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.

Use of Simplified Lung Ultrasound Score for Predicting ICU Outcomes in Patients With Acute Respiratory Failure

This study aims to Primary Aims: Verify the predictability of the PLIS at admission in predicting major clinical outcomes including: * ICU mortality (or discharge) and time to death (or discharge) * Escalation of ventilatory support antibiotic therapy or supportive medications (inotropes, steroids, sedation, neuromuscular blockers). Secondary Aims: * Determine the correlation between initial PLIS and the degree of disease severity (as evaluated per SOFA and APACHE II scores) * Determine the correlation between initial PLIS and partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (PaO2) to Fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2): PaO2/FiO2 * Explore the potential association between the type of ventilatory support, ventilatory settings and PLIS at different time points. * Verify whether the site of consolidation (anterior vs. posterior lung zones) can reliably predict mortality in in ALI patients. * Determine the correlation between the PLIS score and the degree of ALI as quantified by CT of the chest (whenever a CT study is available) at the time of admission.