The Effect of Higher Protein Dosing in Critically Ill Patients Ultrasound a Sub-study (EFFORTUS)

June 16, 2020 updated by: Daren K. Heyland, Clinical Evaluation Research Unit at Kingston General Hospital

The Effect of Higher Protein Dosing in Critically Ill Patients: A Multicenter Registry-based Randomized Trial: The EFFORT Ultrasound a Sub-study

The investigators will evaluate the effects of of higher protein/amino acid dosing (≥2.2 g/kg/d) vs usual care of protein/amino acid dosing (≤1.2 g/kg/d) over muscle mass in nutritionally high risk ill patients.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

The EFFORT Ultrasound (US) is a sub study of the parent EFFORT trial; a multi-center, pragmatic, volunteer-driven, registry-based, randomized, clinical trial of 4000 nutritionally high-risk critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. Patients will be randomized to 1 of 2 treatment groups: a usual care prescription (≤1.2 g/kg/d) or a higher prescription (≥2.2 g/kg/d) of protein. Other than the protein amount the patient is randomized to, the remainder of care provided to randomized patient will be at the discretion of ICU providers.

In both groups, targets will be achieved through any combination of enteral nutrition (high protein content in high group if available), protein supplements, and parenteral nutrition or amino acids only (as clinically available). The only difference between the 2 groups is the protein targets that are set. Similar efforts should be used in both groups to achieve at least 80% of these targets. The remainder of care provided to eligible patients will be at the discretion of ICU providers.

Patients in the US sub-study will undergo the US measures at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done. To ensure standardization and quality in the measures, we have created high quality training materials and will have US films sent centrally to abstract all measurements. In the first 10 patients enrolled in the US sub-study, participating sites will conduct a run-in phase where their submitted data will be evaluated for quality and reliability (both intra and inter-rater reliability) to ensure subsequent measures are of high quality. Nutritional and clinical data for these patients will be included in the parent EFFORT trial but the US measures may be omitted if quality is poor.

The investigator has posed the following research question:

Primary Sub Study Research Question:

In critically ill patients with nutrition 'risk factors', what is the effect of prescribing a higher dose (≥2.2 grams/kg/day) of protein/amino acid administration compared to the usual care prescription (≤1.2 gram/kg/day) on muscle mass and quality, and 60 day mortality?

The proposed hypothesis:

Compared to receiving the usual care of protein/amino acids, the administration of a higher dose of protein/amino acids (a consequence of having a higher prescription) to nutritionally high-risk critically ill patients will be associated with greater muscle mass, improved survival and a quicker rate of recovery.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Phase 3

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. - ≥18 years old
  2. - Nutritionally 'high-risk' (meeting one of the below criteria)

    1. Low (≤25) or High BMI (≥35)
    2. Moderate to severe malnutrition (as defined by local assessments). We will document the means by which sites are making this determination and capture the elements of the assessment (history of weight loss, history of reduced oral intake, etc.).
    3. Frailty (Clinical Frailty Scale 5 or more from proxy)
    4. Sarcopenia- (SARC-F score of 4 or more from proxy)
    5. From point of screening, projected duration of mechanical ventilation >4 days
  3. - Requiring mechanical ventilation with actual or expected total duration of mechanical ventilation >48 hours

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. >96 continuous hours of mechanical ventilation before screening
  2. Expected death or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments within 7 days from screening
  3. Pregnant
  4. The responsible clinician feels that the patient either needs low or high protein
  5. Patient requires parenteral nutrition only and site does not have products to reach the high protein dose group.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Usual Care
Patients will receive a usual protein/amino acid dose (≤1.2 g/kg/d)
Protein targets will be set using pre-ICU dry actual weight. For patients with BMI >30, ideal body weight based on a BMI of 25 will be used. We will endorse the guidelines for energy targets set forth by ASPEN/SCCM, especially as it pertains to the obese patient.
Patients will undergo the ultrasound measures at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done.
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Higher Protein/Amino Acid Group
Patients will receive a higher protein/amino acid dose (≥2.2 g/kg/d).
Protein targets will be set using pre-ICU dry actual weight. For patients with BMI >30, ideal body weight based on a BMI of 25 will be used. We will endorse the guidelines for energy targets set forth by ASPEN/SCCM, especially as it pertains to the obese patient.
Patients will undergo the ultrasound measures at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change of Muscle mass of the quadriceps from baseline to day 10 post randomization
Time Frame: at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done
Using ultrasound of quadriceps
at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done
Change of Muscle quality of the quadriceps from baseline to day 10 post randomization
Time Frame: at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done
Using ultrasound of quadriceps
at baseline (within 24 hours of randomization, day 10 days post randomization (if still in hospital) and just prior to hospital discharge. In the event that hospital discharge is prior to day 10, the day 10 measure will not be done

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ANTICIPATED)

November 1, 2020

Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 1, 2021

Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 24, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 24, 2020

First Posted (ACTUAL)

January 27, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

June 18, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 16, 2020

Last Verified

June 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • The EFFORT Ultrasound

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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