Plasma IL-3 Levels in Septic Patients

Human data from secondary analyses of patients participating in the VISS-trial (German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00000505). The VISS-trial was first approved by the local ethics committee (Trial-Code-Nr.: S058-2009) on June, 8th 2009, and was conducted in the surgical intensive care unit of the University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany. In total, 60 patients within the VISS-cohort, classified according to the criteria of the International Sepsis Definitions Conference, were enrolled with an onset of sepsis syndrome ≤ 24 hours. 1 patient from the published VISS-trial was excluded from the retrospective analysis because it was a significant outlier for plasma IL-3 levels. Written informed consents were obtained from the study patients or their legal designees. Patients were eligible for enrollment with an onset of sepsis syndrome within 24 h. The initial blood draw was also performed within this period. In contrast, patients with an onset of sepsis syndrome > 24 h were excluded from the study. The management of patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit included early goal-directed therapy (according to Rivers and colleagues), elimination of the septic focus, and broad-spectrum antibiotics. Patients with preexisting immunosuppressive diseases were excluded from the study. Blood samples (EDTA) as well as deep tracheal secretion samples from patients with septic shock were collected after the diagnosis of sepsis at sepsis onset (day 0), as well as 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days (VISS-trial) later. Afterwards, the virologic diagnostics were performed as previously described (61 (link)) and correlated to the clinical outcome. For the presented IL-3 measurements an amendment was submitted to the local ethics committee which was approved on November, 22th 2013. Human data from prospective measurements and analyses of patients participating in the SEPICER-trial. The SEPICER-trial was first approved by the local ethics committee on February 1, 2021 (UKER 459_20B), and was conducted in the surgical intensive care unit of the University Hospital of Erlangen, Germany. In total, 32 septic patients and 30 patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 PCR from oral swabs, oral fluid, or BALF were enrolled in this trial. Patients with low IL-3 are patients with a level of IL-3 under the mean (61.7 pg/ml) of all the patients. Patients with high IL-3 are patients with a level of IL-3 above the mean (61.7 pg/ml) of all the patients.