Using twitch tracheal airway pressure, negative inhale forced pressure, and Medical Research Council score to guide weaning from mechanical ventilation.

BACKGROUND: Weaning from mechanical ventilation (MV) is an important and universal issue in critically ill patients, with no consensus that predicts weaning success. Twitch tracheal airway pressure (TwPtr) may be a more objective indicator of diaphragm function. The present study evaluated TwPtr relative to negative inspiratory force (NIF) or Medical Research Council (MRC) score, for predicting success of weaning from MV. METHODS: From December 2015 to March 2017, 62 patients were included who received invasive MV >48 hours and then underwent a test for spontaneous breathing. The NIF and MRC score were sequentially determined. The TwPtr measurement was performed via magnetic stimulation of the neck phrenic nerve. RESULTS: Weaning success was achieved by 54 patients (87.1%), including 30, 12, and 12 patients who experienced simple, difficult, and prolonged weaning, respectively. The areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for NIF, MRC score, and TwPtr were 0.778, 0.560, and 0.792. When TwPtr was combined with NIF, the sensitivity and specificity of weaning success were 96.3% and 75.0%, and AUC was 0.807. In the weaning success group, after correction for age, the AUC of TwPtr was 0.878, which differentiated the simple weaning from non-simple group. CONCLUSIONS: TwPtr was superior to either NIF or MRC score for differentiating patients in the simple weaning group from those patients who experienced difficult, prolonged, or failed weaning. TwPtr combined with NIF may be used to predict weaning success better than the MRC score alone.

[Efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin in the adjuvant treatment of patients with severe sepsis: a Meta analysis].

Objective: To investigate the possibility of improving the prognosis of patients with severe sepsis by different kinds of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Methods: PubMed database, EMBase, Cochrane clinical trial database, CNKI, and Wangfang database etc were retrieved. The search time was from database creation to September 2015,which included all prospective studies of the effectiveness of IVIG compared with non-IVIG in all adult patients with severe sepsis. Main end-point parameter was total mortality rate; secondary end-point parameters were short-term (＜ 7 days) mortality,28-day mortality, length of intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stay, and mortality due to septic shock or multiple organ failure (MOF). RevMan 5.3 was used for Meta analysis. Results: Finally,16 prospective studies including 12 randomized controlled trails (RCT) and 4 prospective cohort studies were enrolled, referred to 1 819 patients, 892 patients were in IVIG group, 927 patients receiving human albumin, placebo or blank control were in control group. Compared with the control group, IVIG could reduce the total mortality rate of patients with severe sepsis [relative risk (RR) =0.71,95％ confidence interval (95％CI) =0.57-0.87,P =0.001].After the high-risk research was eliminated, it was shown that the IVIG could reduce the total mortality rate in patients with severe sepsis (RR =0.80, 95％CI =0.65-0.98, P =0.03).But IVIG could not reduce the 28-day mortality rate (RR =0.60, 95％CI =0.35-1.04, P =0.07), short-term mortality rate (RR =1.06, 95％CI =0.76-1.46,P =0.74), the mortality rate of septic shock (RR =0.55, 95％CI =0.29-1.03, P =0.06) and the mortality rate of MOF (RR =0.91, 95％CI =0.63-1.33, P =0.64).In fact, the length of stay in ICU [weighted mean difference (WMD) =-0.02, 95％CI =-0.03-0.25, P =0.86] and the total length of stay in hospital (WMD =-2.34,95％CI =-7.05-2.37,P =0.33) were similar. In subgroup, the 28-day mortality rate of patients with severe sepsis in the IgM group (RR =0.50, 95％CI =0.25-1.01, P =0.05) was significantly lower than that of IgG group (RR =0.72, 95％CI =0.40-1.30, P =0.28). Conclusions: IVIG can reduce the total mortality rate of patients with severe sepsis. Compared with IgG, IgM-enriched IVIG has certain advantages in patients with severe sepsis, but cannot reduce the short-term mortality rate, mortality rate of septic shock and MOF, and also cannot shorten the length of ICU stay and the total length of hospital day.