Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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In adults, small (< 50%) serum creatinine (SCr) increases predict mortality. It is unclear whether different baseline serum creatinine (bSCr) estimation methods affect findings of acute kidney injury (AKI)-outcome associations. We characterized pediatric AKI, evaluated the effect of bSCr estimation approaches on AKI-outcome associations and evaluated the use of small SCr increases to predict AKI development. ⋯ AKI is associated with increased mortality and morbidity in critically ill children, regardless of the bSCr used. Paying attention to small early SCr increases may contribute to early AKI diagnosis in conjunction with other new AKI biomarkers.
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In 2005 the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America (ATS/IDSA) published guidelines for managing hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP). Although recommendations were evidence based, collective guidelines had not been validated in clinical practice and did not provide specific tools for local implementation. We initiated a performance improvement project designated Improving Medicine Through Pathway Assessment of Critical Therapy in Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia (IMPACT-HAP) at four academic centers in the United States. Our objectives were to develop and implement the project, and to assess compliance with quality indicators in adults admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) with HAP, VAP, or HCAP. ⋯ Developing a multi-center performance improvement project to operationalize ATS/IDSA guidelines for HAP, VAP, and HCAP is feasible with local consensus pathway directives for implementation and with quality indicators for monitoring compliance with guidelines.
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Prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs) are used mainly for emergency reversal of vitamin K antagonist therapy. Historically, the major drawback with PCCs has been the risk of thrombotic complications. The aims of the present review are to examine thrombotic complications reported with PCCs, and to compare the safety of PCCs with human fresh frozen plasma. ⋯ PCCs may be considered preferable to fresh frozen plasma for emergency anticoagulant reversal, and this is reflected in the latest British and American guidelines. Care should be taken to avoid excessive substitution with prothrombin, however, and accurate monitoring of patients' coagulation status may allow thrombotic risk to be reduced. The risk of a thrombotic complication due to treatment with PCCs should be weighed against the need for rapid and effective correction of coagulopathy.
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Shock is defined as global tissue hypoxia secondary to an imbalance between systemic oxygen delivery and oxygen demand. Venous oxygen saturations represent this relationship between oxygen delivery and oxygen demand and can therefore be used as an additional parameter to detect an impaired cardiorespiratory reserve. Before appropriate use of venous oxygen saturations, however, one should be aware of the physiology. ⋯ Whether venous oxygen saturations should be measured continuously remains unclear. Especially, continuous measurement of central venous oxygen saturation as part of the treatment protocol has been shown a valuable strategy in the emergency department and in cardiac surgery. In clinical practice, venous oxygen saturations should always be used in combination with vital signs and other relevant endpoints.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The added value of ordinal analysis in clinical trials: an example in traumatic brain injury.
In clinical trials, ordinal outcome measures are often dichotomized into two categories. In traumatic brain injury (TBI) the 5-point Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) is collapsed into unfavourable versus favourable outcome. Simulation studies have shown that exploiting the ordinal nature of the GOS increases chances of detecting treatment effects. The objective of this study is to quantify the benefits of ordinal analysis in the real-life situation of a large TBI trial. ⋯ Analysis of the CRASH trial data confirmed that ordinal analysis of outcome substantially increases statistical power. We expect these results to hold for other fields of critical care medicine that use ordinal outcome measures and recommend that future trials adopt ordinal analyses. This will permit detection of smaller treatment effects.