Clinical Research Directory

Platform of Randomized Adaptive Clinical Trials in Critical Illness

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.

Dynamic Airway Resistance & ML: Guide Sputum Suction in Ventilated Patients

Research has shown that timely suctioning not only improves survival rates but also enhances the quality of life in ventilator-dependent patients. However, clinical judgment on the optimal timing for suctioning currently relies primarily on physician experience, lacking scientific evidence \[10\]. Airway viscous resistance reflects the frictional resistance encountered by gas flow within the airways and is closely associated with airway patency. When airway secretions increase, viscous resistance undergoes dynamic changes. Therefore, analyzing these dynamic variations in viscous resistance derived from ventilator waveforms to determine the optimal suctioning timing and assess its clinical impact on the progression of pulmonary inflammation holds significant scientific value and offers new insights and methodologies for clinical practice.

End-expiratory Trans-pulmonary Pressure Guided PEEP Titration in Patients With Pulmonary Fibrosis and UIP Pattern Undergoing Mechanical Ventilation

Patients with pulmonary fibrosis and associated usual interstitial pneumonia that require mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory failure experience poor clinical outcomes. This may be influenced by the unfavorable interaction between the fibrotic lung and the stress and strain stimuli generated during controlled ventilation. Although there is no consensus on how to ventilate these patients, much of the recommendations followed in clinical practice are taken from the experience on patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Among these, measuring the esophageal pressures and adjusting positive-end expiatory pressure to make trans-pulmonary pressures positive can decrease atelectasis, derecruitment of lung, and cyclical opening and closing of airways and alveoli, thus optimizing lung mechanics and oxygenation. The effect of this strategy on the fibrotic lung has not yet been documented. With this observational study we aim at documenting the effect of PEEP titration maneuver based on end-expiratory trans-pulmonary pressure on lung mechanics of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and UIP pattern,

Effect of Individualized PEEP on Postoperative Pulmonary Complication in Bariatrics

Ventilation with low tidal volume and high PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure) has been shown to improve oxygenation in patients with ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). In obese patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgeries, the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) increases significantly with general anesthesia. Previous studies have shown that protective lung ventilation strategies could improve intraoperative oxygenation and lung mechanics. In this study would compare the effect of optimum individualized high PEEP versus standard PEEP - on postoperative pulmonary complications

FCV Vs VCV in Obstructive and Asthmatic Patients

The goal of this physiological pilot study with a randomized crossover design is to study the effect of Flow-controlled ventilation (FCV) on the minute volume compared to Volume-controlled ventilation (VCV) in intubated patients with an exacerbation of their asthma or COPD. Our hypothesis is that FCV will results in a lower minute volume compared to VCV in this patient category. Patients will be randomized between two ventilation sequences, namely 90 minutes of FCV followed by 90 minutes of VCV or vice versa.

Non-invasive Monitoring of Mixed Venous Oxygen Saturation Using the Capnodynamic Method in Adults

The objective of this study is to compare the accuracy and correlation of the capnodynamic method for measuring mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) with the standard reference method (pulmonary artery catheter), with the potential for the capnodynamic method to replace the traditional method in selected cases.

Epidemiology and Treatment Strategy of Open Respiratory Phenotype in Critically Ill Patients

Monitoring airway pressure is essential for patients with mechanical ventilation. However, static airway pressure does not reflect alveolar pressure at all. Airway pressure is supposed to completely interrupt the communication between proximal airway opening and the distal alveolar and/or small airway structures. In this condition, some alveoli may still be inflated but do not communicate with proximal airways and auto-PEEP will give a biased estimated of mean alveolar pressure. To be note, distinguishing the airway closure and alveolar collapse can be challenging at times. The quasi-static PV curve is a useful bedside tool to set mechanical ventilation, which may help us to identify the airway closure and alveolar collapse. Meanwhile, the quasi-static PV curve can only reflects a global behaviour of the lung, while EIT may be a useful tool to assess the regional information on airway closure and alveolar collapse.

Extremes of Respiratory Effort in Weaning Failure From Mechanical Ventilation: a Prospective Observational Study

The presence of high levels of respiratory effort in patients under mechanical ventilation may worsen the adjacent lung injury even after adapting protective ventilation. Primary outcome: To evaluate the failure rate of weaning from IMV and its relationship with the lower and upper extremes of respiratory effort and the upper extreme of dynamic pulmonary stress during the first 7 days of spontaneous ventilation. Analyze the influence of these extremes based on the thresholds of Pocc, P0.1 and their derivatives Pmus, Ptp, din and MP: in relation to days off MV (in the 28-day interval); Total weaning time; Rate and time for tracheostomy; Length of stay in the ICU and hospital; In-hospital mortality rate. CAAE: 78185823.4.0000.5249. Prospective multicenter observational study, carried out in the ICUs of Glória D'or and Niteroi D'or hospitals, from January 2024 to July 2026, in patients over 18 years old, undergoing orotracheal intubation and IMV, in their first 7 days on spontaneous ventilation. Hypothesis: Extremes of respiratory effort and dynamic pulmonary stress would be associated with a higher rate of weaning from IMV, as well as longer time on IMV and subsequent longer hospital stay.