Internal and emergency medicine
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Multicenter Study
Association between cooling temperature and outcomes of patients with heat stroke.
This study explored the relationship between body temperature and adverse outcomes in patients with heat stroke to identify the optimal target body temperature within the first 24 h. This retrospective, multicentre study enrolled 143 patients admitted to the emergency department and diagnosed with heat stroke. The primary outcome was the in-hospital mortality rate, while secondary outcomes included the presence and number of damaged organs and neurological sequelae at discharge. ⋯ When the body temperature at 0.5 h was 38.5-40.0 °C, the number of damaged organs was at its lowest. In patients with heat stroke, both hyperthermia and hypothermia were associated with adverse outcomes. Hence, an accurate body temperature management is required during the early stages of care.
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Emergency department patient boarding is associated with hospital mortality and increased hospital length of stay. The objective of the present study is to describe the impact of deploying an Intensive Care team in the ED and its association with sepsis mortality and ICU length of stay. Patients admitted to ICU through the ED with an ICD-10 CM diagnosis of sepsis were included. ⋯ Septic shock and ED boarding time were associated with prolonged ICU LOS. Compliance with SEP-1 bundle was associated with its reduction. Implementation of an ICU team in the ED for the treatment of septic patients during high volume hospitalizations is not associated with a reduction of mortality or ICU LOS.
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This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of various scoring systems in predicting in-hospital mortality for COVID-19 patients admitted to the internal medicine ward. We conducted a prospective collection of clinical data from patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Unit at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in Florence, Italy, with confirmed pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2. We calculated three scoring systems: the CALL score, the PREDI-CO score, and the COVID-19 in-hospital Mortality Risk Score (COVID-19 MRS). ⋯ The mortality rate increased significantly across increasing quartiles (p<0.001). In conclusion the COVID-19 in-hospital Mortality Risk Score (MRS) demonstrated reasonable prognostic stratification for patients admitted to the internal medicine ward with SARS-CoV-2-induced pneumonia. The inclusion of Delirium and IL6 as additional prognostic indicators in the scoring systems enhanced their predictive performance, specifically in determining in-hospital mortality among COVID-19 patients.
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Patients suffering from chronic anemia can benefit from scheduled transfusions of packed red blood cells (PRBCs), while urgent transfusions have specific indications. These patients frequently seek medical attention in the emergency department (ED), where they can be inappropriately transfused, but research in this field is limited. This study aimed to assess the appropriateness of PRBCs transfusions in chronic anemic patients in the ED. ⋯ This study showed that transfusions in chronic anemic patients are recurrent events in the ED and are frequently inappropriate. A possible explanation could be the lack of a well-structured primary care network granting periodic transfusions in ambulatory centers. In the future, implementing and improving chronic anemic patients' access to transfusion services through dedicated pathways could reduce the burden on the ED and also decrease costs.
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Pain remains one of the most difficult-to-treat domains in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In clinical trials, the Janus kinase inhibitors (JAKis) have demonstrated good efficacy in pain relief. Aim of our study was to evaluate the real-life effectiveness of JAKis in improving pain in patients with RA in different states of baseline disease activity. ⋯ Pauci-inflammatory patients at treatment start achieved good outcomes, with 40.4% experiencing ≥ 70% pain improvement, and 35.7% VAS ≤ 10 mm. JAKis show efficacy in pain relief in real life. The improvement of painful symptoms also in those patients with limited objective inflammation may open new perspectives on the management of difficult-to-treat RA.