MUSCLE-ICU Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Acute muscle wasting in critical illness – an observational cohort study
IRAS ID
285418
Contact name
Brijesh Patel
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College Londong, Joint Research Compliance Office
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, days
Research summary
Admissions to intensive care units (ICU) in the UK is rising and is expected to continue owing to an ageing population and advances in treatment. Despite modernisation of services, long term physical restriction may persist for up to 5 years after critical illness and patients describe effects on physical function and quality of life. Muscle wasting and weakness is a leading the cause of limitation. We know that patients lose a lot of muscle while on an ICU and this contributes to the weakness. Muscle wasting is worse the sicker the patient is and the longer they stay on the ICU.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant number of ICU admissions and these patients often present with severe lung failure which means they are very sick and therefore at risk of muscle wasting and weakness after they recover. Currently, we don't know about how severely affected the muscles are in COVID-19 infection and when compared to a general ICU patient population.
We would like to study patients in the ICU with and without COVID-19 infection and the changes in muscle. We also want to know whether this differs when compared to a general population. The majority of patients on our ICU with severe lung failure will have a CT scan of their body on, and maybe during their admission. We would like to use these CT scans to measure different muscle groups of the body. We will initially look at whether the amount of muscle the patient has when they are admitted predicts their outcome and then if patients have multiple images taken, we would like to look at how quickly the muscles waste. We hope that the results will help us to identify at risk factors and understand how COVID-19 affects recovery after critical illness.
REC name
London - Fulham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/HRA/4756
Date of REC Opinion
17 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion