Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2022
Observational StudyEtiology, Treatments, and Outcomes of Patients With Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia in a Large U.S. Sample.
Compare the clinical practice and outcomes in severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP) patients to those in non-sCAP patients using guideline-defined criteria for sCAP. ⋯ sCAP patients had worse outcomes and twice the rate of culture positivity. S. aureus and S. pneumoniae were the most common organisms in respiratory and blood specimens, respectively. Although only recommended for sCAP patients, nearly all pneumonia patients received blood cultures, a quarter of nonsevere patients received sputum cultures, and treatment with broad-spectrum agents was widespread, indicating fertile ground for antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship programs.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2022
Validation of Respiratory Rate-Oxygenation Index in Patients With COVID-19-Related Respiratory Failure.
The respiratory rate-oxygenation (ROX) index is a fraction of oxygen saturation, Fio2, and respiratory rate that has been validated to predict receipt of invasive mechanical ventilation in patients receiving high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC). This study aimed to validate ROX in a cohort of inpatients with COVID-19-related respiratory failure. ⋯ The 12-hour ROX index has a positive predictive value (59.4%) using threshold of less than 3.85 for COVID-19 patients needing invasive mechanical ventilation. Our health system has embedded ROX into the electronic health record to prioritize rounding during periods of inpatient surge.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2022
Observational StudyEarly Clinical and Electrophysiological Brain Dysfunction Is Associated With ICU Outcomes in COVID-19 Critically Ill Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Prospective Bicentric Observational Study.
Describe the prevalence of acute cerebral dysfunction and assess the prognostic value of an early clinical and electroencephalography (EEG) assessment in ICU COVID-19 patients. ⋯ Clinical and neurophysiologic cerebral dysfunction is frequent in COVID-19 ARDS patients. Early severe EEG abnormalities with nonreactive and/or discontinuous background activity are associated with delayed awakening, delirium, and day-28 mortality.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2022
The Effect of Clusters of Double Triggering and Ineffective Efforts in Critically Ill Patients.
To characterize clusters of double triggering and ineffective inspiratory efforts throughout mechanical ventilation and investigate their associations with mortality and duration of ICU stay and mechanical ventilation. ⋯ Clusters of double triggering and ineffective inspiratory efforts are common. Although higher numbers of clusters might indicate better chances of survival, clusters with greater power and duration indicate a risk of worse clinical outcomes.
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Critical care medicine · Jul 2022
Lung Ultrasound and Electrical Impedance Tomography During Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury.
Lung damage during mechanical ventilation involves lung volume and alveolar water content, and lung ultrasound (LUS) and electrical impedance tomography changes are related to these variables. We investigated whether these techniques may detect any signal modification during the development of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). ⋯ Data suggest as follows. First, what determines the LUS score is the ratio between water and gas and not water alone. Therefore, caution is needed when an improvement of LUS score follows a variation of the lung gas content, as after a PEEP increase. Second, what determines the end-expiratory difference in lung impedance is the strain level that may disrupt the intercellular junction, therefore altering lung impedance. In addition, the increase in extravascular lung water during VILI development contributed to the observed decrease in impedance.