Crit Care Resusc
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Serum creatinine and total protein are routinely measured biochemical parameters used in clinical medicine. An abnormal result caused by interference with the assay does not accurately reflect a patient's clinical state and therefore risks misleading clinicians. ⋯ The blood collection was contaminated with intravenous fluid and the patient was receiving piperacillin/tazobactam. Additional laboratory studies demonstrated piperacillin/tazobactam was the cause of the false positive results and the elevation in both serum creatinine and protein level was dependent on the concentration of antibiotic present.
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Objective: Non-invasive thermometers are widely used in both clinical practice and trials to estimate core temperature. We aimed to investigate their accuracy and precision in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Study design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. ⋯ Risk of bias for the index test was unclear, mostly because of no device calibration or control for confounders. Conclusions: Compared with the gold standard of intravascular temperature measurement, non-invasive peripheral thermometers have low accuracy. This makes their clinical and trial-related use in ICU patients unreliable and potentially misleading.