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Assessing the Procalcitonin-guidance and Molecular-guided Diagnosis for Therapy of Severe Infections (the MODIFY Trial)

A Randomized Prospective Clinical Trial to Assess Procalcitonin-guidance and Molecular-guided Diagnosis as Mainstay for Therapy of Severe Infections (the MODIFY Trial)

Status
Active, not recruiting
Phases
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05909683
Acronym
MODIFY
Enrollment
190
Registered
2023-06-18
Start date
2023-09-19
Completion date
2026-04-15
Last updated
2026-01-16

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Sepsis

Keywords

Severe infections, Antibiotics, Procalcitonin, Blood Culture Identification 2 Panel (BCID2), Reveal Rapid AST system

Brief summary

MODIFY is a randomized, open-labeled, and prospective study that will be conducted in multiple Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and departments of Internal Medicine across Greece. It aims to change the traditional approach for the management of severe infections by integrating the results of BCID2, Reveal Rapid AST, and PCT, to improve patients' outcomes. Early and precise identification of the underlying causative pathogen along with the fast acquisition of the antimicrobial sensitivity results may positively impact the uncontrolled antimicrobial prescription.

Detailed description

Early administration of antimicrobials remains the mainstay of treatment of severe infections. The time until start of antimicrobials is so crucial that every hour of delay impacts considerably on mortality. In everyday clinical practice even when antimicrobials are administered early, it is impossible to know whether they are appropriate or not because cultures of specimens collected from the patient require at least 48 to 72 hours to provide some information about the type of pathogen and the antimicrobial susceptibilities. BioFire ® FilmArray ® possesses four Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared panels of molecular diagnosis, capable of detecting multiple targets in less than an hour of sample handling. Among them, Blood Culture Identification 2 Panel (BCID2) covers 43 targets. BCID2 provides information on the genes of resistance to antibiotics the microorganisms carry. BCID2 combined with fast AST can, however, introduce revolutionary changes in minimizing the time until the appropriate antimicrobial is prescribed. The concept of Reveal is to provide AST for a full panel of antibiotics if one Gram-negative isolate is identified in the blood flask. Evaluation of the appropriateness of the administered therapy and decision about discontinuation or de-escalation of antimicrobials, is based on the use of biomarkers and mainly procalcitonin (PCT).

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TESTChange of antimicrobials based on BCID2 and Reveal Rapid AST tests. Stop of antimicrobials based on PCT results.

After the patient's blood flask is flagged positive for bloodstream infection, the blood sample will be assessed in the BCID2 diagnostic test in order to identify the underlying pathogens the patient is infected with. After the identification, and in the presence of gram-negative bacteria, the sample will be assessed in the Reveal Rapid AST test to provide information about which antimicrobials the specific pathogens are sensitive to. When both the identification of the pathogen and the sensitivities are available, the central laboratory will inform the attending physicians, who are obliged to change the standard of care antimicrobial therapy administered based on the rule in Box1 of the protocol. Finally, based on the results of the procalcitonin (PCT) on the first day by day 5 when PCT value is less than 80% of the initial value or it remains below 0.5 ng/ml, the attending physicians should discontinue the antimicrobial therapy.

OTHERStandard of Care

Standard of care practices of the specific study site. Antimicrobials will be administered based on the attending physicians' critical opinion, and discontinuation will be done based on the standard procedures of the study site.

