B·R·A·H·M·S GmbH

Emergency departments (ED) are becoming increasingly over-crowded, with patients facing prolonged waiting times. Therefore, a safe and rapid assessment that identifies patients with low severity that could be treated as outpatients is essential for improving the workflow within the ED.
The rationale of this IDEAL+ study is to safely decrease the number of hospital admissions through identification of low risk patients with the biomarker MR-proADM. This will has already been tested in the IDEAL - pilot study and results should be confirmed with this IDEAL+ study.

Trials comparing PCT-guided antibiotic algorithms to standard management show a significant reduction in antibiotic exposure without an increase in mortality or treatment failure. Despite this strong evidence from multiple studies a recent prospective multicentric interventional trial in the US fell short of demonstrating antibiotic reductions by PCT-guided antibiotic management. Amongst other limitations the authors of that study concluded that successful implementation of PCT may require closer educational oversight. As such, this study will compare effectiveness and safety of antibiotic prescription guided by a PCT-algorithm via a Stewardship Team over standard guidelines in hospitalized adult patients with suspected or confirmed LRTI (including sepsis with respiratory focus).

Gastroentero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) are a heterogenous group of neoplasms that arise from enterochromaffin cells of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and pancreas. They account for 50-70% of all incident NETs. Due to the lack of symptoms in the early stage of disease and the frequency of nonspecific GI symptoms, GEP-NETs are difficult to diagnose.
Identification of effective biomarkers (such as Chromogranin A) to improve GEP-NET diagnosis, as well as to assess treatment efficacy, relapse and prognosis, is important for improving outcomes for patients with GEP-NETs.
The purpose of this study is to validate the performance of Brahms (BRAHMS) Chromogranin A II Kryptor (KRYPTOR) assay to monitor the course of disease in patients with well-defined GEP-NETs.