A Study of the Psychometric Properties of the "Stanford Proxy Test for Delirium" (S-PTD): A New Screening Tool for the Detection of Delirium.

BACKGROUND: Delirium is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Half the cases remain misdiagnosed. OBJECTIVE: Assess the effectiveness of the Stanford Proxy Test for Delirium (S-PTD) in detecting delirium in an inpatient setting. METHODS: This is a comparison study. Daily assessment with S-PTD, by the patient's nurse, and a neuropsychiatric assessment by a psychiatrist. Assessments were blinded. Inclusion criteria included 18 years or older. Exclusion criteria included patient's or surrogate's unwillingness to participate, inability to consent if a surrogate was not available, and inability to communicate in English or Spanish. A total of 309 patients were approached: 27 declined participation, 4 were excluded, and 278 subjects were followed up throughout their hospital stay. In the end, 78 were excluded for lack of neuropsychiatric assessment, S-PTD, or both. One was excluded for lack of demographic data. The sensitivity and specificity of the S-PTD in detecting delirium when compared with a neuropsychiatric assessment. RESULTS: Participants were on average 60.8 years old and 54.3% were male. Patients who developed delirium were, on average, older (15.12 y, confidence interval: 8.94-21.32). A total of 199 patients were analyzed; 43 patients (21.6%) met criteria for delirium. S-PTD detected 67 days with delirium (16.5%) of 405 hospital days, while neuropsychiatric evaluation identified 83 (20.5%). S-PTD had a sensitivity of 80.72% and a specificity of 90.37%. CONCLUSION: S-PTD is an effective, comprehensive, and simple screening tool for delirium, which is robust despite fluctuating symptoms and lack of cooperation. The use of S-PTD may enhance early diagnosis of delirium.

Delirium after lung transplantation: Association with recipient characteristics, hospital resource utilization, and mortality.

BACKGROUND: Delirium is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The factors associated with post-lung transplant delirium and its impact on outcomes are under characterized. METHODS: The medical records of 163 consecutive adult lung transplant recipients were reviewed for delirium within 5 days (early-onset) and 30 hospital days (ever-onset) post-transplantation. A multivariable logistic regression model assessed factors associated with delirium. Multivariable negative binomial regression and Cox proportional hazards models assessed the association of delirium with ventilator duration, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), hospital LOS, and one-year mortality. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent of patients developed early-onset, and 44% developed ever-onset delirium. Obesity (OR 6.35, 95% CI 1.61-24.98) and bolused benzodiazepines within the first postoperative day (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.07-4.89) were associated with early-onset delirium. Early-onset delirium was associated with longer adjusted mechanical ventilation duration (P=.001), ICU LOS (P<.001), and hospital LOS (P=.005). Ever-onset delirium was associated with longer ICU (P<.001) and hospital LOS (P<.001). After adjusting for clinical variables, delirium was not significantly associated with one-year mortality (early-onset HR 1.65, 95% CI 0.67-4.03; ever-onset HR 1.70, 95% CI 0.63-4.55). CONCLUSIONS: Delirium is common after lung transplant surgery and associated with increased hospital resources.

Frontal Lobe Epilepsy: A Primer for Psychiatrists and a Systematic Review of Psychiatric Manifestations.

BACKGROUND: Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) can masquerade as a primary psychiatric condition, be misdiagnosed in-lieu of a true psychiatric disorder, or may be comorbid with psychiatric illness. OBJECTIVES: To (1) qualitatively review psychiatric manifestations of FLE and (2) to systematically review the cases/case series of psychiatric manifestations of FLE presented in the literature to date. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was performed following the PRISMA guidelines and using PubMed/Medline, PsychInfo, and Cochrane database of systematic reviews to identify cases and case series of psychiatric manifestations of FLE. RESULTS: A total of 35 separate articles were identified. Further, 17 patients primarily presented with psychosis, 33 with affective symptoms, and 16 with personality changes. Also, 62% of cases were males and 38% were females. Ages ranged from 2-83 years with the average age of 32.7. Prior psychiatric history was reported in 27.3% of cases. Causes of seizure were known in 53%, with the most common causes being dysplasia and tumor. Only 6 cases (<10%) did not have electroencephalographic correlations. Psychiatric manifestations were primarily ictal in 74.3% of the cases. Associated manifestations included motor (63.6%), cognitive (34.8%), and medical (9.0%) findings. Surgery was required in 31.8% of the cases, whereas others were treated with medications alone. All, but 3, patients were seizure free and saw an improvement in symptoms with treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Given the complexity and multifunctionality of the frontal lobes, FLE can present with complex, psychiatric manifestations, with associated motor, cognitive, and medical changes; thus, psychiatrists should keep FLE on the differential diagnosis of complex neuropsychiatric cases.

Prospective Validation Study of the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS) in Medically Ill Inpatients: A New Scale for the Prediction of Complicated Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome.

AIMS: The prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among hospitalized medically ill patients exceeds 40%. Most AUD patients experience uncomplicated alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), requiring only supportive medical intervention, while complicated AWS occurs in up to 20% of cases (i.e. seizures, delirium tremens). We aimed to prospectively test and validate the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS), a new tool to identify patients at risk for developing complicated AWS, in medically ill hospitalized patients. METHODS: We prospectively considered all subjects hospitalized to selected general medicine and surgery units over a 12-month period. Participants were assessed independently and blindly on a daily basis with PAWSS, Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment-Alcohol, Revised (CIWA-Ar) and clinical monitoring throughout their admission to determine the presence and severity of AWS. RESULTS: Four hundred and three patients were enrolled in the study. Patients were grouped by PAWSS score: Group A (PAWSS < 4; considered at low risk for complicated AWS); Group B (PAWSS ≥ 4; considered at high risk for complicated AWS). The results of this study suggest that, using a PAWSS cutoff of 4, the tool's sensitivity for identifying complicated AWS is 93.1% (95%CI[77.2, 99.2%]), specificity is 99.5% (95%CI[98.1, 99.9%]), positive predictive value is 93.1% and negative predictive value is 99.5%; and has excellent inter-rater reliability with Lin's concordance coefficient of 0.963 (95% CI [0.936, 0.979]). CONCLUSION: PAWSS has excellent psychometric characteristics and predictive value among medically ill hospitalized patients, helping clinicians identify those at risk for complicated AWS and allowing for prevention and timely treatment of complicated AWS.

Electron transfer and catalytic control by the iron-sulfur clusters in a respiratory enzyme, E. coli fumarate reductase.

Factors governing the efficacy of long-range electron relays in enzymes have been examined using protein film voltammetry in conjunction with site-directed mutagenesis. Investigations of the fumarate reductase from Escherichia coli, in which three Fe-S clusters relay electrons over more than 30 A, lead to the conclusion that varying the medial [4Fe-4S] cluster potential over a 100 mV range does not have a significant effect on the inherent kinetics of electron transfer to and from the active-site flavin. The results support a proposal that the reduction potential of an individual electron relay site in a multicentered enzyme is not a strong determinant of activity; instead, as deduced from the potential dependence of catalytic electron transfer, electron flow through the intramolecular relay is rapid and reversible, and even uphill steps do not limit the catalytic rate.