Articles: pandemics.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2022
Admission Code Status and End-of-life Care for Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted variability in intensity of care. We aimed to characterize intensity of care among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. ⋯ In this international cohort of patients with COVID-19, Full Code was the initial code status in the majority, and more likely among patients who were Black or Asian race, Hispanic ethnicity or male. These results provide direction for future studies to improve these disparities in care.
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Tobacco use will kill a projected 1 billion people in the 21st century in one of the deadliest pandemics in history. Tobacco use disorder is a disease with a natural history, pathophysiology, and effective treatment options. ⋯ Tobacco treatments that combine counseling and pharmacotherapy (e.g., nicotine replacement therapy) can further increase quit rates and reduce risk of morbidity such as pulmonary and wound-related complications. The perioperative setting provides a great opportunity to implement multimodal perianesthesia tobacco treatment, which combines multiple evidence-based tactics to implement the four core components of consistent ascertainment and documentation of tobacco use, advice to quit, access to pharmacotherapy, and referral to counseling resources.
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Exposure to many contacts is the main risk factor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, while risk of serious disease and death is chiefly determined by old age and comorbidities. Relative and population-attributable fractions (PAFs) of multiple medical and social exposures for COVID-19 outcomes have not been evaluated among older adults. ⋯ Among Swedish residents aged 55 years and above, those with home care or long-term care had markedly increased risk for COVID-19 death during the first year of the pandemic, with over 50% of deaths attributable to these factors.
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Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2022
Diagnostic Yield of Cardiac Biomarker Testing in Predicting Cardiac Disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children in the Pandemic Era.
This study aimed to assess whether elevations in cardiac biomarkers are associated with pediatric cardiac diagnoses in the era of COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). ⋯ Children with elevated cardiac biomarkers have increased odds of a cardiac diagnosis or MIS-C and warrant workup regardless of indication for testing. Although a negative hsTropT may reassure providers, further investigation is critical in developing algorithms to reliably exclude cardiac disease.