Tag: infection
Facilitators and Barriers of Hand Hygiene
What keeps ICU nurses from washing their hands? And why do some overcome the barriers? Although there are many papers on hand hygiene, this new one in American Journal of Infection Control caught my eye. In this study 3,260... read more
Diagnostic Value of Procalcitonin on Early Postoperative Infection After Pediatric Cardiac Surgery
Procalcitonin was more accurate than C-reactive protein and WBC to predict early postoperative infection, but the diagnostic properties of procalcitonin could not be observed during the first 3 postoperative days due to the... read more
How informatics can help your hospital prevent infections
Hospitalists have a powerful tool to help them fight outbreaks of Clostridium difficile and other infectious agents: electronic health record data. Sara Murray, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of... read more
Infection Prevention and Healthcare Associated Infections
It is difficult to overstate the importance of healthcare associated infections (HAI). Approximately 4% of patients who enter hospitals in the United States develop an infection related to their hospital care. Although... read more
CDC and Prevention Guideline for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infection
This guideline is intended to provide new and updated evidence-based recommendations for the prevention of SSI and should be incorporated into comprehensive surgical quality improvement programs to improve patient safety.... read more
Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers
The Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers helps ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) make care safer for their patients. ASCs can use the toolkit to apply the proven principles and methods of AHRQ's Comprehensive... read more
Visual Aids for Infectious Disease Diagnoses
Learning the hallmarks of proper diagnosis requires using all of our senses: hearing, to listen to a patient’s symptoms; touch, to probe an infection site; and occasionally smell, to qualitatively determine infection characteristics... read more
Antimicrobial Stewardship and Appropriate Antimicrobial Prescribing in Hospitals
This study examines whether an antimicrobial stewardship approach grounded in behavioral theory and focusing on preserving prescriber autonomy and participation is associated with appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing... read more
Implications of Prevalent Noncardiac Disease in the Cardiac ICU
Half of >1000 patients of admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit (ICU) at a major tertiary-care center over about 1 year also had acute respiratory failure, acute kidney injury, or sepsis. Those with lung or kidney... read more
Strategies for Optimizing Diagnostic Predictive Value of Clostridium difficile
Because nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) do not distinguish Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and asymptomatic C. difficile carriage, the diagnostic predictive value of NAATs is limited when used in patients with... read more
Prevalence of multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria among nursing home residents
Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) are associated with an increasing proportion of infections among nursing home (NH) residents. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to critically... read more
Viral coinfection is shaped by host ecology and virus-virus interactions across diverse microbial taxa and environments
Infection of more than one virus in a host, coinfection, is common across taxa and environments. Viral coinfection can enable genetic exchange, alter the dynamics of infections, and change the course of viral evolution. Yet,... read more
The impact of oral care on oral health status and prevention of VAP in critically ill patients
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common nosocomial infections which increase mortality rate and length stay of hospitalization. Oral care would not only improve patient’s oral health and well-being,... read more
Plasma metabolomics for the diagnosis and prognosis of H1N1 influenza pneumonia
Metabolomics is a tool that has been used for the diagnosis and prognosis of specific diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine if metabolomics could be used as a potential diagnostic and prognostic tool for H1N1... read more
Big Data Detects Sepsis In Major Hospitals
Data analytics have found that large medical facilities have higher rates of death from sepsis than their smaller hospital counterparts. Researchers from Houston Methodist Hospital recently used Big Data analytics to learn... read more
Use of Patient-Generated Wound Data to Improve Postdischarge SSI Monitoring
The use of mobile health (mHealth) to convey patient-generated health data (PGHD) offers new enhancements and challenges to the provision of surgical care. The Mobile Post-Operative Wound Evaluator (mPOWEr) is a patient-centered... read more
Admission to the ICU is Associated With Changes in the Oral Mycobiome
A prospective exploratory study was conducted to characterize the oral mycobiome at baseline and determine whether changes occur after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). We found that ICU admission is associated... read more
Evaluating the Validity of Sepsis-3 Criteria in the Emergency Department
In this multicenter prospective cohort study involving 879 patients with suspected infection treated at the emergency department, the qSOFA was better at predicting in-hospital mortality with an area under the receiver operating... read more
Antipyretic Therapy in Critically Ill Septic Patients
This meta-analysis aimed to examine the impact of antipyretic therapy on mortality in critically ill septic adults. Inclusion criteria were observational or randomized studies of septic patients, evaluation of antipyretic... read more
Which position is safest for central line placement: subclavian, jugular, femoral?
Where to place a central venous catheter is a decision driven mainly by individual experience and preference. The limited evidence available has not established any site as superior; the subclavian position has been reported... read more
Lung Microbiome: Key to Respiratory Ills?
Recently, JAMA discussed this research and its potential clinical applications with 2 experts on the front lines, Jack Gilbert, PhD, a microbial ecologist at the University of Chicago and director of its new Microbiome Center... read more
Komodo dragon-inspired synthetic peptide DRGN-1 promotes wound-healing of a mixed-biofilm infected wound
Cationic antimicrobial peptides are multifunctional molecules that have a high potential as therapeutic agents. We have identified a histone H1-derived peptide from the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), called VK25. Using... read more
