ASPIRE-ICU: Last Mile to Recruitment Completion

1763 subjects have been enrolled in the ASPIRE-ICU study to date. The study team expects to finish the recruitment period of 2000 subjects before the end of 2018. With a solid inclusion period last month, the end of study recruitment is in sight.

Steady enrollment

To improve the enrollment numbers in the final phase, the study team is encouraging and supporting sites to get as many subjects in the study as possible. There was a steady number of sites recruiting subjects in June. In the last month, on average 9 different sites enrolled at least 1 subject. At this stage emphasis will be put on the quality of data, cleaning the database, and locking of completed subjects.

Top enrollers of June:

• Amphia Breda Hospital, The Netherlands (8 inclusions)
• Tartu University Hospital, Estonia (6 inclusions)
• University Hospital Motol, Czech Republic (6 inclusions)

Reinforcements

After welcoming new study team members at UMC Utrecht, their roles have been restructured for better division of tasks, and clear points of contact for the sites. In the coming months the ASPIRE-ICU team will keep on stimulating the sites to recruit the final subjects and make efforts to ensure high quality of data is produced.

Predicting risk of infection during ICU stay

ASPIRE-ICU is a prospective, observational, multicenter, epidemiologic cohort study nested within routine surveillance among ICU patients in Europe. The study is aimed at the advanced understanding of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in Europe (ASPIRE) on Intensive Care Units.

The goal is to estimate the incidence of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa ICU pneumonia, especially ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Another goal is to assess its association with patient-related and contextual factors. For example comorbidities, colonization status, and relevant biomarkers. With this information, a risk prediction model will be developed to quantify the risk of acquiring S. aureus or P. aeruginosa pneumonia during ICU stay.