Source: Thailand Medical News Jan 24, 2020 4 years, 10 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 3 hours, 43 minutes ago
Medical researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine have identified
blood-based biomarkers associated with both
delirium duration and severity in critically ill patients. This finding opens the door to easy, early identification of individuals at risk for longer
delirium duration and higher
delirium severity and could potentially lead to new treatments of this brain failure for which drugs have been shown to be largely ineffective.
Roughly an estimated 7 million hospitalized Americans suffer from the acute confusion and disorientation, characteristics of
delirium, including a majority of patients in medical or surgical
intensive care units (
ICUs). Individuals who experience
delirium in the
ICU are more likely to have more hospital-associated complications, longer stays and higher risk of readmission. They are more likely to experience cognitive impairment and also have a greater likelihood of dying for up to a year after their hospital stay than ICU patients who did not experience
delirium.
Regenstrief Institute research scientist and IU School of Medicine faculty member Dr Babar Khan, M.D., who led the research and is the president of the American Delirium Society told
Thailand Medical News, "If you can tell which patients will have higher
delirium severity and longer duration and therefore greater probability of death, there are important treatment implications. Analyzing
biomarkers to stratify risk for
delirium is a promising approach with the potential to be applied regularly in
ICU patients in the near future."
Dr. Khan and colleagues in the new observational study, report that
biomarkers for astrocyte and glial activation as well as for inflammation were associated with increased
delirium duration and severity and greater in-hospital mortality.
These
biomarkers of the 321 study participants, all of whom experienced
delirium in an ICU, were identified from samples obtained via simple blood draws.
Delirium severity was determined using a tool developed by a team including Regenstrief, IU School of Medicine and Purdue College of Pharmacy scientists. The CAM-
ICU-7, short for Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit 7—is easy to administer, even to patients on mechanical ventilators. More than half of ICU patients in the U.S. receive mechanical ventilation.
Delirium in the
ICU is associated with a 10 percent increased likelihood of death, according to Dr. Khan, so diminishing its duration and ultimately preventing it is critical. Regenstrief, IU School of Medicine and research scientists from other institutions have conclusively shown in several large trials that antipsycho
tics, such as the widely used haloperidol, are not effective for the management of
delirium duration or severity.
Indiana University and Regenstrief researchers are actively exploring other approaches to
delirium. Dr. Khan is co-principal investigator of an ongoing study that is the first to test whether listening to music, a non-pharmacological strategy that has been shown to decrease over-sedation, anxiety and stress in critically ill patients, all factors that predispose to
ICU delirium and lowers the likelihood of developing
delirium. In a completed study, Also, the Regenstrief researchers determined that waking
ICU patients and having them breathe on their own decreased acute brain failure.
Reference : Babar A. Khan et al. Biomarkers of Delirium Duration and Delirium Severity in the ICU, Critical Care Medicine (2019). DOI: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000004139
