilitation and the illness' development? 2. What is the relationship between different pain characteristic, quality of life, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep and PTSD in these patients? 3. What is these patients largest obstacle for good QoL after discharge from hospital?
Anaemia is very frequent among critically ill patients, concerning more than 60 % of them at admission and more than 80% at intensive care unit discharge. Iron deficiency is also frequent at admission, with prevalence around 25 to 40%. During their stay in Intensive Care Unit, critically ill patients are exposed to repeated blood samples and to other blood losses (daily blood loss has been evaluated to be as high as 128 ml/day in median), this leads to direct iron loss. Prevalence of iron deficiency may thus be very important at Intensive Care Unit discharge. However, iron deficiency diagnosis is complicated in these patients, since inflammation induces an increase in plasma ferritin levels and a decrease in transferrin saturation, the two usual markers of iron deficiency. As a consequence, iron deficiency is usely under-diagnosed in these patients. Treatment of iron deficiency may be indicated to correct anaemia but also to improve patients fatigue and muscular weakness. The characterization of iron metabolism regulation by the hormone hepcidin opened new ways for the understanding and the follow-up of these complex clinical situations (combining inflammation and iron deficiency). Indeed, iron deficiency is associated with a decrease in hepcidin synthesis, while iron overload induces hepcidin synthesis. Furthermore, low hepcidin levels are required to mobilize iron from stores. Hepcidin has thus be proposed as a marker of iron deficiency in critically ill patients. To date, standard immunological methods of hepcidin quantitation are only proposed in the reasearch setting and could not be proposed in the clinical setting because it is too expensive. New approaches for hepcidin quantification, based on mass spectrometry are proposed and may be routinely implemented. We make the hypothesis that treating iron deficiency in critically ill anemic patients, diagnosed by hepcidin quantification, may improve the post-Intensive Care Unit rehabilitation, and may thus reduce post-Intensive Care Unit cost linked to hospital stay and anaemia treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the medical economic interest of a new diagnostic method for iron deficiency, based on a quantitative dosage of hepcidin by mass spectrometry in critically ill anaemic patients.
In the critically patient bed rest and inmovilization are some of the responsable of the development of respiratory complications. Early physical exercise is a tool to prevent respiratory complications as lost of respiratory muscle strength, decrease in functional residual capacity and hypoxemia improving oxygenation. In some cases critically ill conditions implies use of pharmacological sedation. That condition limit the active physical exercise. However, some technicals aids as Tilt table allows execution of passive early movilization. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of early passive verticalization assisted by tilt table on alveolar recruitment and pulmonary ventilation in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, evaluated with electrical impedance tomography (EIT) ICU patients included at day of evaluation will be evaluated consecutively with EIT in three stages; 1) in the supine position (at 30° of inclination), 2) verticalized in tilt table (at 60º of inclination) 3) in the supine position (at 30° of inclination)
The primary aim of the study is to evaluate consequences of frailty in critically ill patients. We hypothesize that a higher frailty index (based on published questionnaires) predicts a longer surgical intensive care unit and hospital length of stay, less ventilator-free days and a higher likelihood of an adverse discharge disposition. Our secondary aim is to identify muscle-size derived variables that can be used to predict frailty. We hypothesize that a low skeletal muscle mass measured by ultrasound can be used to quantify frailty, and to also predict the outcome of SICU patients, expressed as longer stay in the surgical intensive care unit and longer stay in the hospital, less ventilator-free days and a higher likelihood of an adverse discharge disposition. Our third aim is to examine potential triggers of muscle wasting in critically ill patients. Muscle wasting will be assessed by repetitive ultrasound measurements of muscle mass. We hypothesize that a significant decrease in skeletal muscle mass predicts longer stay at the surgical intensive care unit and longer hospital length of stay, less ventilator-free days and adverse discharge disposition.