Inter-rater reliability for noninvasive measurement of cardiac function in children.

INTRODUCTION: A transcutaneous ultrasound monitor has recently been developed which noninvasively and quickly measures cardiac output. Validity and reliability testing has been reported in adults. No reliability testing has been undertaken in the pediatric population. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of a transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound technique to measure cardiac index (CI) and stroke volume index (SVI) in pediatric emergency department patients. METHODS: An 8-month prospective observational study was conducted on a convenience sample of emergency department patients younger than 18 years old. Five raters were trained to use an ultrasound cardiac output monitoring device. Two raters, blinded to each other's results, obtained independent measurements from the same patient within 15 minutes of each other. Inter-rater agreement was measured with the Pearson product correlation coefficient. Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated the extent of deviation from a line of agreement between raters. RESULTS: Ninety-seven patients were enrolled. Major diagnostic categories included infection, trauma, and gastrointestinal disorders. There was significant inter-rater correlation for CI (r = 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.66Y0.83; P G 0.0001) and SVI (r = 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.70Y0.86; P G 0.0001). Bland-Altman analysis of CI measurements between 2 raters showed bias of 0.06, SD of bias 1.00, and 95% limits of agreement j1.91 to 2.02 L/min/m2. Stroke volume index showed bias of j0.5, SD of bias 11.01, and 95% limits of agreement j22.08 to 21.08 mL/m2. CONCLUSIONS: Transcutaneous Doppler ultrasound technique demonstrates acceptable inter-rater agreement for measuring CI and SVI in children.

Implementation of a bundle of quality indicators for the early management of severe sepsis and septic shock is associated with decreased mortality.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the outcome implications of implementing a severe sepsis bundle in an emergency department as a quality indicator set with feedback to modify physician behavior related to the early management of severe sepsis and septic shock. DESIGN: Two-year prospective observational cohort. SETTING: Academic tertiary care facility. PATIENTS: Patients were 330 patients presenting to the emergency department who met criteria for severe sepsis or septic shock. INTERVENTIONS: Five quality indicators comprised the bundle for severe sepsis management in the emergency department: a) initiate central venous pressure (CVP)/central venous oxygen saturation (Scvo2) monitoring within 2 hrs; b) give broad-spectrum antibiotics within 4 hrs; c) complete early goal-directed therapy at 6 hrs; d) give corticosteroid if the patient is on vasopressor or if adrenal insufficiency is suspected; and e) monitor for lactate clearance. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients had a mean age of 63.8 +/- 18.5 yrs, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score 29.6 +/- 10.6, emergency department length of stay 8.5 +/- 4.4 hrs, hospital length of stay 11.3 +/- 12.9 days, and in-hospital mortality 35.2%. Bundle compliance increased from zero to 51.2% at the end of the study period. During the emergency department stay, patients with the bundle completed received more CVP/Scvo2 monitoring (100.0 vs. 64.8%, p < .01), more antibiotics (100.0 vs. 89.7%, p = .04), and more corticosteroid (29.9 vs. 16.2%, p = .01) compared with patients with the bundle not completed. In a multivariate regression analysis including the five quality indicators, completion of early goal-directed therapy was significantly associated with decreased mortality (odds ratio, 0.36; 95% confidence interval, 0.17-0.79; p = .01). In-hospital mortality was less in patients with the bundle completed compared with patients with the bundle not completed (20.8 vs. 39.5%, p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a severe sepsis bundle using a quality improvement feedback to modify physician behavior in the emergency department setting was feasible and was associated with decreased in-hospital mortality.