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CompletedNCT01867905Updated Apr 16, 2019

Antibiotic Administration and Blood Culture Positivity in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock

An observational study in Severe Sepsis, Septic Shock and Bacteremia, sponsored by University of British Columbia. Completed at 7 sites in 2 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-04-16.

Sponsored by University of British Columbia · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
330
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Sepsis is a significant cause health care expenditure and carries an extremely high rate of morbidity and mortality if not treated appropriately. From 1979 to 2000, sepsis resulted in over 10 million admissions to hospital in the United States with a mortality rate of 17.9 to 27.8 percent. In Canada, it is estimated that the incidence of sepsis from 2008-2009 was 103.3 per 100,000 per year.

Advances in the multifaceted management of sepsis in recent years have resulted in improved clinical outcomes. However, the cornerstone of sepsis management relies on the prompt administration of appropriate antibiotics. Current clinical practice suggests that antibiotic administration can be delayed up to 45 minutes in order to obtain blood cultures, whose results have a profound impact on the type and duration of antimicrobial therapy. Unfortunately, this recommendation is based on very little evidence and the investigators have found that potential life-saving treatment is often delayed in order to abide by it. Furthermore, recent data suggest that mortality could be increased by approximately 5% by delaying antibiotic administration for that time period.

The investigators therefore wish to organize a prospective, multi-centre trial in order to identify the effect of antibiotic administration on blood culture positivity in patients presenting with severe sepsis or septic shock. Other objectives will be to elucidate which patient factors, including age, co-morbid conditions and clinical presentation, as well as antibiotic choice will affect blood culture results.

This study will be conducted in the emergency departments at St. Paul's Hospital (SPH), Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), Lion's Gate Hospital (LGH), Surrey Memorial Hospital, Montreal General Hospital (MGH), Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) and Maricopa Integrated Health System. Patients identified for the aforementioned conditions will be treated as per routine hospital protocol. If the patient is deemed eligible for the study, a second set of blood of blood cultures will subsequently be drawn ideally between 30 and 60 minutes after the administration of antibiotic therapy. Subject demographic data will be collected pertaining to age, comorbid immunocompromised conditions, vital signs, laboratory tests pertaining to end organ dysfunction, suspected source of sepsis, the type antibiotics administered and the timing of antimicrobial administration with respect to the second set of blood cultures taken.

Our hypothesis is that blood culture positivity in patients presenting with severe sepsis and septic shock will not be altered significantly by antibiotic therapy. If so, our study would strongly argue against delaying life-saving therapy and would thus greatly improve patient care in our local emergency rooms. If incorrect, our study would be the first to demonstrate the benefit of obtaining blood cultures before antibiotic therapy and would strengthen current recommendations.

02

Conditions studied

  • Severe Sepsis
  • Septic Shock
  • Bacteremia

Keywords

  • Severe sepsis
  • Septic shock
  • Bacteremia
  • Antibiotics
  • Blood culture positivity
03

In context

Sepsis

1,946 studies on the registry are indexed under Sepsis; 471 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 330 is above the median of 160 across 957 observational studies indexed under Sepsis.

Browse Sepsis studies →

Lead sponsor

University of British Columbia is the lead sponsor of 1,335 studies on the registry; 256 are open to participants now.

Of its 6 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 1 (17%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Adult patients (age > 18) who present to the emergency department with severe sepsis/septic shock .

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients greater than 18 years of age who present to the emergency department with the diagnosis of severe sepsis/septic shock.
  • This will include patients that have 2/4 systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria, a suspected infection and either a initial serum lactate > 4mmol/L or a initial systolic blood pressure \< 90 millimeters of mercury.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients in whom antibiotics have been administered >2 hours prior to assessment.
  • Patients with antibiotics in the community in the past 48 hours
  • Patients with known severe coagulopathy
05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
330 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No
Biospecimen retention
Samples with dna

Groups and cohorts

  • Severe sepsis and septic shock

    Patients who present in severe sepsis or septic shock will have blood cultures taken before and after antibiotic administration. The antibiotic choice will be determined by the emergency physician and the patients will be treated as per routine hospital protocol. No therapeutic interventions will be administered.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The effect of antibiotic administration on blood culture positivity in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock: a prospective multicenter observational trial.

    The primary outcome is the measure of blood culture positivity before and after antibiotic administration.

    Time frame: Four months

07

Study locations

7 sites
  • Maricopa Integrated Health Center
    Phoenix, Arizona 85008, United States
  • Lions Gate Hospital
    North Vancouver, British Columbia V7L 2L7, Canada
  • Surrey Memorial Hospital
    Surrey, British Columbia V3V 1Z2, Canada
  • Vancouver General Hospital
    Vancouver, British Columbia V5Z 1M9, Canada
  • Saint-Paul's Hospital
    Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 1Y6, Canada
  • Montreal General Hospital
    Montreal, Quebec H3G 1A4, Canada
  • Royal Victoria Hospital
    Montreal, Quebec H4A 3J1, Canada
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Paquette K, Sweet D, Stenstrom R, Stabler SN, Lawandi A, Akhter M, Davidson AC, Gavric M, Jinah R, Saeed Z, Demir K, Sangsari S, Huang K, Mahpour A, Shamatutu C, Caya C, Troquet JM, Clark G, Wong T, Yansouni CP, Cheng MP. Neither Blood Culture Positivity nor Time to Positivity Is Associated With Mortality Among Patients Presenting With Severe Manifestations of Sepsis: The FABLED Cohort Study. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Jun 17;8(7):ofab321. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab321. eCollection 2021 Jul. PubMed 34307728 ↗
  • Cheng MP, Stenstrom R, Paquette K, Stabler SN, Akhter M, Davidson AC, Gavric M, Lawandi A, Jinah R, Saeed Z, Demir K, Huang K, Mahpour A, Shamatutu C, Caya C, Troquet JM, Clark G, Yansouni CP, Sweet D; FABLED Investigators. Blood Culture Results Before and After Antimicrobial Administration in Patients With Severe Manifestations of Sepsis: A Diagnostic Study. Ann Intern Med. 2019 Oct 15;171(8):547-554. doi: 10.7326/M19-1696. Epub 2019 Sep 17. PubMed 31525774 ↗
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Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Mar 2014 to primary completion in Sep 2018, 54 months.

Of 408 non-industry observational studies under Sepsis, half reached primary completion within 30 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 12 and three quarters within 60. This study's 54 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 452 studies reached it within 29 months; a quarter within 12 and three quarters within 57.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
May 29, 2013
First posted
Jun 4, 2013
StartActual
Mar 1, 2014
Primary completionActual
Sep 5, 2018
CompletionActual
Apr 10, 2019
Last update
Apr 16, 2019
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 16, 2019, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01867905
Responsible party
Matthew Pellan Cheng (Medical Resident, University of British Columbia) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jun 4, 2013
Start date
Mar 1, 2014
Primary completion
Sep 5, 2018
Completion
Apr 10, 2019
Last update
Apr 16, 2019

Study contacts

David Sweet, M.D.
principal investigator · University of British Columbia

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2019. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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