ASICS v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Alternative Substrates in the Critically Ill Subject
IRAS ID
266031
Contact name
Zudin A Puthucheary
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Barts Health NHS Trust/QMUL
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Patients on Intensive Care Units (ICU) commonly suffer rapid early muscle
loss (averaging 20% of muscle in the first 10 days) - which increases time in
ICU and hospital. Of the 135,000 UK individuals surviving to go home each
year, many remain weak: half can’t return to work within a year, and a third
need help with basic daily activities (e.g. using the toilet). Patients think that these problems should be prevented.
One reason for their muscle loss seems to be that ICU patients can’t use
carbohydrates or some types of fat to produce energy needed to keep muscle.
Ketones are chemicals naturally-produced in the body that help cells produce
energy more efficiently. Giving patients a special feed containing a type of fat
which produces ketones may reduce muscle loss so improving outcomes. A
ketone-producing diet is safely and routinely used by athletes and some
hospital patients, including children.
We aim to see whether giving ICU patients feed to help the body make
ketones is safe and acceptable.
Our method will be to give adult ICU patient volunteers at two hospitals a
special feed which causes the body to make ketones. We will see how many
patients join and stay in the study; how quickly ketones are made; and how
easily we can gather information from medical records and test results to
show how safe and acceptable the feed is for these patients.
Patients and carers helped us design this study, and will review and help
report results. They will help refine the final study design.
Results will be shared through publication in high-quality journals and
presentation at conferences/patient support groups.
This work should lead to a future trial to see if this feed could help ICU
patients keep muscle, and increase their activity levels and well-being after
hospital discharge.REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
19/WA/0209
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion