Plos One
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Sepsis is a global healthcare challenge and reliable tools are needed to identify patients and stratify their risk. Here we compare the prognostic accuracy of the sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA), quick SOFA (qSOFA), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and national early warning system (NEWS) scores for hospital mortality and other outcomes amongst patients with suspected infection at an academic public hospital. ⋯ Multivariate prediction scores, such as SOFA and NEWS, had greater prognostic accuracy than qSOFA or SIRS for hospital mortality, ICU transfer, and ICU length of stay. Complex sepsis scores may offer enhanced prognostic performance as compared to simple sepsis scores in inpatient hospital settings where more complex scores can be readily calculated.
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Clinical Trial Observational Study
The prognostic value of neurofilament levels in patients with sepsis-associated encephalopathy - A prospective, pilot observational study.
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) contributes to mortality and neurocognitive impairment of sepsis patients. Neurofilament (Nf) light (NfL) and heavy (NfH) chain levels as biomarkers for neuroaxonal injury were not evaluated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of patients with sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) before. We conducted a prospective, pilot observational study including 20 patients with septic shock and five patients without sepsis serving as controls. ⋯ High levels of CSF Nf were measured in SAE patients. CSF NfL levels were higher in non-survivors (p = 0.012) compared with survivors and correlated with days until death (R = -0.932, p<0.0001) and functional outcome after 100 days (R = -0.749, p<0.0001). The present study showed for the first time that Nf levels provide complementary prognostic information in SAE patients indicating a higher chance of death and poorer functional/cognitive outcome in survivors.
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Identifying people at risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is a cornerstone of preventative cardiology. Risk prediction models currently recommended by clinical guidelines are typically based on a limited number of predictors with sub-optimal performance across all patient groups. Data-driven techniques based on machine learning (ML) might improve the performance of risk predictions by agnostically discovering novel risk predictors and learning the complex interactions between them. We tested (1) whether ML techniques based on a state-of-the-art automated ML framework (AutoPrognosis) could improve CVD risk prediction compared to traditional approaches, and (2) whether considering non-traditional variables could increase the accuracy of CVD risk predictions. ⋯ Our AutoPrognosis model improves the accuracy of CVD risk prediction in the UK Biobank population. This approach performs well in traditionally poorly served patient subgroups. Additionally, AutoPrognosis uncovered novel predictors for CVD disease that may now be tested in prospective studies. We found that the "information gain" achieved by considering more risk factors in the predictive model was significantly higher than the "modeling gain" achieved by adopting complex predictive models.
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Comparative Study
The setting of the rising sun? A recent comparative history of life expectancy trends in Japan and Australia.
Adult male and female mortality declines in Japan have been slower than in most high-income countries since the early 1990s. This study compares Japan's recent life expectancy trends with the more favourable trends in Australia, measures the contribution of age groups and causes of death to differences in these trends, and places the findings in the context of the countries' risk factor transitions. ⋯ The considerable gains in Australian male life expectancy from declining non-communicable disease mortality are attributable to a range of risk factors, including declining smoking prevalence due to strong public health interventions. A recent reversal in life expectancy trends could continue because Japan has greater scope for further falls in smoking and far lower levels of obesity. Japan's substantial female life expectancy advantage however could diminish in future because it is primarily due to lower mortality at old ages.
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High-quality chest compressions are imperative for Cardio-Pulmonary-Resuscitation (CPR). International CPR guidelines advocate, that chest compressions should not be interrupted for ventilation once a patient's trachea is intubated or a supraglottic-airway-device positioned. Supraglottic-airway-devices offer limited protection against pulmonary aspiration. Simultaneous chest compressions and positive pressure ventilation both increase intrathoracic pressure and potentially enhances the risk of pulmonary aspiration. The hypothesis was, that regurgitation and pulmonary aspiration is more common during continuous versus interrupted chest compressions in human cadavers ventilated with a laryngeal tube airway. ⋯ Our pilot study indicate, that incidence of pulmonary aspiration is generally high in patients undergoing CPR when a laryngeal tube is used for ventilation. Our study was not powered to identify potentially important differences in regurgitation or aspiration between ongoing vs. interrupted chest compression. Our results nonetheless suggest that interrupted chest compressions might better protect against pulmonary aspiration when a laryngeal tube is used for ventilation.