PCT Guided Stopping of Antibiotic Therapy in Children With Sepsis

Procalcitonin Level Guided Cessation of Antibiotic Therapy in Children With Sepsis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sepsis; Septic Shock; Antimicrobial Resistance; Procalcitonin; Antibiotic Use; PCT; AMR
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: PCT group

Detailed Description

Sepsis and bacterial infections account for more than 50% of and intensive care (ICU) admissions and the mortality rates are as high as 40-60% reported in various studies. Although, antibiotics are crucial in deciding outcomes in children with sepsis, however, use of the same in non-infectious conditions has resulted in emergence of multi drug resistant strains with high morbidity and mortality. The number of deaths from antibiotic resistant bacteria is 700000 worldwide. A major driver for development of multi drug resistant bacteria is antibiotic use. This indiscriminate use is much more pronounced in the ICUs with observations from various studies indicating that 30% to 60% of antibiotics prescribed in ICUs are unnecessary, inappropriate, or suboptimal. This is because of two major reasons a) illness severity and b) difficulty in distinguishing true sepsis from other causes of SIRS. In order to address these problems, researchers have tried to explore the use of novel biomarkers to improve the accuracy, early diagnosis and stopping of antibiotic therapy of sepsis. One such marker that is widely studied is procalcitonin (PCT). Several studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated that PCT has excellent diagnostic accuracy for sepsis and has a potential role in de-escalating antibiotic therapy in adult patients. Unfortunately, there are only few observational studies and two RCT's in children published till date evaluating the use of PCT for diagnosis of infections or de-escalation of antibiotic therapy. Moreover, till date, there are no studies in critically ill children with sepsis who are faced with the problem of multidrug resistant infections and have the worst outcomes. Given this background, the investigators plan to conduct this pragmatic randomized controlled trial in children with sepsis admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and already on antibiotics. The investigators' objective is to compare the risk of treatment failure in children admitted to the PICU with sepsis and managed by PCT guided therapy for stopping of antibiotics ('study' 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' would also be comparing the duration of antibiotic therapy between the two groups as secondary outcome measures. 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. The investigators also believe that in due course of time, over the years, with restricted antibiotic usage, the issue of multi-drug resistant microbial infections in the PICU will be addressed.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 561
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• India
  • Chandigarh, India
    • PGIMER
  • Karnataka
    • Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, 560034
      • St Johns Medical College and Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 2 months to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children 2 month to 17 years admitted to the ICU and already receiving antibiotics for suspected or proven sepsis (defined as systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS due to infection) and children who are started on antibiotics in the ICU for suspected or proven sepsis will be included.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children receiving antibiotics more than 24 hours before presentation
• Children with severe immunosuppression (CD4 count of less than 200 cells/mm3, neutropenic patients (<500 neutrophils/ml)) other than corticosteroid use
• Children admitted for post-op observation
• Children with an estimated length of stay less than 24 hrs
• Children with underlying co-morbidities with possible imminent death
• Children whose parents refuse to give an informed consent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: PCT group	Behavioral: PCT group; In this group antibiotic therapy will be stopped based on serial PCT measurements starting from admission.
No Intervention: Standard practice group; No intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Treatment failure	The primary outcome measure would be treatment failure* (defined as growth of one or more of the initial causative organism(s) from a second sample taken within 48 hours after stopping antibiotics and/ or clinical signs or symptoms of infection) within 7 days of stoppage of antibiotics.	From day of stopping first course of antibiotic therapy till day 7 after stopping antibiotics

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion clinically cured	Proportion clinically cured after the first antibiotic course	From day of stopping first course of antibiotic therapy till day 7 of stopping therapy
Antibiotic free days	Total number of days the patients are not on antibiotics	Till day 28 of hospital stay
Mortality	Death in ICU or hospital	Till death or day 28 whichever is earlier

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
• Collaborators: All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar; Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh; St Johns Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, India
• Investigators: Study Chair: S K Kabra, MD, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Clinical Trials Registry of India - Registered trial

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 21, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 28, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): February 28, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 18, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 25, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): January 3, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 27, 2025
• Last Verified: February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Infections; Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome; Inflammation; Sepsis; Toxemia
• Other Study ID Numbers: IEC-531/11.11.2016

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No