This Core will provide clinical care for the patients enrolled in the SCOR Project, will collect biological samples from the patients and prepare the samples for transport to the SCOR Project laboratories. The Core will be centered in the LDS Hospital Shock/Trauma/Intermountain Respiratory ICU and will make use of the existing facility, computerized clinical data base, and personnel. The Core will categorize all patients entering the STIRICU by risk factor for ARDS and severity of ARDS, and will follow the patient's clinical course while in the ICU. In those patients with a risk for ARDS and those with ARDS, serial biological samples will be collected for use in the SCOR project laboratories to investigate the time course of inflammatory mediator and endothelial cell function events. Information related to the cause and severity of ARDS will be utilized in associating clinical events with inflammatory with inflammatory mediator concentrations and endothelial cell function abnormalities. In addition, patients from the Medical ICUs at the University of Utah Hospital and Salt Lake VA Hospital will be screened for ARDS and enrolled in Core B for serial sample collections. The long range goal is to make use of information developed in the SCOR Project to develop clinical therapies of potential value in the reduction of risk of development of ARDS and the mortality of ARDS. The highly structured environment in the STIRICU is ideal for the conduct of these therapeutic trials. There will be extensive communication between the Core responsible investigator and the other investigators to help facilitate the accomplishment of project goals.
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