Aetiology of in-hospital cardiac arrest on general wards

Aim: Aetiology of in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) on general wards has not been studied. We aimed to determine the underlying causes for IHCAs by the means of autopsy records and clinical judgement of the treating consultants. Furthermore, we investigated whether aetiology and preceding vital dysfunctions are associated with long-term survival. Design and setting: Prospective observational study between 2009-2011 including 279 adult IHCA patients attended by medical emergency team in a Finnish university hospital's general wards. Results: The median age of the patients was 72 (64, 80) years, 185 (66%) were male, 178 (64%) of events were monitored/witnessed, first rhythm was shockable in 42 (15%) cases and 53 (19%) patients survived six months. Aetiology was determined as cardiac in 141 events, 73 of which were due to acute myocardial infarction. There were 138 non-cardiac IHCAs; most common causes were pneumonia (39) and exsanguination (16). No statistical difference was observed in the incidence of objective vital dysfunctions preceding the event between the cardiac and non-cardiac groups (40% vs. 44%, p = 0.448). Subjective antecedents were more common in the cardiac cohort (47% vs. 32%, p = 0.022), chest pain being an example (11% vs. 0.7%, p <0.001). Reviewing all 279 IHCAs, only shockable primary rhythm, monitored/witnessed event and low comorbidity score were independently associated with 180-day survival. Conclusions: Cardiac aetiology underlies half of the IHCAs on general wards. Both objective and subjective antecedents are common. However, neither the cardiac aetiology nor the absence of preceding deterioration of vital signs were factors independently associated with a favourable outcome. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Predictive equations over-estimate the resting energy expenditure in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients who are dependent on invasive ventilation support

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a form of degenerative motor neuron disease. At the end stage of the disease artificial feeding is often required. Nevertheless, very little is known about the energy demand of those ALS patients who are chronically dependent on tracheostomy intermittent positive pressure ventilation. The objective of our study was to clarify the resting energy expenditure (REE) in mechanically ventilated ALS patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We measured the REE of five ALS patients (four men, one female) twice during a 12 month-period using indirect calorimetry with two sampling flow settings (40 L/min and 80 L/min). The measured REEs (mREE) were compared with values calculated using five different predictive equations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean (± SD) of all mREEs was 1130 ± 170 kcal/d. The measurements with different flow settings and at different time instances provided similar results. The mean of mREEs was 33.6% lower, as compared to the mean calculated with five different predictive equations REE (p < 0.001). Each of the predictive equations over-estimated the REE.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The mREE values were significantly lower for every patient than all the predicted ones. Determination of daily nutrition with predictive equations may therefore lead in mis-estimation of energy requirements. Because ALS patients may live years with artificial ventilation their nutritional support should be based on individual measurements. However, further study is needed due to the small number of subjects.</p

Ability of prehospital NEWS to predict 1-day and 7-day mortality is reduced in older adult patients

Background National Early Warning Score (NEWS) does not include age as a parameter despite age is a significant independent risk factor of death. The aim of this study was to examine whether age has an effect on predictive performance of short-term mortality of NEWS in a prehospital setting. We also evaluated whether adding age as an additional parameter to NEWS improved its short-term mortality prediction. Methods We calculated NEWS scores from retrospective prehospital electronic patient record data for patients 18 years or older with sufficient prehospital data to calculate NEWS. We used area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) to analyse the predictive performance of NEWS for 1 and 7 day mortalities with increasing age in three different age groups: = 80 years. We also explored the ORs for mortality of different NEWS parameters in these age groups. We added age to NEWS as an additional parameter and evaluated its effect on predictive performance. Results We analysed data from 35 800 ambulance calls. Predictive performance for 7-day mortality of NEWS decreased with increasing age: AUROC (95% CI) for 1-day mortality was 0.876 (0.848 to 0.904), 0.824 (0.794 to 0.854) and 0.820 (0.788 to 0.852) for first, second and third age groups, respectively. AUROC for 7-day mortality had a similar trend. Addition of age as an additional parameter to NEWS improved its ability to predict short-term mortality when assessed with continuous Net Reclassification Improvement. Conclusions Age should be considered as an additional parameter to NEWS, as it improved its performance in predicting short-term mortality in this prehospital cohort.Peer reviewe

Maturation of Oxycodone Pharmacokinetics in Neonates and Infants : a Population Pharmacokinetic Model of Three Clinical Trials

