Early Exposure to Recommended Calorie Delivery in the Intensive Care Unit Is Associated With Increased Mortality in Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Background: The Intensive Nutrition in Acute Lung Injury: Clinical Trial (INTACT), designed to evaluate outcomes of calorie delivery from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) diagnosis through hospital discharge, was stopped due to higher mortality in the intervention group. Post hoc analysis found timing and dose of calorie delivery influenced mortality. The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to determine if early vs late calorie exposure changed the hazard of death among a larger sample of patients with ARDS. Methods: Adult patients who met the eligibility criteria for INTACT but did not participate were included. Daily calorie delivery was collected from the date INTACT eligibility was determined to extubation or death. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model the relationship between hazard of hospital death with average calorie exposure received over increasing study days and after day 7. Results: A total of 298 patients were included; overall mortality was 33%. Among patients who remained intubated at 1 week (n = 202), higher kcal/kg received from intensive care unit (ICU) days 1–6 increased hazards of subsequent death on days 7+ (hazard ratio [HR], 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.06); kcal/kg received after ICU day 7 decreased the hazards of death on day 7+ (HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.33–0.84). Conclusions: Higher calorie exposure between ICU days 1 and 7 was associated with higher subsequent hazard of mortality, and provision of high-calorie exposure after day 8 decreased the hazards of death.