[Clinical effects of ulinastatin and thymosin alpha1 on immune-modulation in septic patients]

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Thymosin Alpha-1.

To analyze clinical effect of immuno-modulatory therapy with ulinastatin and thymosin alpha1 on patients with sepsis.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Two hundred and forty-two septic patients admitted to Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command intensive care unit (ICU) during 2004.10-2008.6 were included, and they were randomly divided into treatment group (128 cases) and control group (114 cases).

The patients in control group were given regular conventional treatment according to Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) in 2004, including early fluid resuscitation, antibiotic therapy, mechanical ventilation (MV) and blood purification.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Thymosin Alpha-1 group and the comparison group should start out alike.

The total treatment course was 10 days.

General demographics were observed, and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) scores were recorded.

Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-10 levels of peripheral blood were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Peripheral blood CD14(+) monocyte human leucocyte antigen DR (HLA-DR) expression, and ratio of helper T lymphocyte 1 (Th1) cytokines interferon-gamma (CD4(+)IFN-gammaww(+)), and Th2 cytokines (CD4(+) IL-4(+)) were assessed with flow cytometer.

Duration of infection and MV, length of ICU stay, rate of development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and mortality rate on 28 days were observed as end-point.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Glycoproteins, HLA-DR Antigens, Interferon-gamma, Interleukin-10, Interleukin-4, Interleukin-6 and Lipopolysaccharide Receptors.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Thymosin Alpha-1.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2009 (Zhongguo wei zhong bing ji jiu yi xue = Chinese critical care medicine = Zhongguo weizhongbing jijiuyixue), a journal based in China.

More context: the Thymosin Alpha-1 compound page, all human trials.