Coronary Bypass in an Adolescent With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Acute Coronary Syndrome.

A 12-year-old female with active pediatric juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus presented to the emergency department because of episodes of oppressive central thoracic pain associated with pallor, sweating, and muscle weakness that persisted for >30 minutes. During the last episode, the electrocardiogram revealed alterations in cardiac repolarization coincident with progressive troponin T elevation. An angio computed tomography revealed a 20 mm long complete segmental obstruction of the proximal anterior descending artery that was confirmed by angiography. Because this extensive occlusion did not permit a noninvasive procedure, an off-pump coronary bypass of the internal mammary artery to the anterior descending artery was performed without complication. Six months after the procedure, myocardial function was good. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of an adolescent girl with acute coronary syndrome complicating juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus that was treated with a surgical procedure.

Paediatric intensive care 'do not do' recommendations in Spain: Selection by Delphi method.

INTRODUCTION: Health care is not free of ineffective, unsafe or inefficient diagnostic and therapeutic practices. To address this, different scientific societies and health authorities have proposed 'do not do' recommendations (DNDRs). Our goal was the selection by consensus of a set of DNDRs for paediatric intensive care in Spain. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The research was carried out in 2 phases: first, gathering potential DNDRs; second, selecting the most important ones, using the Delphi method, based on the prevalence of the practice to be modified, the severity of its potential risks and the ease with which it could be modified. Proposals and evaluations were both made by members of working groups of the Sociedad Española de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos (SECIP, Spanish Society of Paediatric Intensive Care), coordinated by email. The initial set of DNDRs was reduced based on the coefficient of variation (<80%) of the corresponding evaluations. RESULTS: A total of 182 DNDRs were proposed by 30 intensivists. The 14 Delphi evaluators managed to pare down the initial set to 85 DNDRs and, after a second round, to the final set of 26 DNDRs. The care quality dimensions most represented in the final set are clinical effectiveness and patient safety. CONCLUSIONS: This study allowed the selection by consensus of a series of recommendations to avoid unsafe, inefficient or ineffective practices in paediatric intensive care in Spain, which could be useful for improving the quality of clinical care in our field.

[The checklists: A help or a hassle?] / Las listas de verificación: ¿una ayuda o una molestia?

Patient safety has become a central component of quality of care. One of the best known and most widely used security tool in all work settings is the checklist. The checklist is a tool that helps to not forget any step during the performance of a procedure, to do tasks with an established order, to control the fulfilment of a series of requirements or to collect data in a systematic way for its subsequent analysis. It is an aid to improve the efficiency of teamwork, promote communication, decrease variability, standardize care and improve patient safety. Main barriers to implementation are reviewed: staff attitudes, hierarchies, poor design, inadequate training, duplication with other work lists, work overload, cultural barriers, lack of replication or checklist closing time. Finally, its applications in Pediatrics are reviewed starting from the most widespread, the safety checklist of pediatric surgery, checklists in neonatal critical units, for safe delivery, for risk procedures, in pediatric intensive care and for pathology time-dependent emergent, e.g. pediatric trauma. It is necessary to highlight the role of leadership in the implantation of a checklist in any area of Pediatrics. There must be one or more people from the team with the support of the Heads of Service and Managers who lead the training of the personnel, direct the implementation of the LV, evaluate the results, inform the rest of the team and can modify the processes depending on the problems found.

Set of Quality Indicators of Pediatric Intensive Care in Spain: Delphi Method Selection.

INTRODUCTION: This study objective was to identify, select, and define a basic set of quality indicators for pediatric intensive care in Spain. METHODS: (1) Review of the literature to identify quality indicators and their defining elements and (2) selection of indicators by consensus of a group of experts using basic Delphi methodology (2 rounds) and forms distributed by email among experts from the Spanish society of pediatric intensive care. RESULTS: We selected quality indicators according to their relevance and feasibility and the experts' agreement on their incorporation in the final set. We included only those indicators whose assessment was within the highest tertile and greater than or equal to 70% evaluator agreement in the final selection. Starting from an initially proposed set of 136 indicators, 31 experts first selected 43 indicators for inclusion in the second round. Twenty indicators were selected for the final set. This "top 20" set comprised 9 process indicators, 9 of results (especially treatment-associated adverse effects), and 2 indicators of structure. Several of them are classical indicators in intensive care medicine (rates of hospital-acquired infections, pressure ulcers, etc.), whereas others are specifically pediatric (eg, unrestricted parent visitation or training the parents of technology-dependent children). CONCLUSIONS: We reached a consensus on a set of 20 essential quality indicators for pediatric intensive care in Spain. A significant subset reflects the peculiarities of pediatric care. We consider this subset as a starting point for future projects of network collaboration between pediatric intensive care units in Spain.