Sponsors

Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

According to protocol study intervention is not study drug administration; intervention includes two steps: modification of antibiotics administered; duration of antibiotic treatment. SOC patients will receive antibiotics according to standard practice of the attending physicians. MODIFY strategy group patients will start antibiotics according to standard practice. They will be informed after randomization about the results of BCID2, Reveal Rapid AST and PCT. Physicians and investigators receiving this information are obliged to change the empirically prescribed antibiotics (escalate, de- escalate or stop) aiming to improve patient outcomes. Exceptions to overrule this algorithm will be accepted for medically unstable patients.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Male or female * For women of child-bearing potential, willingness to avoid pregnancy during the study and agreement to notify investigator if pregnancy occurs. * Age more than or equal to 18 years * Patients who have completed their participation in another study for more than 30 days can be included in this study. * Written informed consent provided by the patient or by their legal representative in case of patients unable to consent due to sepsis onset affecting their mental capacity. * Sepsis defined by the Sepsis-3 definition; this is defined separately for community-acquired sepsis and for hospital-acquired sepsis. Community-acquired sepsis is defined as any SOFA score 2 points or more for patients admitted in hospital emergencies with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), community-acquired acute pyelonephritis (AP) or community-acquired primary bacteremia (BSI). CAP, AP and BSI are considered community-acquired for patients who have no history of hospitalization lasting more than 2 days the last 90 days or who are not under hemodialysis or who are not residents of long-term care facilities. Hospital-acquired sepsis is defined as any SOFA score increase by 2 points or more from the admission SOFA score for patients with onset of hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), acute pyelonephritis (AP) or primary bacteremia (BSI) at least 48 hours after hospital admission. For patients with history of hospitalization lasting more than 2 days the last 90 days or who are under hemodialysis or who are residents of long-term care facilities and are admitted to hospital with HAP, VAP, AP and BSI the definition of hospital-acquired sepsis applies. In this case, the baseline SOFA score is considered as the known SOFA score before infection onset. * Presence of one of the following infections: community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), acute pyelonephritis (AP) and primary bacteremia (BSI). * Positive blood culture

Exclusion criteria

* Failure to obtain written consent to participate * Previous enrollment in this study within the past 90 days. Patients enrolled in another study will not be accepted. * Patients in pregnancy or breastfeeding. Women of child-bearing potential will be screened by a urine pregnancy test before inclusion in the study * Patients receiving prolonged antibiotic therapies (e.g. endocarditis, implantable device-associated infection, cerebral/hepatic abscess, osteomyelitis, meningitis) * Patients with severe infections due to viruses or parasites (e.g. Dengue, Toxoplasma gondii, Plasmodium spp.) * Patients with infection due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. * Patients suffering from cystic fibrosis * Severely immunocompromised patients such as a) patients with infection by the human immunodeficiency virus and with a CD4 count of less than 200 cells/mm3; b) neutropenic patients with less than 500 neutrophils/mm3; and c) patients with solid organ transplantation.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
The number of days under treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the group receiving the MODIFY strategy compared to patients treated by standard of care.Through study completion, an average of 2 yearsThe number of days under treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the group receiving the MODIFY strategy compared to patients treated by standard of care.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Time to first change of antimicrobial modificationThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsTime to first change of antimicrobial modification
Time to the first sterile blood cultureThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsTime to the first sterile blood culture
The number of patients in whom no changes in administered antibiotics will apply.Through study completion, an average of 2 yearsThe number of patients in whom no changes in administered antibiotics will apply.
At least 2-point decrease of baseline SOFA (Sequential organ failure assessment) score by day 7Through study completion, an average of 2 yearsAt least 2-point decrease of baseline SOFA (Sequential organ failure assessment) score by day 7. SOFA ranges between 0-24 and the higher the score, the worst the outocome of the patient.
28-day mortalityThrough study completion, an average of 2 years28-day mortality
90-day mortalityThrough study completion, an average of 2 years90-day mortality
Incidence of laboratory documented Clostrioides difficile infectionThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsIncidence of laboratory documented Clostrioides difficile infection
Length of hospital stayThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsLength of hospital stay
Cost of hospitalizationThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsCost of hospitalization
Time to escalation of antibioticsThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsTime to escalation of antibiotics
Time to de-escalation of antibioticsThrough study completion, an average of 2 yearsTime to de-escalation of antibiotics

Countries

Greece

Contacts

STUDY_CHAIREvangelos Giamarellos-Bourboulis, MD,PhD

Hellenic Institute for the Study of Sepsis

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026