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Platform of Randomized Adaptive Clinical Trials in Critical Illness
Sponsor: University Health Network, Toronto
Summary
PRACTICAL is a randomized multifactorial adaptive platform trial for acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF). This platform trial will evaluate novel interventions for patients with AHRF across a range of severity states (i.e., not intubated, intubated with lower or higher respiratory system elastance, requiring extracorporeal life support) and across a range of investigational phases (i.e., preliminary mechanistic trials, full-scale clinical trials). AHRF is a common and life-threatening clinical syndrome affecting millions globally every year. Patients with AHRF are at high risk of death and long-term morbidity. Patients who require invasive mechanical ventilation are at risk of ventilator-induced lung injury and ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction. New treatments and treatment strategies are needed to improve outcomes for these very ill patients. Utilizing advances in Bayesian adaptive trial design, the platform will facilitate efficient yet rigorous testing of new treatments for AHRF, with a particular focus on mechanical ventilation strategies and extracorporeal life support techniques as well as pharmacological agents and new medical devices. The platform is designed to enable evaluation of novel interventions at a variety of stages of investigation, including pilot and feasibility trials, trials focused on mechanistic surrogate endpoints for preliminary clinical evaluation, and full-scale clinical trials assessing the impact of interventions on patient-centered outcomes. Interventions will be evaluated within therapeutic domains. A domain is defined as a set of interventions that are intended to act on specific mechanisms of injury using different variations of a common therapeutic strategy. Domains are intended to function independently of each other, allowing independent evaluation of multiple therapies within the same patient. Once feasibility is established, Bayesian adaptive statistical modelling will be used to evaluate treatment efficacy at regular interim adaptive analyses of the pre-specified outcomes for each intervention in each domain. These adaptive analyses will compute the posterior probabilities of superiority, futility, inferiority, or equivalence for pre-specified comparisons within domains. Each of these potential conclusions will be pre-defined prior to commencing the intervention trial. Decisions about trial results (e.g., concluding superiority or equivalence) will be based on pre-specified threshold values for posterior probability. The primary outcome of interest, the definitions for superiority, futility, etc. (i.e., the magnitude of treatment effect) and the threshold values of posterior probability required to reach conclusions for superiority, futility etc., will vary from intervention to intervention depending on the phase of investigation and the nature of the intervention being evaluated. All of these parameters will be pre-specified as part of the statistical design for each intervention trial. In general, domains will be designed to evaluate treatment effect within four discrete clinical states: non-intubated patients, intubated patients with low respiratory system elastance (\<2.5 cm H2O/(mL/kg)), intubated patients with high respiratory system elastance (≥2.5 cm H2O/(mL/kg)), and patients requiring extracorporeal life support. Where appropriate, the model will specify dynamic borrowing between states to maximize statistical information available for trial conclusions. In this perpetual trial design, different interventions may be added or dropped over time. Where possible, the platform will be embedded within existing data collection repositories to enable greater efficiency in outcome ascertainment. Standardized systems for acquiring both physiological and biological measurements are embedded in the platform, to be acquired at sites with appropriate training, expertise, and facilities to collect those measurements.
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
6250
Start Date
2023-04-30
Completion Date
2027-03-31
Last Updated
2026-02-20
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Ultra-Protective Ventilation Facilitated by Extracorporeal Support
Patients randomized to this intervention group will receive VV-ECMO with the ventilator set to minimize driving pressure and respiratory rate for ultra-protective ventilation.
Lung-Protective Ventilation (LPV)
Patients randomized to LPV will receive standard of care lung-protective ventilation with conventional limits on tidal volume and plateau airway pressure.
Driving Pressure-Limited Ventilation (DPL)
Patients randomized to DPL will receive mechanical ventilation set to maintain a safe limit on driving pressure and plateau airway pressure, without less for the tidal volume.
Lung- and Diaphragm-Protective Ventilation and Sedation (LDPVS)
Patients randomized to LDPVS will have ventilation and sedation adjusted to maintain lung-distending pressure and respiratory effort in a safe target range.
Early Cohort corticosteroid dose
Patients randomized to receive corticosteroids will receive dexamethasone 20mg daily for 5 days and then 10mg for an additional 5 days, for a total of 10 days from the time of randomization (or until ICU discharge or death, whichever comes first); after 10 days dexamethasone will be stopped without a taper.
Extended Cohort corticosteroid dose
Patients randomized to receive extended corticosteroids will receive dexamethasone 10mg for an additional 10 days. At the end of the additional 10 days (day 20 of corticosteroids), the dexamethasone dose will be halved to 5mg for another 5 days (to reduce the risk of adrenal insufficiency) and then stopped (a total of 25 days or until ICU discharge or death, whichever comes first).
Usual care without routine corticosteroids
Patients randomized to this arm will be managed according to usual care. They will receive corticosteroids only if prescribed by the clinician.
Usual care without extending corticosteroids
Corticosteroids will stop after 10 days. Other management will be according to usual care. Patients will receive corticosteroids only if prescribed by the clinician.
