GERD Treatment May Reduce Healthcare Visits for Acute Respiratory Infections

GERD Treatment May Reduce Healthcare Visits for Acute Respiratory Infections

Treatment with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) may help decrease healthcare visits for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). These are the findings of a new study published... read more

High Levels of Nosocomial Infection Found in Pediatric ICUs

High Levels of Nosocomial Infection Found in Pediatric ICUs

One in six children in pediatric intensive care units (pICU), and one in ten babies in neonatal intensive care units (nICU) develop a hospital-acquired infection (HAI), according to a new study. Researchers at the European... read more

Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections

Vitamin D supplementation was safe and it protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall. Patients who were very vitamin D deficient and those not receiving bolus doses experienced the most benefit. 25 eligible... read more

Rude Surgeons Likely to Make Mistakes

Rude Surgeons Likely to Make Mistakes

A new study finds surgeons with a history of patient complaints about their personalities or attitude are more likely to make mistakes in the operating room. Researchers compared surgical outcomes with patient reports of... read more

Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS): Pearls and Pitfalls

Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS): Pearls and Pitfalls

A three-year-old male presents with mom for seven days of fever, diarrhea, and decreased activity. When you walk into the room, you note a listless-appearing boy with pallor. His eyes appear sunken. He is tachycardic, tachypneic,... read more

Wide variations found in evaluation of newborns for sepsis

Wide variations found in evaluation of newborns for sepsis

The evaluation of well-appearing term infants for early-onset sepsis (EOS) varies considerably among hospitals, with some doing extensive work-ups and giving antibiotics while others simply observe and provide newborn routine... read more

MR-proADM Accuracy Superior for Sepsis Mortality Prediction

MR-proADM Accuracy Superior for Sepsis Mortality Prediction

The use of novel sepsis biomarkers has increased in recent years. However, their prognostic value with respect to illness severity has not been explored. In this work, we examined the ability of mid-regional proadrenomedullin... read more

Candida Auris forms biofilms that enhance its virulence and resistance

Candida Auris forms biofilms that enhance its virulence and resistance

In three separate trials, eight samples of each strain of C. auris grew biofilms that constitute a key driver of Candida pathogenicity. C. auris first attracted attention in 2009 because of its resistance to azoles and amphotericin... read more

Sepsis Readmissions Compared With Other Medical Conditions

Sepsis Readmissions Compared With Other Medical Conditions

This study uses data from a US readmissions database to assess whether sepsis hospitalizations account for a higher proportion of unplanned 30-day readmissions than hospitalizations for acute myocardial infarction, heart... read more

How survival of cancer patients in critical care has improved in the last 3 decades

How survival of cancer patients in critical care has improved in the last 3 decades

Comprehensive care for critically ill patients with cancer is a collaborative effort, and close cooperation between oncology as well as palliative and critical care is essential. Collaborative decision making is a cornerstone... read more

Thrombocytosis in the ED

Thrombocytosis in the ED

Both reactive thrombocytosis and clonal thrombocytosis may be associated with vasomotor symptoms. The key difference is that thrombotic and bleeding events are much more common in myeloproliferative thrombocytosis, whereas... read more

Social Media Helps Forecast Outbreak Transmission Patterns

Social Media Helps Forecast Outbreak Transmission Patterns

A new study suggests then when epidemiological data are scarce, social media and Internet reports can be reliable tools for forecasting infectious disease outbreaks. Researchers at Georgia State University and the U.S. National... read more

Manufacturer guidelines fall short for endoscope reprocessing

Manufacturer guidelines fall short for endoscope reprocessing

A just-published study finds that current endoscopic manufacturer cleaning instructions for a wide range of GI, urological and respiratory devices used in diagnostic procedures still fail to protect patients from the risk... read more

Six myths promoted by the new surviving sepsis guidelines

Six myths promoted by the new surviving sepsis guidelines

The Rivers trial and the Surviving Sepsis Campaign popularized sepsis protocols, which saved lives. Massive accomplishment. However, that doesn’t validate the individual components of early goal-directed therapy. Any protocol... read more

Lower C. difficile mortality with vancomycin than metronidazole

Lower C. difficile mortality with vancomycin than metronidazole

Treating Clostridium difficile infection with vancomycin achieves the same recurrence rates as does treatment with metronidazole, but with a significantly lower 30-day mortality, new research suggests. The 30-day mortality... read more

Transmission of Staphylococcus aureus between health-care workers, the environment, and patients in ICU

Transmission of Staphylococcus aureus between health-care workers, the environment, and patients in ICU

Between Oct 31, 2011, and Dec 23, 2012, we sampled 198 health-care workers, 40 environmental locations, and 1854 patients; 1819 isolates were sequenced. Median nasal carriage rate of S aureus in health-care workers at 4-weekly... read more

A randomized placebo-controlled phase II study of a Pseudomonas vaccine in ventilated ICU patients

A randomized placebo-controlled phase II study of a Pseudomonas vaccine in ventilated ICU patients

This phase II study has shown that IC43 vaccination of ventilated ICU patients produced a significant immunogenic effect. P. aeruginosa infection rates did not differ significantly between groups. In the absence of any difference... read more