Hydroxychloroquine With or Without Azithromycin

Among patients hospitalized with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, the use of hydroxychloroquine, alone or with azithromycin, did not improve clinical status at 15 days as compared with standard care. A total of 667 patients... read more

Effect of Hydrocortisone on Mortality and Organ Support in Patients with Severe COVID-19

Among patients with severe COVID-19, treatment with a 7-day fixed-dose course of hydrocortisone or shock-dependent dosing of hydrocortisone, compared with no hydrocortisone, resulted in 93% and 80% probabilities of superiority... read more

Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes with Empagliflozin in Heart Failure

Among patients receiving recommended therapy for heart failure, those in the empagliflozin group had a lower risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure than those in the placebo group, regardless of... read more

Shorter Resident Shifts May Not Improve Patient Safety

Residents who worked schedules that eliminated extended shifts made a greater number of serious errors than those who worked schedules with shifts of 24 or more hours, a trial in the New England Journal of Medicine reported. The... read more

Awake Prone Positioning for COVID-19 Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 can result in Coronavirus Disease–19 (COVID-19). While the majority of patients are asymptomatic or have mild disease, approximately 14% develop more severe disease including hypoxemic respiratory... read more

Artificial Neural Networks Improve Prediction and Risk Classification in ICU Patients

A supervised machine learning model using artificial neural networks (ANN) predicted neurological recovery, including survival excellently, and outperformed a conventional model based on logistic regression. Among the data... read more

Efficacy and Safety of a Paired Sedation and Ventilator Weaning Protocol in ICU

Approaches to removal of sedation and mechanical ventilation for critically ill patients vary widely. Our aim was to assess a protocol that paired spontaneous awakening trials (SATs)—ie, daily interruption of sedatives—with... read more

Automated vs. Conventional Ventilation in the ICU

Automated ventilation (AV) appears to reduce the incidence and severity of blood oxygen desaturation during daily nursing procedures (DNPs) in comparison to Conventional Ventilation (CV). Of the 265 included patients,... read more

Comparing Procedural Amnesia and Respiratory Depression vs. MS and DS with Propofol

Targeting moderate sedation (MS) or deep sedation (DS) did not reliably result in the intended sedation level. Targeting MS, however, resulted in a lower rate of total AREs and fewer patients had multiple AREs with no difference... read more

Effect of Vitamin C Infusion on Organ Failure and Biomarkers of Inflammation and Vascular Injury in Patients With Sepsis and ARDS

In this preliminary study of patients with sepsis and ARDS, a 96-hour infusion of vitamin C compared with placebo did not significantly improve organ dysfunction scores or alter markers of inflammation and vascular injury.... read more

Association Between Anxiety and New Organ Failure, Independently of Critical Illness Severity and Respiratory Status

Moderate to severe anxiety at ICU admission is associated with early occurrence of new organ failure in critically ill patients, independently of respiratory status and severity of critical illness. The causality link could... read more

Substituting Acetaminophen for Fentanyl Feasible in PCI for STEMI

In patients with STEMI given crushed ticagrelor before PCI, using IV acetaminophen instead of IV fentanyl as a painkiller did not increase pain levels or platelet reactivity and prevented delay of ticagrelor's effects, researchers... read more

COVID-19 Drug Treatments: Living Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis

Glucocorticoids probably reduce mortality and mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 compared with standard care. The effectiveness of most interventions is uncertain because most of the randomised controlled trials... read more

Ground-breaking Research – Venous Thrombosis is Back in Business

The primary efficacy outcome was the development of a major venous thromboembolic event such as symptomatic distal or proximal deep-vein thrombosis, asymptomatic deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism or venous thromboembolism–related... read more

Cost Analysis of Adjunctive Hydrocortisone Therapy for Septic Shock

Using adjunctive hydrocortisone therapy yields a significant monetized benefit based on inputs from the Adjunctive Corticosteroid Treatment in Critically Ill Patients with Septic Shock and Activated Protein C and Corticosteroids... read more

SARS-CoV-2-reactive T Cells in Healthy Donors and Patients with COVID-19

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the rapidly unfolding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 vary, ranging from asymptomatic infection to... read more

High Breath-by-Breath Variability Is Associated With Extubation Failure in Children

High respiratory variability during spontaneous breathing trials is independently associated with extubation failure in children, with very high rates of extubation failure when these children develop postextubation upper... read more

Dexmedetomidine for Prolonged Sedation in the PICU

High-quality data on dexmedetomidine use for prolonged sedation and a consensus on correct dosing and weaning protocols in children are currently missing. Infusion of dexmedetomidine can be considered relatively safe in pediatrics... read more

Moderna mRNA Vaccine Candidate’s Phase I Trial

Eight weeks to the day after press-releasing some top line results, the full paper is out on the Moderna mRNA vaccine candidate’s Phase I trial. I'm very glad to see it – it's going to be very important for the full data... read more

Heparin 2.0: A New Approach to the Infection Crisis

In April 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for certain medical devices to be used in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (CO­VID-19). This included extracorporeal blood purification... read more

COVID-19: How to Quantify and Interpret Treatment Effects in Comparative Clinical Studies

Clinical trials of treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) draw intense public attention. More than ever, valid, transparent, and intuitive summaries of the treatment effects, including efficacy and harm, are needed.... read more

COVID-19: Airborne Particle Contamination Increased Substantially Using the Aerosol Box

Study shows that aerosol box used to protect healthcare workers during COVID intubation increases, rather than decreases, exposure to airborne particles. A new study shows that aerosol boxes that have been manufactured... read more