In his first project, he is investigating the effectiveness and safety of microcirculation-guided resuscitation in shock, while in his second project, he is creating a protocol for a randomized controlled trial to assess the effect of hemadsorption on vascular integrity in septic shock. Although he is only in his first year as a Ph.D. student, his publications are expected to be completed soon. Tamás Tóth was honored with the Excellent Student Award by the Centre for Translational Medicine.
Dr. Tóth has been working as an intensive care and anesthesiology specialist at Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Hospital for six years, and he joined the CTM training program this academic year. “I had been thinking about pursuing a Ph.D. for years, and I chose this program because I saw how well-organized, structured, and efficient it was. I also knew that Prof. Zsolt Molnár, whose reputation served as a strong professional guarantee for me, participates in the program as a group leader and supervisor. He became my supervisor, sharing the role with Dr. László Zubek.”
Dr. Tóth has achieved excellent results in his first research project, and his findings are expected to be published shortly. In this study, he compared a therapy based on microcirculation with the standard therapy used to treat shock. “In shock, patients become hemodynamically unstable, which means that their blood pressure is barely measurable, their circulation collapses, and their cardiorespiratory function starts to fail. In such cases, the most difficult task is determining the best treatment for the patients. We can administer blood pressure raising medications and fluid therapy to help improve blood circulation, but we never know for sure when this kind of support is sufficient and when it might cause harm. Deciding on this question is always a subject of debate, even at conferences. We are also aware that blood pressure normalization does not guarantee that capillary circulation has been restored and that oxygen and glucose are reaching the cells via blood. For this reason, it is important to monitor not only blood pressure but also microcirculation. Treatment should also be based on microcirculation.” Dr. Tóth points out that microcirculation can be measured and evaluated using a variety of tools and methods. The simplest and quickest method is to press the patient’s fingernail with a finger and then release it. The time, it takes for the skin to regain its original color is the capillary refill time; if it takes more than 3 seconds, microcirculation is likely impaired.
In his second project, Dr. Tóth prepared a protocol for a randomized controlled trial to assess the effect of hemadsorption on vascular integrity in septic shock. In this technique, a sorbent is placed in direct contact with blood in an extracorporeal circuit and it can remove inflammatory mediators from the blood. “This project is in an advanced stage. I approached Professor Molnár with an idea for it back in 2024. He suggested that I should go ahead and start planning the project and join the CTM training program in 2025. That’s why we’ve been able to get this point so quickly. We are currently awaiting ethical approval for our clinical trial. Once we receive that, we’ll be able to publish the protocol for the randomized controlled trial.”
(Szabó Emese)