Septic Shock News and Research

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Customized treatments for sepsis lower treatment time and reduce length of ICU stays

Using a blood test and a decision algorithm, rather than standard hospital protocols, to determine the appropriate length of antibiotic therapy in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock can reduce duration of treatments, shorten ICU stays, and lower hospital costs - all without adverse effects on patients, according to new research.

1 Mar 2008

Discovery of potential drug targets for sepsis

"We have identified a key connection of signaling pathways in the cascade of events leading to sepsis. This defines a crucial point where the immune system spirals out of control to cause severe sepsis and where there is an opportunity for therapeutic intervention," says Scripps Research Professor Wolfram Ruf, who led the research with his postdoctoral fellow Frank Niessen.

28 Feb 2008

Caution on use of Vasopressin in septic shock

Vasopressin should be used with great caution for the treatment of hypotension in septic shock, according to results from an international research team published in the online open access journal Critical Care.

14 Dec 2007

Zebrafish study shows key enzyme in gut is a peacemaker

University of Oregon scientists, using zebrafish to study the gastrointestinal tract, say that an enzyme long assumed to be involved in digestion instead is a detoxifying traffic cop, maintaining a friendly rapport between resident gut bacteria and cells.

13 Dec 2007

How cells communicate focus of new research

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded £5 million to investigate how cells respond to stimuli such as stress and UV radiation.

27 Nov 2007

Chicken pox vaccination should be introduced for children in the UK

The only realistic way of preventing deaths and severe complications arising from chickenpox is to routinely vaccinate children against the disease, concludes research published ahead of print in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

13 Nov 2007

GlaxoSmithKline to pursue novel antibacterial research program for DOD

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), to identify and develop a new class of antibacterials targeting both Gram negative biothreats and conventional Gram negative hospital pathogens.

18 Sep 2007

Gene expression pattern could lead to improved treatment of pediatric septic shock

A consortium of researchers headed by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has discovered a gene expression pattern that could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of pediatric septic shock , still a serious public health problem despite today's potent antibiotics and pediatric intensive care units.

27 Jul 2007

Flesh-eating bacteria on Texas beach leaves man fighting for his life

Steve Gilpatrick went swimming while on holiday in early July at Crystal Beach, when the ulcer had apparently almost healed; his leg became infected three days later and he developed a high fever and was taken to hospital.

21 Jul 2007

Tiny turtle responsible for baby's death

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States has linked the death of a four-week-old baby in Florida earlier this year to a pet turtle.

9 Jul 2007

Early identification and aggressive treatment of sepsis has the potential to improve outcomes

More than 215,000 people will die of sepsis in the United States each year, more than 750,000 will require hospital treatment, and the costs will be nearly $17 billion.

17 May 2007

Effect of hydrocortisone treatment modality on glycemic control in patients with septic shock

Changing how critically ill patients are treated with hydrocortisone could reduce hyperglycemia.

18 Feb 2007

New understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments

Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer.

5 Feb 2007

New drug to treat kidney failure during septic shock

Research from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute and the Austin Hospital has resulted in a drug to treat kidney failure during septic shock, which will be trialled at the Austin Hospital from mid-2007.

29 Jan 2007

Antibiotic doses could be reduced by up to 50 times using new approach

Steven Hagens, previously at the University of Vienna, told Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI, that certain bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects bacteria, can boost the effectiveness of antibiotics gentamicin, gramacidin or tetracycline.

29 Jan 2007

New treatment for septic shock

A potential new treatment for septic shock and other inflammatory diseases has been discovered by Monash Institute researchers.

14 Aug 2006

Periodic 'deep inflation' helps prevent ventilator-induced lung injury

Ventilation therapy burst into the public consciousness more than 60 years ago with the "iron lung" and the polio epidemic.

26 Jul 2006

Method by which Caspase-12 shuts down the body's immune system discovered

Caspase-12 is a molecule with a death-wish. Found only in people of African descent, this protein shuts down our body's immune system, opening the door to potentially lethal infections. In a groundbreaking new study published in the prestigious journal Nature this week, the team that first discovered the role of caspase-12 in humans has now uncovered the mechanism by which it sabotages us, allowing researchers to develop methods to counter its damaging effects.

28 Apr 2006

Caspase-12 antagonists could potentially be useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders

According to the new study, the presence of caspase-12, which appears to modulate inflammation and innate immunity in humans, increases the body's "vulnerability to bacterial infection and septic shock" while a deficiency confers strong resistance to sepsis. This new discovery suggests that caspase-12 antagonists could be a potentially useful in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory and immune disorders.

26 Apr 2006

Kidney treatments may be improved with new understanding of cell death mechanism

Finding how two proteins conspire to get kidney cells to self-destruct when oxygen supplies are low may one day improve dismal mortality rates for ischemic renal failure, researchers say.

23 Apr 2006