Post-intensive care syndrome screening: a French multicentre survey.

BACKGROUND: Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), defined as physical, cognitive, and mental-health symptoms persisting long after intensive-care-unit (ICU) discharge, is increasingly recognised as a healthcare priority. Data on screening for PICS are sparse. Our objective here was to describe post-ICU screening in France, with special attention to visit availability and evaluations done during visits. METHODS: We conducted an online multicentre survey by emailing an anonymous 43-item questionnaire to French ICUs. For each ICU, a single survey was sent to either the head or the intensivist in charge of follow-up visits. RESULTS: Of 252 ICUs invited to participate, 161 (63.9%) returned the completed survey. Among them, 46 (28.6%) offered follow-up visits. Usually, a single visit led by an intensivist was scheduled 3 to 6 months after ICU discharge. Approximately 50 patients/year/ICU, that is, about 5% of admitted patients, attended post-ICU visits. The main criteria used to select patients for follow-up were ICU stay and/or invasive mechanical ventilation duration longer than 48 h, cardiac arrest, septic shock, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Among ICUs offering visits, 80% used validated instruments to screen for PICS. Of the 115 ICUs not offering follow-up, 50 (43.5%) indicated an intention to start follow-up within the next year. The main barriers to offering follow-up were lack of available staff and equipment or not viewing PICS screening as a priority. Half the ICUs offering visits worked with an established network of post-ICU care professionals, and another 17% were setting up such a network. Obstacles to network creation were lack of interest among healthcare professionals and lack of specific training in PICS. CONCLUSION: Only a small minority of ICU survivors received follow-up designed to detect PICS. Less than a third of ICUs offered follow-up visits but nearly another third planned to set up such visits within the next year. Recommendations issued by French health authorities in 2023 can be expected to improve the availability and standardisation of post-ICU follow-up.

Interpretation of results of PCR and B-D-glucan for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis Jirovecii Pneumonia in immunocompromised adults with acute respiratory failure.

BACKGROUND: The accuracy of a diagnostic test depends on its intrinsic characteristics and the disease incidence. This study aims to depict post-test probability of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PJP), according to results of PCR and Beta-D-Glucan (BDG) tests in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diagnostic performance of PCR and BDG was extracted from literature. Incidence of Pneumocystis pneumonia was assessed in a dataset of 2243 non-HIV immunocompromised patients with ARF. Incidence of Pneumocystis pneumonia was simulated assuming a normal distribution in 5000 random incidence samples. Post-test probability was assessed using Bayes theorem. RESULTS: Incidence of PJP in non-HIV ARF patients was 4.1% (95%CI 3.3-5). Supervised classification identified 4 subgroups of interest with incidence ranging from 2.0% (No ground glass opacities; 95%CI 1.4-2.8) to 20.2% (hematopoietic cell transplantation, ground glass opacities and no PJP prophylaxis; 95%CI 14.1-27.7). In the overall population, positive post-test probability was 32.9% (95%CI 31.1-34.8) and 22.8% (95%CI 21.5-24.3) for PCR and BDG, respectively. Negative post-test probability of being infected was 0.10% (95%CI 0.09-0.11) and 0.23% (95%CI 0.21-0.25) for PCR and BDG, respectively. In the highest risk subgroup, positive predictive value was 74.5% (95%CI 72.0-76.7) and 63.8% (95%CI 60.8-65.8) for PCR and BDG, respectively. CONCLUSION: Although both tests yield a high intrinsic performance, the low incidence of PJP in this cohort resulted in a low positive post-test probability. We propose a method to illustrate pre and post-test probability relationship that may improve clinician perception of diagnostic test performance according to disease incidence in predefined clinical settings.

Immediate vs. culture-initiated antibiotic therapy in suspected non-severe ventilator-associated pneumonia: a before-after study (DELAVAP).

BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the leading nosocomial infection in critical care and is associated with adverse outcomes. When VAP is suspected, starting antibiotic therapy (AT) immediately after pulmonary sampling may expose uninfected patients to unnecessary treatment, whereas waiting for bacteriological confirmation may delay AT in infected patients. As no robust data exist to choose between these strategies, the decision must balance the pre-test diagnostic probability, clinical severity, and risk of antimicrobial resistance. The objective of this study in patients with suspected non-severe VAP was to compare immediate AT started after sampling to conservative AT upon receipt of positive microbiological results. The outcomes were antibiotic sparing, AT suitability, and patient outcomes. METHODS: This single-center, before-after study included consecutive patients who underwent distal respiratory sampling for a first suspected non-severe VAP episode (no shock requiring vasopressor therapy or severe acute respiratory distress syndrome). AT was started immediately after sampling in 2019 and upon culture positivity in 2022 (conservative strategy). The primary outcome was the number of days alive without AT by day 28. The secondary outcomes were mechanical ventilation duration, day-28 mortality, and AT suitability (active necessary AT or spared AT). RESULTS: The immediate and conservative strategies were applied in 44 and 43 patients, respectively. Conservative and immediate AT were associated with similar days alive without AT (median [interquartile range], 18.0 [0-21.0] vs. 16.0 [0-20.0], p = 0.50) and without broad-spectrum AT (p = 0.53) by day 28. AT was more often suitable in the conservative group (88.4% vs. 63.6%, p = 0.01), in which 27.9% of patients received no AT at all. No significant differences were found for mechanical ventilation duration (median [95%CI], 9.0 [6-19] vs. 9.0 [6-24] days, p = 0.65) or day-28 mortality (hazard ratio [95%CI], 0.85 [0.4-2.0], p = 0.71). CONCLUSION: In patients with suspected non-severe VAP, waiting for microbiological confirmation was not associated with antibiotic sparing, compared to immediate AT. This result may be ascribable to low statistical power. AT suitability was better with the conservative strategy. None of the safety outcomes differed between groups. These findings would seem to allow a large, randomized trial comparing immediate and conservative AT strategies.

Features and outcomes of patients admitted to the ICU for chimeric antigen receptor T cell-related toxicity: a French multicentre cohort.

BACKGROUND: Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is increasingly used in patients with refractory haematological malignancies but can induce severe adverse events. We aimed to describe the clinical features and outcomes of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after CAR-T therapy. METHODS: This retrospective observational cohort study included consecutive adults admitted to either of two French ICUs in 2018-2022 within 3 months after CAR-T therapy. RESULTS: Among 238 patients given CAR-T therapy, 84 (35.3%) required ICU admission and were included in the study, a median of 5 [0-7] days after CAR-T infusion. Median SOFA and SAPSII scores were 3 [2-6] and 39 [30-48], respectively. Criteria for cytokine release syndrome were met in 80/84 (95.2%) patients, including 18/80 (22.5%) with grade 3-4 toxicity. Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) occurred in 46/84 (54.8%) patients, including 29/46 (63%) with grade 3-4 toxicity. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis was diagnosed in 15/84 (17.9%) patients. Tocilizumab was used in 73/84 (86.9%) patients, with a median of 2 [1-4] doses. Steroids were given to 55/84 (65.5%) patients, including 21/55 (38.2%) given high-dose pulse therapy. Overall, 23/84 (27.4%) patients had bacterial infections, 3/84 (3.6%) had fungal infections (1 invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and 2 Mucorales), and 2 (2.4%) had cytomegalovirus infection. Vasopressors were required in 23/84 (27.4%), invasive mechanical ventilation in 12/84 (14.3%), and dialysis in 4/84 (4.8%) patients. Four patients died in the ICU (including 2 after ICU readmission, i.e., overall mortality was 4.8% of patients). One year after CAR-T therapy, 41/84 (48.9%) patients were alive and in complete remission, 14/84 (16.7%) were alive and in relapse, and 29/84 (34.5%) had died. These outcomes were similar to those of patients never admitted to the ICU. CONCLUSION: ICU admission is common after CAR-T therapy and is usually performed to manage specific toxicities. Our experience is encouraging, with low ICU mortality despite a high rate of grade 3-4 toxicities, and half of patients being alive and in complete remission at one year.