Feasibility of the modified sequential organ function assessment score in a resource-constrained setting: a prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan Africa has a great burden of critical illness with limited health care resources. We evaluated the feasibility and utility of the modified Sequential Organ Function Assessment (mSOFA) score in assessing morbidity and mortality in the National Referral Hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) for one year. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, observational cohort study on patients above 12 years of age admitted to the ICU at Mulago Hospital (Kampala, Uganda). All SOFA scores were determined at admission and at 48 h. We modified the SOFA score by replacing the PaO2/FiO2 ratio with SPO2/FiO2. The primary outcome was ICU mortality. RESULTS: This ICU cohort of 118 patients had a mean age of 37 years and an ICU mortality rate of 46.6%. Non-survivors had higher initial (7.7 SD 3.8 vs. 5.5 SD 3.3; p = 0.007), mean (8.1 SD 3.9 vs 4.7 SD 2.6; p < 0.001) and highest mSOFA scores (9.4 SD 4.2 vs. 5.8 SD 3.2; p < 0.001), with an increase of 1.0 (SD 3.1) mSOFA on average after 48 h when compared to survivors (p < 0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for each mSOFA category was: initial-0.68, mean-0.76, highest-0.76 and delta mSOFA-0.74. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed no significant association between mSOFA scores and mortality. CONCLUSION: Our results confirm that calculation of the mSOFA score is feasible for an ICU population in a resource-limited country. More data are needed to test for an association between mSOFA and mortality.

Prevalence, outcomes and factors associated with adult in hospital cardiac arrests in a low-income country tertiary hospital: a prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Research on cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has considerably increased in recent decades, and international guidelines for resuscitation have been implemented and have undergone several changes. Very little is known about the prevalence and management of in-hospital cardiac arrest in low-resource settings. We therefore sought to determine the prevalence, outcomes and associated factors of adult inpatients with cardiac arrest at a tertiary referral hospital in a low-income country. METHODS: Upon obtaining institutional approval, we conducted a prospective observational period prevalence study over a 2-month period. We recruited adult inpatients with cardiac arrest in the intensive care unit and emergency wards of Mulago Hospital, Uganda during the study period. We reviewed all files and monitoring charts, and also any postmortem findings. Data were analyzed with Stata 12 and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: There was a cardiac arrest in 2.3% (190) of 8,131 hospital admissions; 34.5% occurred in the intensive care unit, 4.4% in emergency operating theaters, and 3.0% in emergency wards. A majority (63.2%) was unwitnessed, and only 35 patients (18.4%) received CPR. There was return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in 14 (7.4%) cardiac arrest patients. Survival to 24 h occurred in three ROSC patients, which was only 1.6% of all cardiac arrest patients during the study period. Trauma was the most common primary diagnosis and HIV infection was the most common co-morbidity. CONCLUSION: Our hospital has a high prevalence of cardiac arrest, and low rates of CPR performance, ROSC, and 24-hour survival. Single provider CPR; abnormal temperatures as well as after hours/weekend CAs were associated with lower survival rates.

Association between CD4 T cell counts and the immune status among adult critically ill HIV-negative patients in intensive care units in Uganda.

Background: Cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) T cells play a central role in regulation of adaptive T cell-mediated immune responses. Low CD4 T cell counts are not routinely reported as a marker of immune deficiency among HIV-negative individuals, as is the norm among their HIV positive counterparts. Despite evidence of mortality rates as high as 40% among Ugandan critically ill HIV-negative patients, the use of CD4 T cell counts as a measure of the immune status has never been explored among this population. This study assessed the immune status of adult critically ill HIV-negative patients admitted to Ugandan intensive care units (ICUs) using CD4 T cell count as a surrogate marker. Methods: A multicentre prospective cohort was conducted between 1st August 2017 and 1st March 2018 at four Ugandan ICUs. A total of 130 critically ill HIV negative patients were consecutively enrolled into the study. Data on sociodemographics, clinical characteristics, critical illness scores, CD4 T cell counts were obtained at baseline and mortality at day 28. Results: The mean age of patients was 45± 18 years (mean±SD) and majority (60.8%) were male. After a 28-day follow up, 71 [54.6%, 95% CI (45.9-63.3)] were found to have CD4 counts less than 500 cells/mm³, which were not found to be significantly associated with mortality at day 28, OR (95%) 1 (0.4-2.4), p = 0.093. CD4 cell count receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) area was 0.5195, comparable to APACHE II ROC area 0.5426 for predicting 24-hour mortality. Conclusions: CD4 T cell counts were generally low among HIV-negative critically ill patients. Low CD4 T cells did not predict ICU mortality at day 28. CD4 T cell counts were not found to be inferior to APACHE II score in predicting 24 hour ICU mortality.

Abnormal Admission Chest X-Ray and MEWS as ICU Outcome Predictors in a Sub-Saharan Tertiary Hospital: A Prospective Observational Study.

Background. Critical care in Uganda is a neglected speciality and deemed costly with limited funding/prioritization. We studied admission X-ray and MEWS as mortality predictors of ICU patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Materials and Methods. We did a cross-sectional study in Mulago Hospital ICU and 87 patients for mechanical ventilation were recruited with mortality as the outcome of interest. Chest X-ray results were the main independent variable and MEWS was also gotten for all patients. Results. We recruited 87 patients; most were males (60.92%), aged between 16 and 45 years (59.77%), and most admissions for mechanical ventilation were from the Trauma Unit (30.77%). Forty-one (47.13%) of the 87 patients died and of these 34 (53.13%) had an abnormal CXR with an insignificant IRR = 1.75 (0.90-3.38) (p = 0.062). Patients with MEWS ≥ 5 (p values = 0.018) and/or having an abnormal superior mediastinum (p values = 0.013) showed a positive association with mortality while having a MEWS ≥ 5 had an incidence risk ratio = 3.29 (1.00-12.02) (p = 0.018). MEWS was a good predictor of mortality (predictive value = 0.6739). Conclusion. Trauma (31%) caused most ICU admissions, having an abnormal admission chest X-rays positively associated with mortality and a high MEWS was also a good predictor of mortality.