A pilot multicenter randomized controlled trial on individualized blood pressure targets versus standard care among critically ill patients with shock

Background: Minimizing relative hypotension, or mean arterial pressure (MAP) deficit, by targeting patients’ own pre-illness MAP (individualized MAP) during vasopressor therapy is a potential strategy to improve outcomes among ICU patients with shock. We conducted a prospective, open label, parallel-group, pilot RCT to assess feasibility and safety of this intervention compared to standard care. Methods: Thirty-seven eligible patients, aged 40 years or older and receiving vasopressor support for shock, were randomly allocated to individualized MAP target (N = 17) or standard MAP target (N = 20) at two multidisciplinary ICUs in Australia and Ireland. Pre-specified endpoints were time-weighted average MAP-deficit (i.e., percentage difference between patients’ pre-illness MAP and achieved-MAP), percentage time spent with > 20% MAP-deficit, major adverse kidney events (MAKE-14), 14-day and 90-day all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular adverse events within 28 days of randomization. All comparisons of efficacy outcomes were exploratory. Results: The median MAP-deficit and percentage time with > 20% MAP-deficit with individualized MAP vs. standard MAP were 7% [interquartile range: 2–16] vs. 18% [9–23] (p = 0.048), and 8% [0–43] vs. 53% [14–75] (p = 0.03), respectively. MAKE-14 (2/17 (12%) vs. 4/20 (20%), p = 0.67), 14-day mortality (1/17 (6%) vs. 3/20 (15%), p = 0.61), 90-day mortality (2/17 (12%) vs. 4/20 (20%), p = 0.67) and cardiovascular adverse events were similar for both groups. Conclusions: This pilot RCT demonstrated that an individualized MAP target strategy was feasible to implement. No adverse safety signals were evident. These data and study procedures helped inform the design of a definitive RCT on the question of individualized MAP targets among critically ill patients with shock. Study registration: ACTRN12618000571279.