Internal and emergency medicine
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High-Dependency care Units (HDUs) have been introduced worldwide as intermediate wards between Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and general wards. Performing a comparative assessment of the quality of care in HDU is challenging because there are no uniform standards and heterogeneity among centers is wide. The Fenice network promoted a prospective cohort study to assess the quality of care provided by HDUs in Italy. ⋯ The expertise of HDUs in managing complex and fragile patients is supported by both the available equipment and the characteristics of admitted patients. The limited proportion of patients transferred to ICUs supports the hypothesis of preventing of ICU admissions. The heterogeneity of HDU admissions requires further research to define meaningful patients' outcomes to be used by quality-of-care assessment programs.
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Metabolic associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the most common liver condition. It is associated with increased liver-related morbidity and mortality, and also with high risk of cardiovascular events (CVD), representing itself an independent risk factor for it. This makes MASLD a presentation of high interest for internal medicine, also because of its association with metabolic syndrome (MetS). ⋯ FHRs was similar in controls and low-fibrosis group and significantly higher in high-fibrosis patients, cirrhosis, and HCC, increasing among classes. At a multivariable regression, FHRs was associated with liver disease severity and diabetes. 38.2% of patients had altered EndoPAT, resembling ED. Patients with high FHRs (> 40%) and ED had different metabolomics compared to those without ED. Our study reveals that a deep, non-invasive characterization of MASLD patients through precision medicine approaches (untargeted metabolomics, SNPs, ED assessment) was able to show a peculiar pattern in MASLD patients with increased CVD risk, mostly correlated with liver disease severity.
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Non-conveyance refers to the practice of treating a patient on-site without transporting them to a medical facility. It may decrease unnecessary hospital transfers and improve patient satisfaction. Nonetheless, ensuring patient safety remains paramount. ⋯ Less than one in four non-conveyed patients were admitted within 48 h. Despite the low crude mortality in this study, an increased likelihood of mortality was found within the non-conveyed population. However, additional investigation is warranted in future research.
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We evaluated the prevalence of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) failure among patients with COVID-19-related pneumonia, managed in the ordinary ward and in the HDU/ICU and we tested the prognostic role of the HACOR score in those different settings. This is a retrospective study, conducted in the University-Hospital Careggi. We included all subjects with COVID-19 and ARF requiring NIV between March 2020 and May 2021, respectively managed in the ordinary ward (G1) and in the critical care setting (G2). ⋯ In G1, compared to those with successful NIV, patients who underwent ETI, had a higher HACOR since the baseline evaluation (T0: 6 [5-6] vs 5 [3-6]; T1: 6 [5-6] vs 5 [3-6], all p < 0.05). An HACOR score > 5 was associated with an increased prevalence of ETI independent to an advanced age and a SOFA score > 5 both in G1 (T1: RR 4.87, 95% CI 1.462-16.275; T5: 3.630, 95% CI 0.979-13.462) and G2 (T0: 1.76, 95% CI 0.906-3.422; T1: 3.38, 95% CI 1.386-8.265). Among patients with COVID-related-ARF, NIV could be managed in the ordinary ward in a consistent proportion of patients and, among them, an HACOR score > 5 was independently associated with increased NIV failure from the earliest evaluations.