Neuromuscular assessment of ICU acquired weakness in COVID-19 patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Novel neuromuscular assessment of ICU acquired weakness in COVID-19 patients: a sub study of PHOSP-COVID
IRAS ID
284989
Contact name
Angus M Hunter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Stirling
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Patients who are treated in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU) for more than 10 days have a very good chance of suffering from ICU acquired weakness (ICUAW). This weakness consists of reduced muscle strength and/or loss of sensation and can lead to long term poor health outcomes if not identified and treated with appropriate drugs and physiotherapy rehabilitation. For most ICU patients ICUAW is relatively rare as the average stay in ICU is only 1-2 days whereas during the current Coronavirus crisis average ICU stay is 22 days for COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the likely ICUAW prevalence of COVID-19 patients is going to be very high.
ICUAW diagnosis is done by examining the patient’s muscle strength and the speed at with electrical signals travel along certain nerves for activating muscle and senses. If there are impairments detected in nerves for both muscles and senses vs. just the muscles, then the health outcomes are far worse. However, the existing diagnostic techniques are providing only limited understanding of the condition. Therefore, using recently developed advanced techniques for measuring electrical impulses as they travel along the nerve and transmit onto the muscle to stimulate contraction, will greatly enhance understanding and characterisation of ICUAW and COVID-19 effects; this may well provide insights into potential beneficial therapies for these patient groups.
It is anticipated there will be increased ICUAW cases due to COVID-19 which affords us to the opportunity to used advanced techniques measuring electrical impulses alongside standard ICAW diagnostic techniques in this patient group. Therefore, we plan to assess severe COVID-19 patients of which 40 will have been treated in ICU and 40 treated in hospital but not ICU. We predict that electrical nerve velocity and electrical transmission rate from nerve onto muscle will be far worse in ICU vs. non ICU COVID-19 patients.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/YH/0281
Date of REC Opinion
15 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion