This study aims to enroll 172 patients with sepsis as defined by The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock criteria and sinus tachycardia (HR ≥ 95 bpm) despite a hemodynamic optimization. Patients will be randomly assigned to standard treatment group (GS) or ivabradine group (GI，standard treatment for sepsis plus enteral ivabradine). Patients in GI, with a heart rate control target of 70 to 94bpm, received ivabradine within the first 96 hours after randomization, and overall participants are followed up to 28 days. The secondary outcomes include the difference in SOFA score, incidence of serious adverse events, need for organ support, length of ICU stay, and 28-day overall mortality.~Despite recent studies are limited, this study will investigate whether HR control using ivabradine is safe, feasible, and effective, and further enhance the understanding of ivabradine in patients with sepsis.
Sepsis, a life-threatening syndrome, is often accompanied by tachycardia in spite of adequate volume resuscitation to correct hypovolemia and vasopressor medication to correct hypotension. Recently, relevant studies have shown that sustained tachycardia in sepsis was also related to high mortality, and appropriate control of heart rate could improve prognosis. Ivabradine reduces heart rate directly without a negative inotropic effect through inhibition of the If ionic current，which is absent from the traditional rate control drug (beta-blockers). This is a prospective, multicenter, randomized, open label study designed to compare ivabradine with placebo on the difference of heart rate and haemodynamics in patients with sepsis.