Relationship between the Clinical Frailty Scale and short-term mortality in patients ≥ 80 years old acutely admitted to the ICU: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is frequently used to measure frailty in critically ill adults. There is wide variation in the approach to analysing the relationship between the CFS score and mortality after admission to the ICU. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of modelling approach on the association between the CFS score and short-term mortality and quantify the prognostic value of frailty in this context. METHODS: We analysed data from two multicentre prospective cohort studies which enrolled intensive care unit patients ≥ 80 years old in 26 countries. The primary outcome was mortality within 30-days from admission to the ICU. Logistic regression models for both ICU and 30-day mortality included the CFS score as either a categorical, continuous or dichotomous variable and were adjusted for patient's age, sex, reason for admission to the ICU, and admission Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score. RESULTS: The median age in the sample of 7487 consecutive patients was 84 years (IQR 81-87). The highest fraction of new prognostic information from frailty in the context of 30-day mortality was observed when the CFS score was treated as either a categorical variable using all original levels of frailty or a nonlinear continuous variable and was equal to 9% using these modelling approaches (p < 0.001). The relationship between the CFS score and mortality was nonlinear (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Knowledge about a patient's frailty status adds a substantial amount of new prognostic information at the moment of admission to the ICU. Arbitrary simplification of the CFS score into fewer groups than originally intended leads to a loss of information and should be avoided. Trial registration NCT03134807 (VIP1), NCT03370692 (VIP2)

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Assistenzroboter in Laboren von Life-Science-Unternehmen: Abschlussbericht zum Projekt "LISA"

Der vorliegende Projektbericht gibt einen Überblick über das Verbundprojekt "LISA - Assistenzroboter in Laboren von Life-Science-Unternehmen", das zwischen April 2006 und Juli 2009 im Rahmen der "Leitinnovation Servicerobotik" vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) gefördert wurde. Im Rahmen des Projektes wurde ein komplexes Servicerobotersystem entwickelt und aufgebaut. Acht Verbundpartner aus Forschung und Industrie entwickelten neue Technologien und Systeme in den Bereichen Navigation, Bildverarbeitung und Multimodale Interaktion. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt des Projektes war die Betrachtung von Sicherheitsaspekten und die Entwicklung entsprechender Komponenten, um einen gefahrlosen Betrieb von Assistenzrobotern zu gewährleisten. Ein wesentlicher Beitrag war dabei die Entwicklung einer künstlichen Haut für Serviceroboter, die orts- und kraftaufgelöst Berührungen erfassen und als Sicherheitssensor eingesetzt werden kann

Emscher:kanal - Automatisierte Inspektionssysteme für Stahlbetonrohre

The automated inspection and cleaning systems used in the emscher:kanal, the largest residual water management project in Europe, are discussed. The objective of the emscher:kanal is to feed the waste water to sewage treatment plants which was previously transported into open water. The inspection system provide automatic inspection and cleaning of the underground concrete pipes and can be applied under continuous operation even when the sewer diameters are large. A three stage approach to automatically inspect and clean the emscher:kanal consisted of the system for rough inspection, the cleaning system and a detailed inspection of the sewer when damage is detected