Therapeutics and clinical risk management
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Ther Clin Risk Manag · Jan 2015
ReviewPulmonary hypertension: diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a hemodynamic and pathophysiologic state that can be found in multiple conditions with associated symptoms of dyspnea, decreased exercise tolerance, and progression to right heart failure. The World Health Organization has classified PH into five groups. The first group is pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which can be idiopathic, heritable, due to drugs and toxins, or associated with conditions such as connective tissue diseases, congenital heart disease, portal hypertension, and others. ⋯ The most challenging PH diagnosis is in a case that does not fit one group of PH, but meets criteria that overlap between several groups. This also makes the treatment challenging because each group of PH is managed differently. This review provides an overview of the five groups of PH and discusses the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges of each.
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Infants admitted to health-care centers with acute bronchiolitis are frequently monitored with a pulse oximeter, a noninvasive method commonly used for measuring oxygen saturation. The decision to hospitalize children with bronchiolitis has been largely influenced by pulse oximetry, despite its questionable diagnostic value in delineating the severity of the illness. Many health-care providers lack the appropriate clinical fundamentals and limitations of pulse oximetry. ⋯ The aim of this paper is to provide the current evidence on the role of pulse oximetry in bronchiolitis. We discuss the history, fundamentals of operation, and limitations of the apparatus. A search of the Google Scholar, Embase, Medline, and PubMed databases was carried out for published articles covering the use of pulse oximetry in bronchiolitis.
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Ther Clin Risk Manag · Jan 2015
Fluid accumulation threshold measured by acute body weight change after admission in general surgical intensive care units: how much should be concerning?
The objective of this study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01351506) was to identify the threshold level of fluid accumulation measured by acute body weight (BW) change during the first week in a general surgical intensive care unit (ICU), which is associated with ICU mortality and other adverse outcomes. ⋯ Fluid accumulation, measured as acute BW change of more than the threshold of 5% during the first week of ICU admission, is associated with adverse outcomes of higher ICU mortality, especially in the patients without RRT, with reintubation within 72 hours, with RRT requirement, with vasopressor requirement, and with delirium. Some of these effects were higher in postoperative patients. This threshold value might be an indicator for caution during fluid management in surgical ICU.
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Ther Clin Risk Manag · Jan 2015
Value of serial platelet indices measurements for the prediction of pulmonary embolism in patients with deep venous thrombosis.
To date, no validated biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity have been established for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT). There is a need to develop simple and reliable noninvasive tests that can accurately identify patients with PE, even in small hospitals or clinics. The aim of this study was to investigate the value of mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW) for predicting occurrence of PE in patients with DVT. ⋯ Serial measurements of MPV and PDW, and percent change in MPV and PDW appears to be a useful marker for predicting occurrence of acute PE in patients with a first episode of acute proximal DVT.
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Ther Clin Risk Manag · Jan 2015
Current status of parenteral nutrition and enteral nutrition application: an assessment of nutritional prescriptions from 59 hospitals in the People's Republic of China.
The aim of the study reported here was to assess the use of parenteral nutrition (PN) and enteral nutrition (EN), and the prevalence of PN and EN formulas, in the People's Republic of China. ⋯ Despite recent improvements in the application of nutritional support in the People's Republic of China, a much higher percentage of nitrogen and lipids is delivered through PN than through EN. Furthermore, there are marked regional, departmental, and disease-based differences in the selection of PN versus EN. The rationale for use of nutritional support needs to be improved.