Clinical Approach to the Patient in Critical State Following Immunotherapy and/or Stem Cell Transplantation: Guideline for the On-Call Physician.

: The initial management of the hematology patient in a critical state is crucial and poses a great challenge both for the hematologist and the intensive care unit (ICU) physician. After years of clinical practice, there is still a delay in the proper recognition and treatment of critical situations, which leads to late admission to the ICU. There is a much-needed systematic ABC (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) approach for the patients being treated on the wards as well as in the high dependency units because the underlying hematological disorder, as well as disease-related complications, have an increasing frequency. Focusing on score-based decision-making on the wards (Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), together with Quick Sofa score), active sepsis screening with inflammation markers (C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, and presepsin), and assessment of microcirculation, organ perfusion, and oxygen supply by using paraclinical parameters from the ICU setting (lactate, central venous oxygen saturation (ScVO2), and venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide difference), hematologists can manage the immediate critical patient and improve the overall outcome.

Clinical significance of procalcitonin in differentiation of bloodstream infections caused by coagulase-negative Staphylococcus from contamination in the Department of Hematology / 中国感染与化疗杂志

Objective To examine the value ofprocalcitonin (PCT) in differential diagnosis of bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) from contamination in Department of Hematology.Methods One hundred and fifty-six patients with bloodstream or intravenous catheter-related CNS infection were included in this study.The patients were treated in Department of Hematology,the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University during the period from January 2013 to December 2015.The patients were divided into CNS bloodstream infection group (n=66) and blood culture contamination group (n=90).The two groups were compared in terms of sex,age,diagnosis,length of hospital stay,duration of neutropenia,neutrophil count and lymphocyte count,peak fever,C-reactive protein (CRP) and PCT.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted with SPSS 21.0 software to analyze the value of PCT in differential diagnosis.Results Age,sex,clinical diagnosis,length of hospital stay,duration of neutropenia,neutrophil count and lymphocyte count did not show significant difference between bloodstream infection group and contamination group (P＞0.05),while peak fever (P＜0.001),CRP (P=0.002) and PCT (P=0.018) were significantly higher in bloodstream infection group than in contamination group.ROC analysis indicated that PCT provided optimal discrimination between these two groups at cnt-offvalue of 0.374 μg/L,with sensitivity of 54.5％ and specificity of 94.4％.The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.830±0.032 (95％ CI:0.767-0.893,P＜0.001).Conclusions PCT may be a good marker for differentiating CNS bloodstream infection from contamination with higher specificity than the commonly used marker CRP.This finding may help clinicians reduce the overuse of antibiotics.

[Complications associated to central venous catheters in hematology patients]. / Complicaciones asociadas al catéter venoso central en pacientes hematológicos.

OBJECTIVE: To discover the incidence of central venous catheters (tunnelled, subcutaneous and PICC) in patients with onco-hematological conditions, hospitalized in the Hematology or Transplantations of Hematopoietic Stem Cells Units, in two tertiary care hospitals. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional, descriptive study form was developed in order to gather sociodemographic, clinical data as well as complications and follow-up of the care protocol. Each catheter was assigned a correlative identification number. Information was collected on 366 catheters: 185 in the University Hospital Ramón y Cajal (HURYC), 80 tunnelled, 40 subcutaneous venous access and 65 PICC, and 181 in the University Hospital Gregorio Marañón (HUGM), 101 tunnelled and 80 subcutaneous venous access. FINDINGS: Major complications in the tunnellized were infections (13.7% in HURYC vs. 6.8% in HUGM - p<0.001) and occlusions (at least once in 3.8% vs. 21.8%). In subcutaneous venous access, infections were confirmed in 5% in HURYC vs. 1.2% in HUGM. There were occlusions at least once in 10% in HUGM and no other significant complications were detected. Regarding PICC, information was only collected in HURYC, where complications were phlebitis 10.8%, thrombosis 7.7%, confirmed or suspected infection 4.6%, occlusion at least once 7.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Differences between hospitals with regard to major complications, infection and occlusion may be related to different care protocol. We need to stress the high incidence of phlebitis and thrombosis in PICC catheters, compared with data of lower incidence of other papers.

Efficacy of 1.0% chlorhexidine-gluconate ethanol compared with 10% povidone-iodine for long-term central venous catheter care in hematology departments: a prospective study.

The efficacy of 1% chlorhexidine-gluconate ethanol and 10% povidone-iodine for skin antisepsis of central venous catheter (CVC) sites were compared among hematology patients. The CVC site colonization rates of those groups were 11.9% and 29.2%, respectively, and the catheter-associated blood stream infections were 0.75 and 3.62 per 1,000 catheter-days, respectively. One percent chlorhexidine-gluconate ethanol was superior to povidone-iodine to reduce skin colonizers at CVC sites even when catheters were used for long duration.