The lessons learned from the EAT ICU study

TICACOS international: A multi-center, randomized, prospective controlled study comparing tight calorie control versus Liberal calorie administration study

Since the first TICACOS study, 3 additional studies have been published comparing a medical nutrition therapy guided by indirect calorimetry to a regimen prescribed on the basis of predictive equations. A recent guidelines document included a meta-analysis including these 4 papers and found a trend for improvement (OR 0.98-1.48) in favor of medical nutrition therapy guided by indirect calorimetry in terms of survival. The aim of our study was to perform a multicenter prospective, randomized, controlled non blinded study in critically patients to assess the added value for measuring daily resting energy expenditure as a guide for nutritional support. The primary objective was to decrease infectious rate of these critically ill patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This phase III, multi-center, randomized, controlled non blinded study was planned to include 580 newly-admitted, adult ventilated ICU patients that were planned to stay more than 48 h in the ICU departments. The nutritional support was aimed to meet 80-100% of energy requirement measured by indirect calorimetry. The calorie needs were determined by IC in the Study group and by an equation (20-25 kcal/kg ideal body weight/day) in the Control Group. The ICU staff was trained to strive to supply 80-100% of a patient's energy requirements through artificial nutrition, preferably enteral feeding. Primary endpoint was infection rate and secondary endpoints included other morbidities and mortality during ICU, at 90 and 180 days. Comparison between the study and the control group was performed using T test for equality of means (independent samples test). Correlations were performed using the Pearson correlation test. A p level of 0.05 or below was considered as significant. Cross tabs procedure used Chi-square test for testing differences in complication rates, length of stay and length of ventilation. Correlations between energy balances and complications was also be tested using one way analysis as well as ANOVA analysis between groups and within groups. Kaplan Meir curves assessed the proportion of surviving patients in the 2 groups.

RESULTS

Seven centers with a calorimeter available participated to the study. Due to slow inclusion rate, the study was stopped after 6 years and after inclusion of 417 patients only. From the 417 intended to treat patients, 339 followed the protocol. There was no differences between control and study groups in terms of age, sex BMI, SOFA (7.1 ± 3.1 vs 7.4 ± 3.3) and APACHE II scores (22.4 ± 7.9 vs 22.2 ± 7.4). The rate of infection (40 vs 31), including pneumonia rate, need for surgery, dialysis requirement, length of ventilation, ICU length of stay, and hospital length of stay were not different between groups. Mortality (30 in the control vs 21 in the study group) was not significantly different between groups. The decreased mortality observed in the study group when added to previous studies may have a positive effect on the meta-analysis previously published.

CONCLUSION

Tight Calorie Control guided by indirect calorimetry decreased the rate of infection and mortality but not significantly. This may be explained by the not relatively small sample size. There results together with the previous 4 prospective randomized studies, may improve the results of the meta-analysis exploring the effects of IC guided nutrition on mortality.

Differential Effects of Early Energy and Protein Inadequacies on the Outcome of Critically Ill Patients

BACKGROUND

Differential effects of energy and protein inadequacies of intensive care unit (ICU) patients in first 72 hours are unknown.

METHODS

We included all adult patients receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) > 72 hours between August 2012 and December 2014. Energy and protein doses were 25 kcal/kg/day and 1.5 g/kg/day, respectively. We used multivariable Cox regression analysis for 28-day mortality and competing risks regression analysis for post-ICU length of stay (LOS) in hospital survivors.

RESULTS

In 421 patients (male 63.4%, mean age 62 ± 15.1 years) the energy and protein adequacies at 72 hours were 70% and 56%, respectively. Non-survivors by day 28 were started on feeding significantly later (median, 14.13 (5.48-33.78) versus 9.25 (5.45-16.58) hours, P = .003) and received lower energy (mean, 0.57 ± 0.36 versus 0.76 ± 0.29, P < 0.001) and protein (median, 0.51 (0.13-0.74) versus 0.61 (0.40-0.84), P < 0.001) adequacies at day 7 (same effect seen at 72 hours, P < 0.001). Higher energy adequacy at 72 hours was associated with lower mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.39 (95% CI 0.20-0.75), P = 0.004); the lowest mortality was seen between 61% and 70% energy adequacies. No such association was seen with protein adequacy. In 280 hospital survivors, higher energy adequacy at 72 hours (subdistribution HR 1.63; 95% CI, 1.06-2.50, P = 0.025) was significantly associated with shorter post-ICU LOS. No such effect was seen with protein adequacy.

CONCLUSION

Higher energy but not protein adequacy at 72 hours of MV was associated with improved patient-centric outcomes.

Early Administration of Protein in Critically Ill Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

It is currently uncertain whether early administration of protein improves patient outcomes. We examined mortality rates of critically ill patients receiving early compared to late protein administration. This was a retrospective cohort study of mixed ICU patients receiving enteral or parenteral nutritional support. Patients receiving >0.7 g/kg/d protein within the first 3 days were considered the early protein group and those receiving less were considered the late protein group. The latter were subdivided into late-low group (LL) who received a low protein intake (<0.7 g/kg/d) throughout their stay and the late-high group (LH) who received higher doses (>0.7 g/kg/d) of protein following their first 3 days of admission. The outcome measure was all-cause mortality 60 days after admission. Of the 2253 patients included in the study, 371 (36%) in the early group, and 517 (43%) in the late-high group had died (p < 0.001 for difference). In multivariable Cox regression analysis, while controlling for confounders, early protein administration was associated with increased survival (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.71⁻0.97, p = 0.017). Administration of protein early in the course of critical illness appears to be associated with improved survival in a mixed ICU population, even after adjusting for confounding variables.