Practical Anemia Bundle for Sustained Blood Recovery (PABST-BR) in critical illness: a protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Anaemia is highly prevalent in critical illness and is associated with impaired outcomes during and after hospitalisation. However, the impact of interventions designed to attenuate or treat anaemia during critical illness on post-hospitalisation haemoglobin recovery and functional outcomes is unclear. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Practical Anemia Bundle for Sustained Blood Recovery (PABST-BR) clinical trial is a pragmatic, open-label, parallel group, single-centre, randomised clinical trial assessing the impact of a multifaceted anaemia prevention and treatment strategy versus standard care for improvement of haemoglobin concentrations and functional outcomes after critical illness. The intervention, which will be delivered early in critical illness for those with moderate-to-severe anaemia (ie, haemoglobin <100 g/L), includes three components: (1) optimised phlebotomy, (2) clinical decision support and (3) pharmacological anaemia treatment directed at the underlying aetiology of anaemia. In-person assessments will occur at 1 and 3 months post-hospitalisation for laboratory evaluations and multidimensional functional outcome assessments. The primary outcome is differences in haemoglobin concentrations between groups, with secondary endpoints of anaemia-related fatigue, physical function, cognition, mental health, quality of life, phlebotomy volumes and frequency, transfusions, readmissions and mortality through 1-year post-hospitalisation. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA. A Data Safety Monitoring Plan has been created in accordance with the policies of the Institutional Review Board and the study funder, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study will comply with NIH data sharing and dissemination policies. Results will be presented at national and international meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals. Designing and testing strategies to optimise haemoglobin recovery and improve functional outcomes after critical illness remain important research gaps. The PABST-BR trial will inform the development of a larger multicentre clinical trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05167734.

Beware of positive pressure: coronary artery air embolism following percutaneous lung biopsy.

Patients undergoing percutaneous lung biopsy are at risk of developing a systemic air embolism. Air embolism may manifest as a catastrophic iatrogenic event with ischemic insult to the end organs, with sites of least resistance such as coronary and cerebral circulation the most susceptible. We review the available literature and present a case of iatrogenic air embolism during computed tomography guided percutaenous lung biopsy under general anesthesia. Management, outcome, and periprocedural factors that may have contributed to the complication are discussed.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) with associated S. aureus bacteriuria (SABU) as a predictor of complications and mortality.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Staphylococcus aureus (SA) bacteremia (SAB) is associated with a high rate of complications, most of which are related to hematogenous seeding into deep tissues or prosthetic material. SA bacteriuria (SABU) has been described in association with SAB, but has not been evaluated as a predictor for complicated bacteremia, which was the objective of our study. METHODS (DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS): We conducted a retrospective study of patients admitted to the hospital with SAB. The 118 patients included in the study were divided in 2 cohorts: a group with SABU and a group without SA in the urine. We followed the 2 cohorts for an average of 8 months and evaluated the differences in complications and mortality. RESULTS: SABU was found in 28 of 118 patients with SAB. Eighteen patients (64%) in this group had complications from the bacteremia, while in the group without SABU only 33% (30/90 patients) had complications (P = 0.004). The SABU group also had more deaths (32% vs. 14%; P = 0.036). CONCLUSIONS: In this population of hospitalized patients with SAB, the presence of SABU was associated with an increased risk of early complications, including septic shock, and with higher mortality. A routine urine culture in search of SABU may be a helpful tool for detection of those patients with SAB who are at increased risk of complications and death.