HEAT trial of antipyretics: Outcomes the same as for placebo

Acetaminophen for Fever in Critically Ill Patients with Suspected Infection

Young, Paul, Manoj Saxena, Rinaldo Bellomo, Ross Freebairn, Naomi Hammond, Frank van Haren, Mark Holliday et al. “Acetaminophen for Fever in Critically Ill Patients with Suspected Infection.” New England Journal of Medicine 373, no. 23 (2015): 2215-2224.

The long-awaited results of a large multi-center  trial of antipyretics have just been published. The HEAT study assigned 700 ICU patients with fever to IV acetaminophen or placebo and found no differences in the main outcomes of mortality rates or ICU free days. buy Lasix 40mg

Interestingly, those who got acetaminophen had a mean daily peak body temperature  only 0.25°C lower than the controls, and a lower mean daily average body temperature only 0.28°C lower. buy nexium 40mg

These findings are important for the special setting of the ICU where antibiotics and physiological support are routinely administered, their generalizability to other settings is limited. buy levaquin 750mg

The study cited previous research on the question of antipyretic effects in ICU patients, but made no mention of the evolutionary forces that shape the capacity for fever and its regulation.