Assessing the Impact of a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team and Treatment Protocol on Patients Presenting With Acute Pulmonary Embolism.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) care has traditionally been fragmented. The newly introduced Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) model provides streamlined care based on expedient, multi-disciplinary decision-making. This study aimed to quantify the impact of PERT, as part of a hospital-wide PE treatment protocol, on clinical outcomes. METHODS: Consecutive adult patients with acute PE diagnosed via computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) were included. The PERT and treatment protocol were introduced in January 2015. Patient characteristics, therapies, quality measures of CTPA reporting, and clinical outcomes of PE patients treated for 2 years before and after implementation of these changes were evaluated. Primary endpoints were median length of stay in intensive care (ICU) and survival to discharge. RESULTS: A total of 321 consecutive PE patients were enrolled, of which 154 (treated in 2013-2014) and 167 (2015-2016) patients formed the historical control and study groups, respectively. Implementation of the algorithm was associated with less variance in anticoagulation and improved reporting of right heart strain parameters on CTPA. The ICU stay was reduced from a median of 5 to 2 days (p < 0.01). Eligible massive PE patients receiving reperfusion increased from 30% to 92% (p = 0.01), with mean delay from diagnosis to reperfusion decreasing from 763 to 181 minutes (p < 0.01). Bleeding complications were not increased, but overall survival to discharge remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Introducing a PERT and treatment protocol reduced ICU stay, enhanced quality measures, and improved access of massive PE patients to reperfusion therapies, without increasing bleeding complications or health care costs.

Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy: Melioidosis Mimicking Tuberculosis.

Melioidosis has protean manifestations and often mimics other disease processes. We present a case of a gentleman presenting with chronic cough whose initial radiographic findings of a cavitatory lung lesion and mediastinal lymphadenopathy were suggestive of tuberculosis. This case highlights the important role that bronchoscopy and endobronchial ultrasound can play in the diagnosis of melioidosis in patients presenting with mediastinal lymphadenopathy whose initial microbiological findings from sputum are negative for tuberculosis.

Characteristics and outcomes of culture-negative versus culture-positive severe sepsis.

INTRODUCTION: Culture-negative sepsis is a common but relatively understudied condition. The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics and outcomes of culture-negative versus culture-positive severe sepsis. METHODS: This was a prospective observational cohort study of 1001 patients who were admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital from 2004 to 2009 with severe sepsis. Patients with documented fungal, viral, and parasitic infections were excluded. RESULTS: There were 415 culture-negative patients (41.5%) and 586 culture-positive patients (58.5%). Gram-positive bacteria were isolated in 257 patients, and gram-negative bacteria in 390 patients. Culture-negative patients were more often women and had fewer comorbidities, less tachycardia, higher blood pressure, lower procalcitonin levels, lower Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (median 25.0 (interquartile range 19.0 to 32.0) versus 27.0 (21.0 to 33.0), P = 0.001) and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores, less cardiovascular, central nervous system, and coagulation failures, and less need for vasoactive agents than culture-positive patients. The lungs were a more common site of infection, while urinary tract, soft tissue and skin infections, infective endocarditis and primary bacteremia were less common in culture-negative than in culture-positive patients. Culture-negative patients had a shorter duration of hospital stay (12 days (7.0 to 21.0) versus 15.0 (7.0 to27.0), P = 0.02) and lower ICU mortality than culture-positive patients. Hospital mortality was lower in the culture-negative group (35.9%) than in the culture-positive group (44.0%, P = 0.01), the culture-positive subgroup, which received early appropriate antibiotics (41.9%, P = 0.11), and the culture-positive subgroup, which did not (55.5%, P < 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, culture positivity was not independently associated with mortality on multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences between culture-negative and culture-positive sepsis are identified, with the former group having fewer comorbidities, milder severity of illness, shorter hospitalizations, and lower mortality.

Identification of concurrent bacterial infection in adult patients with dengue.

We aim to construct a diagnostic model for bacterial coinfection in dengue patients (Dengue Dual Infection Score [DDIS]); 2,065 adult dengue patients (mean age = 41.9 ± 17.2 years, 58.4% male, 83 patients with bacterial coinfection) seen at a university hospital from January of 2005 to February of 2010 were studied. The DDIS was created by assigning one point to each of five risk factors for bacterial coinfection: pulse rate ≥ 90 beats/minute, total white cell count ≥ 6 × 10(9)/L, hematocrit < 40%, serum sodium < 135 mmol/L, and serum urea ≥ 5 mmol/L. The DDIS identified bacterial coinfection (derivation set area under the curve = 0.793, 95% confidence interval = 0.732-0.854; validation set area under the curve = 0.761, 95% confidence interval = 0.637-0.886). A DDIS of ≥ 4 had a specificity of 94.4%, whereas a DDIS of ≥ 1 had a sensitivity of 94.4% for bacterial coinfection. The DDIS can help to select dengue patients for early bacterial cultures and empirical antibiotics.

The use of a blood conservation device to reduce red blood cell transfusion requirements: a before and after study.

INTRODUCTION: Anaemia and the associated need for packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusions are common in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Among many causes, blood losses from repeated diagnostic tests are contributory. METHODS: This is a before and after study in a medical ICU of a university hospital. We used a closed blood conservation device (Venous Arterial blood Management Protection, VAMP, Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA, USA) to decrease PRBC transfusion requirements. We included all adult (> or =18 years) patients admitted to the ICU with indwelling arterial catheters, who were expected to stay more than 24 hours and were not admitted for active gastrointestinal or any other bleeding. We collected data for six months without VAMP (control group) immediately followed by nine months (active group) with VAMP. A restrictive transfusion strategy in which clinicians were strongly discouraged from any routine transfusions when haemoglobin (Hb) levels were above 7.5 g/dL was adopted during both periods. RESULTS: Eighty (mean age 61.6 years, 49 male) and 170 patients (mean age 60.5 years, 101 male) were included in the control and active groups respectively. The groups were comparable for age, gender, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, need for renal replacement therapy, length of stay, and Hb levels on discharge and at transfusion. The control group had higher Hb levels on admission (12.4 +/- 2.5 vs. 11.58 +/- 2.8 gm/dL, P = 0.02). Use of a blood conservation device was significantly associated with decreased requirements for PRBC transfusion (control group 0.131 unit vs. active group 0.068 unit PRBC/patient/day, P = 0.02) on multiple linear regression analysis. The control group also had a greater decline in Hb levels (2.13 +/- 2.32 vs. 1.44 +/- 2.08 gm/dL, P = 0.02) at discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a blood conservation device is associated with 1) reduced PRBC transfusion requirements and 2) a smaller decrease in Hb levels in the ICU.