The impact of Ideal versus Estimated body weight on hemofiltration dosing in critically ill patients with Acute kidney Injury

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Elevated troponin I and its prognostic significance in acute liver failure

INTRODUCTION: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a life-threatening multisystem illness complicated by multiple organ failure (MOF) and haemodynamic disturbances. Morbidity and mortality remains high and various prognostic and scoring models are in use to predict outcome. A recent observation in a large cohort of ALF patients suggested a prognostic value of troponin I (cTnI) and its role as a marker of subclinical myocardial injury and outcome. METHODS: Data from consecutive ALF patients over a four-year period from January 2007 to March 2011 were included. The aim of this study was to correlate any relationship that may exist between cTnI, mortality, severity of illness and non-hepatic organ failure. RESULTS: A total of 218 subjects (age 36 (16 to 90) years, M:F 103:115) were studied, of which 136 had an elevated cTnI > 0.05 μg/L. Higher organ failure scores were found with positive cTnI: APACHE II (19.5 (3 to 51) vs 14 (2 to 51), P = 0.001), APACHE III (81 (15 to 148) vs 59 (8 to 172), P = < 0.001) SOFA (15 (4 to 20) vs 13 (2 to 21), P = 0.027) and SAPS (48 (12 to 96) vs 34 (12 to 97), P = 0.001). Patients with positive cTnI had higher serum creatinine (192 μmol/l (38 to 550) vs 117 μmol/l (46 to 929), P < 0.001), arterial lactate (0.25, P < 0.001) and a lower pH (-0.21, P = 0.002). Also a higher proportion required renal replacement therapy (78% vs 60%, P = 0.006). Patients with elevated cTnI more frequently required vasopressors-norepinephrine (73% vs 50%, P = 0.008). Elevated cTnI did not predict outcome as effectively as other models (AUROC 0.61 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.68)). CONCLUSIONS: More than 60% of ALF patients in this study demonstrated elevated cTnI. Despite a close correlation with organ failure severity, cTnI was a poor independent predictor of outcome. cTnI may not represent true myocardial injury and may be better viewed as a marker of metabolic stress

Changes in weekend and weekday care quality of emergency medical admissions to 20 hospitals in England during implementation of the 7-day services national health policy.

BACKGROUND In 2013, the English National Health Service launched the policy of 7-day services to improve care quality and outcomes for weekend emergency admissions. AIMS To determine whether the quality of care of emergency medical admissions is worse at weekends, and whether this has changed during implementation of 7-day services. METHODS Using data from 20 acute hospital Trusts in England, we performed randomly selected structured case record reviews of patients admitted to hospital as emergencies at weekends and on weekdays between financial years 2012-2013 and 2016-2017. Senior doctor ('specialist') involvement was determined from annual point prevalence surveys. The primary outcome was the rate of clinical errors. Secondary outcomes included error-related adverse event rates, global quality of care and four indicators of good practice. RESULTS Seventy-nine clinical reviewers reviewed 4000 admissions, 800 in duplicate. Errors, adverse events and care quality were not significantly different between weekend and weekday admissions, but all improved significantly between epochs, particularly errors most likely influenced by doctors (clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment, prescribing and communication): error rate OR 0.78; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.87; adverse event OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.69; care quality OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.70 to 0.87; all adjusted for age, sex and ethnicity. Postadmission in-hospital care processes improved between epochs and were better for weekend admissions (vital signs with National Early Warning Score and timely specialist review). Preadmission processes in the community were suboptimal at weekends and deteriorated between epochs (fewer family doctor referrals, more patients with chronic disease or palliative care designation). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Hospital care quality of emergency medical admissions is not worse at weekends and has improved during implementation of the 7-day services policy. Causal pathways for the weekend effect may extend into the prehospital setting