Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39774855›Full record

Trial reportIntensive care medicine2025

Sepsis subtypes and differential treatment response to vitamin C: biological sub-study of the LOVIT trial.

J Rynne, M Mosavie, Marie-Hélène Masse, Julie Ménard, Marie-Claude Battista, David M Maslove, Lorenzo Del Sorbo, Charles St-Arnaud, Frederick DAragon, Alison Fox-Robichaud and 5 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract readMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Intensive care medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03680274 (Lessening Organ Dysfunction With VITamin C), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03680274 phase3completednot on this map

Lessening Organ Dysfunction With VITamin C (LOVIT)

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversité de SherbrookeRan2018 to 2022Enrolled872ConditionsSepsis, Vitamin C, Intensive Care Unit, COVID-19ArmsVitamin C, Control
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
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  3. Observational
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Precision medicine in sepsis: reappraising glucocorticoid therapy through the lens of molecular endotypes.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2026
    Review
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

15 authors.

J RynneCentre for Inflammation Research, Institute For Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
M MosavieCentre for Inflammation Research, Institute For Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Marie-Hélène MasseCentre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Julie MénardCentre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Marie-Claude BattistaFaculté de Médecine et des Sciences de la Santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
David M MasloveDepartment of Critical Care Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
Lorenzo Del SorboInterdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
Charles St-ArnaudCentre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Frederick DAragonCentre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
Alison Fox-RobichaudDepartment of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Emmanuel CharbonneyCentre Hospitalier de L'Université de Montréal, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
Neill K J Adhikari *Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada. neill.adhikari@utoronto.ca.
François Lamontagne *Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier, Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada. francois.lamontagne@usherbrooke.ca.
M Shankar-Hari *Centre for Inflammation Research, Institute For Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. manu.shankar-hari@ed.ac.uk.ORCID 0000-0002-5338-2538
LOVIT Investigators, the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeWe hypothesised that the biological heterogeneity of sepsis may highlight sepsis subtypes with differences in response to intravenous vitamin C treatment in the Lessening Organ Dysfunction with VITamin C (LOVIT) trial. Our aims were to identify sepsis subtypes and to test whether sepsis subtypes have differences in treatment effect to vitamin C and describe putative biological effects of vitamin C treatment.

methodsWe measured biomarkers of inflammation, at baseline and at 7 days post-randomisation, in 457/863 (53.0%) of participants with plasma samples in the LOVIT trial. We used agglomerative hierarchical clustering on log

resultsOur cohort included 233/429 (54.3%) allocated to vitamin C and 224/434 (51.6%) allocated to placebo. A three-subtype model best explained the variance in our data. Subtype-2 had the highest, and subtype-3 had the lowest levels of inflammatory response. In paired longitudinal samples, vitamin C did not have discernible anti-inflammatory effects, with anti-inflammatory effects related to time since randomisation and concomitant hydrocortisone treatment. The treatment effect estimates (OR (95% CI)) for subtype-1, subtype-2 and subtype-3 were 1.04 (0.63-1.73), 1.33 (0.53-3.36) and 1.95 (0.85-4.49), respectively (test of heterogeneity p = 0.002).

conclusionWe report three sepsis subtypes based on inflammatory response profile. No subtype benefitted from vitamin C treatment in the LOVIT trial, with heterogeneity of treatment effect in the magnitude of harm.

trial registrationFunded by the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation; LOVIT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03680274.

Indexed as

Ascorbic AcidSepsisAgedBiomarkersFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedTreatment OutcomeVitaminsAscorbic AcidBiomarkersVitaminsAscorbic acidCluster analysisCytokinesPrecision medicineSepsisSubphenotypeSubtype

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.