A randomised controlled trial of normoglycaemia versus conventional glycaemic control in Intensive Care Unit patients.

Funded Activity Summary

The concentration of sugar in the blood is often increased in patients in intensive care and patients with increased blood sugar levels are more likely to die. A recent study performed in a Belgian intensive care unit found that using high doses of insulin to lower blood sugars levels to normal increased the number of patients who survived. The chance of surviving to leave hospital was increased from 89% to 93%. Whilst the result is very encouraging, Intensive Care Specialists in Australia are unsure if the treatment would work in their patients because of differences in the types of patients found in intensive care units in Australia, and because of other treatment given to the patients in the Belgian study. In particular the doctors in the Belgian unit studied only patients who had had operations and gave large amounts of intravenous sugar to their patients. This is not normally done in Australian Intensive Care Units and the safety of giving high dose insulin to patients not receiving large amounts of intravenous sugar is not known. This is of particular interest as reducing blood glucose to abnormally low levels can cause serious side effects and even result in permanent brain damage. The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society proposes to conduct a new study involving 4,000 patients from intensive care units in Australia and New Zealand and will study all patients regardless of whether or not they have had an operation. These patients will be randomly assigned to receive insulin to control blood sugar levels to normal or to slightly above normal levels as has been tradition in intensive care units around the world. Outcome and serious side effects will be closely monitored. The results will be available within three years of starting the study, and these are likely to influence the treatment of the majority of patients admitted to intensive care units both in Australia and worldwide.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2004

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $1,773,507.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Intensive Care

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Critical illness | Glycaemic control | Insulin administration | Intensive Care | Mortality | Randomised controlled trial | Sepsis

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