Usual care with fludrocortisone
Best practice standard of care prescribed by treating team + fludrocortisone 50μg enterally daily for 7 days.
Usual care without fludrocortisone
Best practice standard of care prescribed by treating team without fludrocortisone. After randomization, if a clinical indication develops for fludrocortisone as part of standard of care, administration of fludrocortisone is not prohibited. Any fludrocortisone administered to participants in the control arm will be documented.
4 mL of nebulized 0.9% saline minutes every 6 hours over 30 minutes every 6 hours.
4 mL of nebulized 0.9% saline minutes every 6 hours over 30 minutes every 6 hours.
40 mg of nebulized furosemide in 4 mL of saline nebulized over 30 minutes every 6 hours
40 mg of nebulized furosemide in 4 mL of saline nebulized over 30 minutes every 6 hours
PEEP-20
fixed high positive end-expiratory pressure at 20 cmH2O
PEEP-AOP
positive end-expiratory pressure set according to airway opening pressure
PEEP-10
fixed lower positive end-expiratory pressure at 10 cmH2O
VV ECMO-facilitated strategy of earlier awakening, extubation and rehabilitation
Patients randomized to this intervention group will receive VV-ECMO where the sedation will be reduced and the ventilator will will be adjusted to facilitate spontaneous breathing.
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT)
Patients randomized to EIT will have PEEP titration compared via the Overdistension Collapse Intercept (ODCL) versus that obtained using a standard high PEEP table.
no treatment / intervention arm is involved
This trial is a prospective, multicenter, observational study (no treatment arm is involved).
Usual care
Patients will be treated according to usual care.
Early Routine IMT
* Training commences once patients meet readiness to wean criteria * 3 sets of 10 breaths, delivered twice daily using a device placed at the airway opening to apply an external resistive pressure load, until hospital discharge, death, or day 45 after randomization, whichever occurs first. * Device load will initially be set to 30% of the MIP. * Device load will be titrated upward (in increments of 5-10% of MIP, to a maximum of 60% of MIP) as needed to achieve a modified Borg dyspnea score of 7/10 or visible accessory muscle use.
Locations (86)
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona, United States
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Los Angeles, California, United States
University of San Diego (UCSD)
San Diego, California, United States
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States
University of Colorado Hospital
Aurora, Colorado, United States
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky, United States
University of Maryland Medical System
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
The Johns Hopkins Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
University of Michigan Health
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Washington University
St Louis, Missouri, United States
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Mount Sinai New York City
New York, New York, United States
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
New York, New York, United States
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
Portland, Oregon, United States
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Rhode Island Hospital
Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Vanderbilt university medical center
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
University of Utah Health
Farmington, Utah, United States
Sentara Health
Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
Nepean Hospital
Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia
Wollongong Hospital
Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Flinders Medical Centre
Bedford Park, Southern Adelaide, Australia
St Vincents Sydney
Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia
Bendigo Health Victoria
Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
University Hospital Geelong
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
The Austin Hospital
Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
University of Alberta/Edmonton University Hospital
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Nanaimo Regional General Hospital
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
Surrey Memorial Hospital
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
St. Paul's Hospital
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Royal Jubilee Hospital
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
St. Boniface Hospital
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Health Sciences Centre - Winnipeg
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Grace Hospital
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Nova Scotia Health Authority
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
William Osler Health System
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Brantford General Hospital
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Hamilton Health Sciences Centre - General
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Hamilton Health Sciences Centre - Juravinski
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Kingston Health Sciences Centre
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
London Health Sciences Centre - University Hospital
London, Ontario, Canada
London Health Sciences Centre - Victoria Hospital
London, Ontario, Canada
Oak Valley Health
Markham, Ontario, Canada
North York General Hospital
North York, Ontario, Canada
Lakeridge Hospital
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
The Ottawa Hospital
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ottawa Heart Research Institute
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Mackenzie Health
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Niagara Health Systems
Saint Catherines, Ontario, Canada
Scarborough Health Network
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Unity Health Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sinai Health, Mount Sinai Hospital
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
University Health Network
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Windsor Regional Health
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
MUHC - McGill University Health Centre (Glen Site)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sacre Coeur du Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Centre Hospitalier Universite de Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Trois Riviere (CHAUR)
Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada
Royal University Saskatoon
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Clínica Universidad de La Sabana
Chía, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Universidad de La Sabana
Chía, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Azienda Socio-Sanitaria Territoriale Ovest Milanese
Legnano, MI, Italy
Ospedale Maggiore, Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda, Milano
Milan, MI, Italy
ASST Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda
Milan, MI, Italy
Auckland City Hospital
Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand
Middlemore Hospital
Auckland, New Zealand
Taranaki Base Hospital
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Rotorua Hospital
Rotorua, New Zealand
King Abdulaziz Medical City- Riyadh
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
National University of Singapore
Singapore, Singapore
Parc Taulí University Hospital
Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain
Hospital Universitario de Getafe
Getafe, Madrid, Spain
Hospital Josep Trueta (Girona)
Girona, Spain