Procalcitonin in the ED: The evidence

Is procalcitonin of any value in the emergency department? Considering that procalcitonin testing is not available in any of my hospitals, I have never been all that interested in this question. But Swami requested a procalcitonin... read more

Adult Sepsis Hospitalization and Risk of Subsequent Cardiovascular Events

Adult sepsis survivors experience an increased hazard of major cardiovascular events compared to survivors of a non-sepsis hospitalization. 254,241 adult sepsis survivors were matched to adult survivors of non-sepsis hospitalization... read more

Percutaneous vs. Surgical Cannulation for Femoro-Femoral VA-ECMO in Cardiogenic Shock Patients

Compared with surgical cannulation, percutaneous cannulation was independently associated with lower in-hospital mortality and fewer complications. Among 12,592 patients meeting study inclusion, 9,249 (73%) underwent percutaneous... read more

Defining COVID-19 Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis

The reported prevalence of CAPA in ICU patients with COVID-19 varies greatly by study and may be related to surveillance protocols and inconsistent definitions which may inflate the prevalence of this complication. Further... read more

Inflammatory and Immunosuppressive Responses to COVID-19 and Bacterial Sepsis

Bacterial sepsis patients had early, severe inflammation, profound immune suppression, and life-threatening organ dysfunction that resolved over time; SARS-CoV-2 patients had less severe early inflammation and organ dysfunction... read more

Long-term Cardiovascular Outcomes of COVID-19

The cardiovascular complications of acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well described, but the post-acute cardiovascular manifestations of COVID-19 have not yet been comprehensively characterized. Here we used... read more

Critical COVID-19 Pneumonia Determinants

SARS-CoV-2 infection is benign in most individuals but, in approx. 10% of cases, it triggers hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia, which becomes critical in ˜3% of cases. The ensuing risk of death (˜1%) doubles every five years... read more

High-Dose Dexamethasone vs. Tocilizumab in COVID-19 Pneumonia

Our study findings discourage the use of high doses of dexamethasone in the management of moderate to severe COVID-19 ARDS. The routine use of such high doses to mitigate the inflammatory cytokine storm in these patients... read more

Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine

Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine 4E has been fully updated and revised. The clinical diagnostic approach to common infectious disease problems in the CCU is the underlying theme... read more

Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine

Long-Term Opioid Prescription Linked to Higher Risk of Hepatitis C

Exposure to long-term prescription opioid therapy was linked to a three times higher risk of HCV seroconversion compared to individuals who were prescription opioid-naïve or acute. Prescription opioid use is associated... read more

Efficacy of Inhaled Ciclesonide for Outpatient Treatment with Symptomatic COVID-19

The results of this randomized clinical trial demonstrated that ciclesonide did not achieve the primary efficacy end point of reduced time to alleviation of all COVID-19–related symptoms. A total of 413 participants... read more

1-year Mortality After COVID-19 ICU Admission

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causes severe disease in some patients. Patients can experience severe disabilities after intensive care unit (ICU) admission due to coronavirus disease... read more

Post-acute Neurological Consequences of COVID-19

COVID-19 and its neurological consequences particularly burden marginalized communities, and so can only be effectively treated by advancing health equity. Our world has witnessed over 275 million confirmed cases of COVID-19... read more

Epidemiology, Outcomes, and Trends of Patients with Sepsis and Opioid-Related Hospitalizations

Sepsis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with opioid-related hospitalizations, and opioid-related hospitalizations contribute disproportionately to sepsis-associated deaths among younger patients.... read more

Immunological Dysfunction Persists for 8 months Following Initial Mild-to-Moderate COVID-19 Infection

A proportion of patients surviving acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection develop post-acute COVID syndrome (long COVID (LC)) lasting longer than 12 weeks. Here, we studied individuals with LC compared to... read more

Retrospective Analysis of Chest X-ray Severity Scoring System of COVID-19 Pneumonia

The research will be retrospective, and will include a review of medical history of all patients admitted in the COVID-19 ICU of the University hospital Osijek during 2020 and 2021. Associated comorbidity, hospital admission... read more

Anticoagulation in COVID-19

Thrombotic complications (arterial and venous) are common in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and are an independent predictor of poor outcome. Microvascular thrombi also contribute to organ dysfunction, including... read more

MIF But Not MIF-2 Recruits Inflammatory Macrophages in an Experimental Polymicrobial Sepsis Model

Excessive inflammation drives the progression from sepsis to septic shock. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is of interest because MIF promoter polymorphisms predict mortality in different infections, and anti-MIF... read more

Quantifying the Burden of Viral Sepsis During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in millions of deaths worldwide and countless more admissions to hospitals and ICUs. Since... read more

Healthcare Worker Safety and COVID-19

It had been apparent from the start of the pandemic that both patients and healthcare workers are at significant risk of acquiring COVID-19 in hospitals. In an early report from Wuhan more than 40% of infections were hospital-acquired,... read more

Fever is Associated with Reduced Mortality in ICU Patients with Sepsis

To evaluate the association of body temperature with mortality in septic patients admitted to the ICU from the ward. In addition, we intend to investigate whether the timing of antibiotic administration was different... read more

Novel Antibiotics Efficacy for Sepsis ICU Patients

Restricting severely ill patients access to new broad-spectrum empirical drugs is not the answer. Rather there should be a focus on identifying host response to infection to differentiate between colonization or contamination... read more