Clinical Research Directory

Traditional Chinese Medicine in Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Pneumonia

This is a multicenter prospective observational cohort study involving hospitalized adult patients with multidrug-resistant bacterial pneumonia. Patients will be categorized into two cohorts according to whether they receive systemic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment as part of routine clinical care. Systemic TCM treatment includes Chinese herbal decoctions, oral Chinese patent medicines, and Chinese medicine injections. Treatment decisions will be made by the attending physicians according to routine clinical practice, without intervention by the researchers. The primary objective is to evaluate the association between systemic TCM treatment and the occurrence of lower respiratory tract infection events within 90 days after hospital discharge. Secondary outcomes include all-cause and pneumonia-related mortality, rehospitalization, upper respiratory tract infection events, bacterial clearance, clinical cure at hospital discharge, antibacterial drug use, pneumonia-related clinician-reported and patient-reported outcomes, health-related quality of life, inflammatory markers, imaging changes, safety outcomes, and direct medical costs.

Clinical Effectiveness of a Once-daily Regimen of Tigecycline Compared to the Standard Regimen

To compare the clinical response (efficacy) and the safety of the tigecycline once daily regimen versus the standard regimen (twice daily regimen). Clinical response was categorized as a cure, failure of treatment, or indeterminate outcome.24 Treatment success (Cure): defined as resolution of signs/symptoms of infection, microbiological cure (negative cultures after tigecycline use), improvement of infection markers (leukocytic count, C reactive protein, and procalcitonin). Treatment failure: defined as persistence of signs/symptoms of infection despite antimicrobial therapy, deterioration of infection markers (leukocytic count, C reactive protein, and Procalcitonin). Indeterminate response: subjects who do not have an outcome determination for reasons unrelated to the study drug or infection (e.g., loss to follow-up, withdrawal of consent, etc.) Safety will be assessed by the incidence of adverse events especially which leads to treatment discontinuation.36