Projects
Pharmacometric models for improved therapeutic drug monitoring of ceftriaxone, posaconazole and infliximab KU Leuven
In clinical drug development, “one dose fits all” is a key objective. However, variability in exposure (E) and response (R) is common and can result in suboptimal treatment of individual patients. To hit a predefined E/R target in each patient, “therapeutic drug monitoring” or TDM is often implemented. TDM helps improving attainment of a desired E/R target by guiding individualised drug dosing based upon drug concentrations. “Population ...
Toward facilitating recovery of critically ill patients by metabolic interventions and exploiting fasting -induced repair pathways: RECOVER-FAST KU Leuven
My research has focused on glucose control in ICU and mechanisms of organ protection by fasting. In the next 5 years, I will further elucidate the ideal glucose target in critically ill patients, and translate the mechanistic insights of protection by fasting into a clinically applicable, fasting-mimicking intervention. A first part focuses on the ideal glucose target in adult critically ill patients, which is highly debated, especially since ...
Joint pharmacometrics modeling of antimicrobial exposure, biomarkers, and clinical outcome assessments to improve the in silico exploration of dose optimization strategies in critically ill patients KU Leuven
Dosage regimens of antimicrobial drugs predominantly stem from in vitro and animal studies. Critically ill patients display altered, highly variable drug concentration-time profiles in their bodies (i.e., pharmacokinetics; PK). Therefore, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) has been used to individualize dosing in this vulnerable patient group. TDM guides dosing based on drug concentration measurements, thereby maximizing the chance to meet ...
Mechanical Circulatory Support in critically ill cardiogenic shock patients: a complex process of Thrombosis and Hemostasis. KU Leuven
The success of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) has greatly
increased due to improved oxygenators, better design of the heart
pumps and certainly due to better medical management.
Nevertheless mortality of patients undergoing MCS remains high
(50%) and complications are frequent. Paradoxically, the most
common complications are both (life-threatening) bleeding (40-50%)
ánd thrombosis as recently confirmed in ...
Intensive care extended beyond the “adaptive” time window: from impact on the adrenocortical ‘fight or flight’ response towards a possible new treatment KU Leuven
The hormone cortisol is an essential component of the ‘fight or flight’ response to illness and trauma. Normally, when the brain senses a stressful event, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated, and the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which stimulates the anterior pituitary to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which drives cortisol synthesis and secretion from the adrenal cortex. Cortisol ...
From bed to bench and back in viral-associated pulmonary aspergillosis: generation of pathophysiological insight and translation into host-based biomarkers KU Leuven
Influenza- and COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis (IAPA/CAPA) are fungal superinfections in critically ill patients with influenza or COVID-19 pneumonia. These infections are both hard to diagnose and hard to treat, resulting in high morbidity and mortality in affected patients. Currently, pathophysiological insights are scarce, and no host-based biomarkers for viral-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (VAPA) patients are available in ...
STRAtified Dosing based on Augmented renal clearance for CEFtriaxone in patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia: STRADA-CEF trial. KU Leuven
This project aims to increase the clinical outcome and cost-effectiveness of ceftriaxone therapy in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP).
This will be accomplished by using a simple dose optimization strategy, being dose stratification from the standard-of-care 2g once daily (i.e., q24h) to 2g q12h in patients with increased renal function
(i.e., augmented renal clearance ...
HEROI2C: Hybrid machinE leaRning for Improved Infection management in Critically ill patients Ghent University
Severe infections, common in the ICU, are associated with significant morbidity and mortality Infection management is challenging here due to uncertainties in antibiotic dosing, and increased antibiotic resistance in this population Clinicians are today left with inadequate solutions to appropriately dose many of our antibiotics, and have little guidance on who is at risk of nosocomial infections or infections caused by multidrug resistant ...
TGC_FAST: The effectiveness of algorithm-guided tight blood glucose control within normal fasting ranges with insulin in adult critically ill patients. KU Leuven
The goal is to lead to worldwide safe, scientifically based and cost-effective care for critically ill patients by resolving the ongoing controversy regarding two treatment strategies used.