Purpose The aim of the current population pharmacokinetic study was to quantify oxycodone pharmacokinetics in children ranging from preterm neonates to children up to 7 years of age. Methods Data on intravenous or intramuscular oxycodone administration were obtained from three previously published studies (n = 119). The median [range] postmenstrual age of the subjects was 299 days [170 days-7.8 years]. A population pharmacokinetic model was built using 781 measurements of oxycodone plasma concentration. The model was used to simulate repeated intravenous oxycodone administration in four representative infants covering the age range from an extremely preterm neonate to 1-year old infant. Results The rapid maturation of oxycodone clearance was best described with combined allometric scaling and maturation function. Central and peripheral volumes of distribution were nonlinearly related to bodyweight. The simulations on repeated intravenous administration in virtual patients indicated that oxycodone plasma concentration can be kept between 10 and 50 ng/ml with a high probability when the maintenance dose is calculated using the typical clearance and the dose interval is 4 h. Conclustions Oxycodone clearance matures rapidly after birth, and between-subject variability is pronounced in neonates. The pharmacokinetic model developed may be used to evaluate different multiple dosing regimens, but the safety of repeated doses should be ensured.Peer reviewe

Random forest machine learning method outperforms prehospital National Early Warning Score for predicting one-day mortality : A retrospective study

Aim of the study: The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) is a validated method for predicting clinical deterioration in hospital wards, but its performance in prehospital settings remains controversial. Modern machine learning models may outperform traditional statistical analyses for predicting short-term mortality. Thus, we aimed to compare the mortality prediction accuracy of NEWS and random forest machine learning using prehospital vital signs. Methods: In this retrospective study, all electronic ambulance mission reports between 2008 and 2015 in a single EMS system were collected. Adult patients (>= 18 years) were included in the analysis. Random forest models with and without blood glucose were compared to the traditional NEWS for predicting one-day mortality. A ten-fold cross-validation method was applied to train and validate the random forest models. Results: A total of 26,458 patients were included in the study of whom 278 (1.0%) died within one day of ambulance mission. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for one-day mortality was 0.836 (95% CI, 0.810-0.860) for NEWS, 0.858 (95% CI, 0.832-0.883) for a random forest trained with NEWS variables only and 0.868 (0.843-0.892) for a random forest trained with NEWS variables and blood glucose. Conclusion: A random forest algorithm trained with NEWS variables was superior to traditional NEWS for predicting one-day mortality in adult prehospital patients, although the risk of selection bias must be acknowledged. The inclusion of blood glucose in the model further improved its predictive performance.Peer reviewe

Semimechanistic Population Pharmacokinetic Model to Predict the Drug-Drug Interaction Between S-ketamine and Ticlopidine in Healthy Human Volunteers

Low-dose oral S-ketamine is increasingly used in chronic pain therapy, but extensive cytochrome P450 (CYP) mediated metabolism makes it prone to pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions (DDIs). In our study, concentration-time data from five studies were used to develop a semimechanistic model that describes the ticlopidine-mediated inhibition of S-ketamine biotransformation. A mechanistic model was implemented to account for reversible and time-dependent hepatic CYP2B6 inactivation by ticlopidine, which causes elevated S-ketamine exposure in vivo. A pharmacokinetic model was developed with gut wall and hepatic clearances for S-ketamine, its primary metabolite norketamine, and ticlopidine. Nonlinear mixed effects modeling approach was used (NONMEM version 7.3.0), and the final model was evaluated with visual predictive checks and the sampling-importance-resampling procedure. Our final model produces biologically plausible output and demonstrates that ticlopidine is a strong inhibitor of CYP2B6 mediated S-ketamine metabolism. Simulations from our model may be used to evaluate chronic pain therapy with S-ketamine.Peer reviewe

Surviving sepsis campaign : International guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock in adults 2021-endorsement by the Scandinavian society of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine

The Clinical Practice Committee of the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine endorses the clinical practice guideline Surviving sepsis campaign: international guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock 2021. The guideline serves as a useful bedside decision aid for clinicians managing adults with suspected and confirmed septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction.Non peer reviewe

Clinical practice guideline on the management of septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction in children : Endorsement by the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine

Background The Clinical Practice Committee of the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine endorses the clinical practice guideline Surviving Sepsis Campaign International Guidelines for the Management of Septic Shock and Sepsis-Associated Organ Dysfunction in Children. The guideline can serve as a useful decision aid for clinicians managing children with suspected and confirmed septic shock and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction.Non peer reviewe

Clinical practice guideline on spinal stabilisation of adult trauma patients : Endorsement by the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine

The Clinical Practice Committee of the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine endorses the clinical practice guideline New clinical guidelines on the spinal stabilisation of adult trauma patients-consensus and evidence based. The guideline can serve as a useful decision aid for clinicians caring for patients with traumatic spinal cord injury. However, it is important to acknowledge that the overall certainty of evidence supporting the guideline recommendations was low, implying that further research is likely to have an important impact on the confidence in the estimate of effect.Peer reviewe

Clinical practice guideline on gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis for critically ill patients : Endorsement by the Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine

The Scandinavian Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine Clinical practice Committee endorses the BMJ Rapid Recommendation Gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis for critically ill patients-a clinical practice guideline. The guideline serves as a useful decision aid for clinicians caring for critically ill patients, and can be used together with clinical experience to decide whether a specific critically ill patient may benefit from gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis.Peer reviewe