Chest
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Assessment of the prognosis of coronary patients: performance and customization of generic severity indexes.
To assess the prognostic performance of general severity systems (APACHE II [acute physiology and chronic health evaluation], simplified acute physiology score [SAPS II], and mortality probability models [MPM II]) in coronary patients and to derive new customized indexes for coronary patients using a reduced number of variables. ⋯ Prognostic indexes developed for multidisciplinary patients show good performance when applied to patients with acute myocardial infarction, but customization can reduce the number of variables necessary to compute them without a loss of, and a possible improvement in, prognostic accuracy.
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Comparative Study
Post-ICU mechanical ventilation: treatment of 1,123 patients at a regional weaning center.
To update our database, reporting changes in the results of weaning attempts and profile of patients transferred to us after prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) in the ICU. ⋯ Patients are being transferred from the ICU to our RWC for attempted weaning sooner in their course of PMV. Although more severely ill on arrival than in past years, mortality is unchanged, more than half of the patients continue to be successfully weaned, and survival after RWC discharge is improved.
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Revisions in stage grouping of the TNM subsets (T=primary tumor, N=regional lymph nodes, M=distant metastasis) in the International System for Staging Lung Cancer have been adopted by the American Joint Committee on Cancer and the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer. These revisions were made to provide greater specificity for identifying patient groups with similar prognoses and treatment options with the least disruption of the present classification: T1N0M0, stage IA; T2N0M0, stage IB; T1N1M0, stage IIA; T2N1M0 and T3N0M0, stage IIB; and T3N1M0, T1N2M0, T2N2M0, T3N2M0, stage IIIA. The TNM subsets in stage IIIB-T4 any N M0, any T N3M0, and in stage IV-any T any N M1, remain the same. Analysis of a collected database representing all clinical, surgical-pathologic, and follow-up information for 5,319 patients treated for primary lung cancer confirmed the validity of the TNM and stage grouping classification schema.
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Increasing evidence indicates that routine preoperative diagnostic spirometry (pulmonary function tests [PFTs]) before elective abdominal surgery does not predict individual risk of postoperative pulmonary complications and is overutilized. This economic evaluation estimates potential savings from reduced use of preoperative PFTs. ⋯ Reduced use of PFTs before elective abdominal surgery could generate substantial savings. Current evidence indicates reduced use would not compromise patients' outcomes.