Comparison of Different PEEP Strategies in Moderate-to-Severe ARDS Based on Various Bedside Assessment Tools (OPTI-PEEP)

Comparison of Different PEEP Strategies in Moderate-to-Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) Based on Various Bedside Assessment Tools

Many patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for a severe lung disease called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) require mechanical ventilation and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) to improve their oxygenation. Ventilator settings-and particularly the level of PEEP-are critical in the management of these patients. In fact, inappropriate ventilator settings can lead to a worsening of the patients' lung disease or compromise their hemodynamic status.

PEEP is a pressure maintained by the ventilator during the patient's exhalation to keep the alveoli open throughout the respiratory cycle. When PEEP is increased, if many alveoli open, this is called alveolar recruitment, which is the expected beneficial effect. However, in some patients, increasing PEEP can cause already-open alveoli to become overdistended without opening new alveoli; this is known as pulmonary overdistension. This phenomenon of overdistension will worsen the patient's pulmonary condition and may also lead to hemodynamic deterioration. To date, numerous techniques have been proposed for determining the optimal PEP level (alveolar recruitment without pulmonary overdistension) in these patients, but none can be recommended as the gold standard. The objective of our study is therefore to compare the various existing methods for determining the optimal PEEP level, in order to determine whether these methods are interchangeable and which would be the best method to use to optimize the care of these patients.

To this end, the investigators plan to conduct a prospective, observational, multicenter study in the Intensive Care Units of the Nice University Hospital and the European Hospital of Marseille. Patients on mechanical ventilation for ARDS will be included in the study, and medical and laboratory data from the electronic medical records obtained during the various PEEP measurements to determine the optimal PEEP will be analyzed.

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

45

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 Contact

Study Locations

      • Nice, France
        • CHU de Nice
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Clément Saccheri, MD

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients on invasive mechanical ventilation
  • With moderate-to-severe ARDS :

    1. Bilateral findings on chest X-ray
    2. PaO₂/FiO₂ ratio <200 with PEEP ≥+5 cmH₂O
    3. No evidence of cardiogenic pulmonary overload
  • Patients without inspiratory effort (curare administration not required)
  • Patient already fitted with an esophageal pressure probe
  • Patient already fitted with a thoracic impedance belt
  • No objection from the patient or a family member to the processing of their clinical data

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Protected individuals, namely:

    1. Individuals receiving enhanced protection, namely minors
    2. Individuals deprived of their liberty by a judicial or administrative decision
    3. Pregnant and breastfeeding women
    4. Individuals residing in a health or social care facility
    5. Adults under legal guardianship
  • Patients with a do-not-resuscitate order or a decision to limit care
  • Patients with a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
  • Acute cor pulmonale
  • Pneumothorax or ongoing pleural/thoracic drainage
  • Patients in the prone position
  • Hemodynamic instability

    1. An increase of >30% in the norepinephrine dosage over the past 6 hours
    2. Norepinephrine dosage > 0.5 µg/kg/min
  • Patients on veno-venous ECMO

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: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Study population
Initial PEEP level will be set according to the PEEP/FiO2 table. The PEEP level will then be adjusted to achieve a plateau pressure of 28-30 cmH₂O. After 10 minutes, various hemodynamic and respiratory variables will be recorded, and an arterial blood gas analysis will be performed to assess the patient's respiratory mechanics and oxygenation. Next, the airway opening pressure will be measured, and the patient's recruitment potential will be assessed by calculating the R/I ratio through a sudden reduction in PEP from 15 cmH₂O to 5 cmH₂O over a single respiratory cycle. Following this, PEEP will be raised back to the initial level for at least 5 minutes and then gradually reduced in 2 cmH₂O increments every 2 minutes until reaching the AOP level or a PEEP level of 5 cmH₂O. In total, the optimal PEP level will be determined using six different techniques, allowing the clinician to obtain six optimal PEP values and thus best customize the ventilator settings for each patient.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Level of positive end expiratory pressure
Time Frame: at baseline

The primary outcome measure will be the optimal level of positive end expiratory pressure achieved with each of the methods used.

The measurement of differents optimal level of positive end expiratory pressure will be determined after the positive end expiratory pressure reduction procedure.

at baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Minimale driving pressure
Time Frame: at baseline

Minimale driving pressure will be assessed at various optimal positive end expiratory pressure levels according with each of the methods used.

Determining the minimum driving pressure of differents optimal level of positive end expiratory pressure will be determined after the positive end expiratory pressure reduction procedure

at baseline
Maximum pulmonary compliance
Time Frame: at baseline

Maximum pulmonary compliance will be assessed at various optimal positive end expiratory pressure levels according with each of the methods used.

Determining the maximum pulmonary compliance of differents optimal level of positive end expiratory pressure will be determined after the positive end expiratory pressure reduction procedure

at baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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 (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 23, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

August 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

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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