[High levels of atrial natriuretic peptide and copeptin and mortality risk]. / Asociación de valores elevados de péptido natriurético auricular y copeptina con riesgo de mortalidad.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether high levels of mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), copeptin, and procalcitonin (PCT) plasma concentrations are associated with increased mortality risk. METHODS: Prospective observational study including 254 critically ill children. MR-proANP, copeptin and PCT were compared between children with high (Group A; n=33) and low (Group B; n=221) mortality risk, and between patients with failure of more than 1 organ (Group 1; n=71) and less than 2 (Group 2; n=183). RESULTS: Median (range) of MR-proANP, copeptin, and PCT levels in group A vs B were, respectively: 209.4 (30.5-1415.8) vs. 75.0 (14.6-867.2) pmol/L (P<.001); 104.4 (7.4-460.9) vs. 26.6 (0.00-613.1) pmol/L (P<.001), and 7.8 (0.3-552.0) vs. 0.3 (0.02-107.0) ng/mL (P<.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for the differentiation of group A and B was 0.764 (95% CI: 0.674-0.854) for MR-proANP; 0.735 (0.642-0.827) for copeptin, and 0.842 (0.744-0.941) for PCT, with no statistical differences. The AUCs for the differentiation of group 1 and 2 were: 0.837 (0.784-0.891) for MR-proANP, 0.735 (0.666-0.804) for copeptin, and 0.804 (0.715-0.892) for PCT, with statistical differences between MR-proANP and copeptin, P=.01. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of MR-proANP, copeptin and PCT were associated with increased mortality risk scores. MR-proANP showed a higher association than copeptin with number of organs in failure.

Infectious complications of percutaneous central venous catheterization in pediatric patients: a Spanish multicenter study.

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of infectious complications and risk factors in percutaneous central venous catheters. DESIGN: One-year observational, prospective, multicenter study (1998-1999). SETTING: Twenty Spanish pediatric intensive care units. PATIENTS: Eight hundred thirty-two children aged 0-14 years. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: One thousand ninety-two catheters were analyzed. Seventy-four (6.81%) catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) were found. The CRBSI rate was 6.4 per 1,000 CVC days (95% CI 5.0-8.0). Risk factors for CRBSI were weight under 8 kg (p < 0.001), cardiac failure (RR 2.69; 95% CI 1.95-4.38; p < 0.001), cancer (RR 1.66; 95% CI 0.97-2.78; p=0.05), silicone catheters (RR 2.82; 95% CI 1.49-5.35; p = 0.006), guidewire exchange catheterization (p=0.002), obstructed catheters (RR 2.67; 95% CI 1.63-4.39; p<0.001), and more than 12 days' indwelling time (RR 5.9; 95% CI 3.63-9.41; p<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression identified lower patient weight (HR 2.4; 95% CI 1.11-5.19; p=0.002), guidewire exchange catheterization (HR 2.2; 95% CI 1.07-4.54; p=0.049) and more than 12 days' indwelling time (HR 1.97; 95% CI 0.89-4.36; p=0.089) as significant independent predictors of CRBSI. Factors which protected against infection were the use of povidone-iodine on hubs (HR 0.42; 95% CI 0.19-0.96; p=0.025) and porous versus impermeable dressing (HR 0.41; 95% CI 0.23-0.74; p=0.004). Two children (0.24%) died from endocarditis following catheter-related sepsis due to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in one case and P. aeruginosa in the other. CONCLUSIONS: Catheter-related sepsis is associated with lower patient weight and more than 12 days' indwelling time, but not with the insertion site. Cleaning hubs with povidone-iodine protects from infection.