Investigating the Anabolic Response to Resistance Exercise After Critical Illness (ARTIST-2) (ARTIST-2)

February 16, 2024 updated by: Martin Sundstrom Rehal, Karolinska University Hospital

Investigating the Anabolic Response to Resistance Exercise After Critical Illness: The ARTIST-2 Non-Randomized Controlled Trial

ICU survivors often suffer from long-term functional disability. An attenuated response to physical exercise in skeletal muscle after critical illness may contribute to persisting weakness.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of resistance exercise on muscle protein synthesis in former ICU patients. The investigators hypothesize that study subjects recovering from critical illness have an impaired anabolic response to resistance exercise after ICU stay as compared to non-critically ill controls.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Background

The debilitating impact of critical illness has been recognized for several decades. Disability related to intensive care is now described as a syndrome called ICU-acquired weakness (ICUAW). ICUAW affects up to 70% of ICU patients and is most common with higher illness severity. Patients that develop ICUAW require longer hospitalization and have a higher risk of death. Weakness may persists for several years in ICU survivors. It has significant long-term consequences, and is associated with increased health care costs, delayed return to work, and overall poor quality of life.

Muscle atrophy is a major contributor to ICUAW. Critical illness is associated with a rapid loss of skeletal muscle, induced by catabolic signals from proinflammatory cytokines and hormones. The ability to regain lost muscle mass during convalescence may also be impaired. In a small observational study, muscle atrophy resolved only in a minority of ICU survivors at six months after ICU discharge.

Studies in exercise physiology have demonstrated that resistance training and amino acid ingestion have synergistic effects on muscle protein synthesis in healthy subjects. It is therefore an appealing therapy to reconstitute muscle mass after critical illness. Despite several clinical trials, there is equipoise regarding the efficacy of exercise in improving physical function in-ICU after ICU discharge. These mixed signals are unsurprising given the heterogeneous causes of ICUAW.

Only a few studies in this field have examined muscle architecture or cellular signaling in response to training. However, the gold standard in determining the anabolic response to exercise is to directly measure the effects on protein synthesis and breakdown. There is still no published research using this methodology to assess the effects of exercise interventions in former ICU patients. To understand the role of physical exercise in regaining lost muscle mass, the investigators plan to investigate the anabolic effects to resistance training after critical illness.

Aim and hypothesis

The aim of this study is to determine the anabolic response to resistance exercise after critical illness. The investigators hypothesize that study subjects recovering from critical illness have an impaired anabolic response to resistance exercise after ICU stay as compared to non-critically ill controls.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Stockholm
      • Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden, 14186
        • Karolinska University Hospital

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

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Adult (≥18 years) previously admitted to an ICU at Karolinska University Hospital for ≥3 days and discharged alive from hospital

    OR

  2. Adult (≥18 years) without a history of ICU admission (control group)

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Not able to provide informed consent
  2. >6 months since ICU discharge*
  3. Warfarin or dual antiplatelet therapy
  4. Clinically significant inherited or acquired disorder of hemostasis
  5. Lower-limb amputee
  6. Lower-limb atherosclerotic disease with critical ischemia.
  7. Recent fracture in lower limbs or significant osteoarthritis limiting movement in knee or hip joint
  8. Metastatic cancer or active hematological malignancy
  9. Inherited disorder of amino acid metabolism.
  10. Chronic muscle, neuromuscular or neurologic disease with prior documentation of clinically significant lower-limb involvement
  11. Pregnancy
  12. Single organ failure not requiring invasive mechanical ventilation during ICU stay*
  13. Intubated only for airway protection with no other organ failure(s) during ICU stay*
  14. Planned postoperative care in ICU after elective cardiothoracic surgery*

Exclusion criteria marked with asterisk only apply to former ICU patients.

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Former ICU patients
Research subjects with a prior history of ICU treatment within six months.
24 grams of hydrolyzed whey protein.
Knee extensions in flywheel inertia machine in four sets of 10 repetitions.
Active Comparator: Age- and sex-matched control group
Research subjects without a prior history of ICU treatment within the last 30 years, age- and sex-matched in a 1:2 ratio to the experimental arm.
24 grams of hydrolyzed whey protein.
Knee extensions in flywheel inertia machine in four sets of 10 repetitions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Muscle protein fractional synthetic rate
Time Frame: 150 minutes post-exercise.
The difference between the experimental and active comparator group in muscle protein fractional synthetic rate.
150 minutes post-exercise.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Gene expression
Time Frame: 150 minutes post-exercise.
The difference between the experimental and active comparator group in gene expression (mRNA) in skeletal muscle, assessed by RNA sequencing.
150 minutes post-exercise.
Signaling pathways
Time Frame: 150 minutes post-exercise.
The difference between the experimental and active comparator group in the activity of major anabolic/catabolic signalining pathways in skeletal muscle, assessed by western blot.
150 minutes post-exercise.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Olav Rooyackers, PhD, Karolinska University Hospital
  • Principal Investigator: Martin Sundström Rehal, MD PhD, Karolinska University Hospital

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 (Actual)

March 8, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 18, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

January 18, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 20, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 20, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 2, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 20, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 16, 2024

Last Verified

February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • K 2022-1113

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

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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