A Brief Review of Troponin Testing for Clinicians

A Brief Review of Troponin Testing for Clinicians

Current American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines state that troponin is the preferred biomarker for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (MI). Troponin T (TnT) and I molecules have amino... read more

This Startup Could Revolutionize How We Fight Infectious Diseases

This Startup Could Revolutionize How We Fight Infectious Diseases

Karius Test has raised $50 million to develop a novel technology that can detect more than 1,000 infectious diseases, without requiring the usual trial-and-error tests. The test is expensive at $2,000, and is meant for use... read more

Better Detection & Response to Outbreaks with Enhanced Data

Better Detection & Response to Outbreaks with Enhanced Data

Established in 2016, CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network) supports nationwide lab capacity to rapidly detect antibiotic resistance in healthcare, food, and the community, and inform local responses... read more

Readmissions for Recurrent Sepsis: New or Relapsed Infection?

Readmissions for Recurrent Sepsis: New or Relapsed Infection?

Sepsis hospitalizations are frequently followed by hospital readmissions, often for recurrent sepsis. However, it is unclear how often sepsis readmissions are for relapsed/recrudescent vs. new infections. The aim of this... read more

Mechanisms of Severe Mortality-associated Bacterial Co-infections Following Influenza Virus Infection

Mechanisms of Severe Mortality-associated Bacterial Co-infections Following Influenza Virus Infection

The mechanisms of severe morbidity following influenza-bacteria co-infections mainly include failure of an antibacterial immune response and pathogen synergy. Moreover, failure to resume function and tolerance might be one... read more

Link Between Diabetes and Hospital Readmission Rates

Link Between Diabetes and Hospital Readmission Rates

Patients with diabetes have higher rates of hospital readmission compared with patients without diabetes, according to a pilot study published in Clinical Diabetes and Endocrinology. In the first study, the readmission rate... read more

Growing Concerns of Hepatitis E in Europe

Growing Concerns of Hepatitis E in Europe

Cases of Hepatitis E in Europe have increased by 10x over 10 years, with 5617 cases in 2015. Testing, case definitions, diagnosis, and surveillance for HEV infection vary extensively across Europe, with only 20 member states... read more

Contact Precautions for Endemic MRSA and VRE

Contact Precautions for Endemic MRSA and VRE

Physical barriers have been used to prevent infectious diseases dating back to leather gloves and coats used during the Black Death in medieval Europe. In the United States, isolation of persons with infections coincided... read more

Sepsis Prediction in Critically Ill Patients by Platelet Activation Markers on ICU Admission

Sepsis Prediction in Critically Ill Patients by Platelet Activation Markers on ICU Admission

Platelets have been involved in both immune surveillance and host defense against severe infection. To date, whether platelet phenotype or other hemostasis components could be associated with predisposition to sepsis in critical... read more

Optimal Timing of RRT in Patients with AKI in the Context of Sepsis

Optimal Timing of RRT in Patients with AKI in the Context of Sepsis

Among 620 patients enrolled in AKIKI, 494 (80%) had sepsis and 413 (67%) septic shock. This can help to suggest recommendations in septic patients with AKI. AKIKI showed no significant difference in mortality between early... read more

Recent Developments in Management of Critical Burn Injuries

Recent Developments in Management of Critical Burn Injuries

Recent reports emphasize the dangers of over resuscitation in the setting of burn injury. No new medical therapy for inhalation injury has been generally adopted, but new standards for description of burn-related infections... read more

Sepsis-Associated 30-Day Risk-Standardized Readmissions

Sepsis-Associated 30-Day Risk-Standardized Readmissions

One third of sepsis survivors were readmitted and wide variation exists between hospitals. Several demographic and structural factors are associated with this variation. Measures of higher quality in-hospital care were correlated... read more

Rescue Strategy for Treating Severe Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infections

Rescue Strategy for Treating Severe Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infections

Recent reports have suggested the efficacy of a double carbapenem (DC) combination, including ertapenem, for the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-Kp) infections. We aimed to evaluate the clinical... read more

Evaluating Transfusion Strategies

Evaluating Transfusion Strategies

Cancer patients are at increased risk of septic shock. Therefore, Bergamin et al set out to assess whether a restrictive strategy of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion reduces 28-day mortality when compared with a liberal strategy... read more

State Sepsis Mandates – A New Era for Regulation of Hospital Quality

State Sepsis Mandates – A New Era for Regulation of Hospital Quality

New York State regulations mandating protocol-based sepsis care may have unintended consequences. Hospitals should have maximal flexibility in deciding how to implement protocol-guided care so that they can respond appropriately... read more

New Institute to Focus on Immune System

New Institute to Focus on Immune System

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is launching a new institute to coordinate initiatives among the rapidly evolving disciplines of infection biology, immunology and inflammatory diseases. The Vanderbilt Institute... read more

Evaluation of early antimicrobial therapy adaptation guided by the BetaLACTA test

Evaluation of early antimicrobial therapy adaptation guided by the BetaLACTA test

Rapid diagnostic tests detecting microbial resistance are needed for limiting the duration of inappropriateness of empirical antimicrobial therapy (EAT) in ICU patients, besides reducing the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics.... read more