Clinical use of an immune monitoring panel in liver transplant recipients: A prospective, observational study.

Immunosuppressive therapy greatly contributed to making liver transplantation the standard treatment for end-stage liver diseases. However, it remains difficult to predict and measure the efficacy of pharmacological immunosuppression. Therefore, we used a panel of standardized, commonly available, biomarkers with the aim to describe their changes in the first 3 weeks after the transplant procedure and assess if they may help therapeutic drug monitoring in better tailoring the dose of the immunosuppressive drugs. We prospectively studied 72 consecutive patients from the day of liver transplant (post-operative day #0) until the post-operative day #21. Leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes (CD4+, CD8+), natural killer cells, monocytes, immunoglobulins and tacrolimus serum levels were measured on peripheral blood (at day 0, 3, 7, 14, 21 after surgery). Patients who developed infections showed significantly higher CD64+ monocytes on post operative day #7. IgG levels were lower on post operative day #3 among patients who later developed infections. We also found that a sharp decrease in IgA from post operative day #0 to 3 (-226 mg/dL in the ROC curve analysis) strongly correlates with the onset of infections among HCV- patients. No specific markers of rejection emerged from the tested panel of markers. Our results show that some early changes in peripheral blood white cells and immunoglobulins may predict the onset of infections and may be useful in modulating the immunosuppressive therapy. However, a panel of commonly available, standardized biomarkers do not support in improving therapeutic drug monitoring ability to individualize immunosuppressive drugs dosing.

Use of a decision support system improves the management of hemodynamic and respiratory events in orthopedic patients under propofol sedation and spinal analgesia: a randomized trial.

Decision support systems (DSSs) have been successfully implemented into clinical practice offering clinical suggestions and treatment options with excellent results in various clinical settings. Although their results appeared promising, showing that DSSs can increase anesthesiologists' vigilance and patient safety during surgery, DSSs have never been used before to help anesthesiologists in identifying critical events in patients under spinal analgesia with sedation. We have developed and clinically evaluated a DSS for this specific task. The DSS was developed with the ability to indicate respiratory and hemodynamic critical events via audio-visual alarms and give decisional aid. Critical respiratory events were defined as SpO2 <92 % and/or respiratory rate <8/min. Critical hemodynamic events were defined as mean arterial pressure (MAP) <60 mmHg and/or heart rate <40 bpm. The objective of this trial was to determine the duration to detect and treat these critical events with the help of the DSS (DSS Group) compared with a standard Control Group where the system was not in place. One hundred and fifty orthopedic patients undergoing spinal analgesia with propofol sedation were enrolled in this randomized control trial, 75 each group. All respiratory and hemodynamic critical events were detected in the DSS Group, while in the Control Group 26 % of the events were not detected.The delay to detect and treat critical events was significantly shorter (P < 0.0001) in the DSS Group at 9.1 ± 3.6 s, whereas 27.5 ± 18.9 s were necessary to identify them in the Control Group. There were no significant differences in physiological parameters in the two groups during surgery. The number of critical events/h occurring and the duration of surgery were similar in both groups. The number of hypoxemia episodes was significantly less (P = 0.036) in the DSS group (0.7 ± 1.0 vs. 1.4 ± 2.2 for the Control Group). The DSS tested in this trial could help the clinician to detect and treat critical events more efficiently and in a shorter length of time.

The Kepler intubation system.

Our goal in this study was to develop a robotic intubation system and to conduct a feasibility pilot study on the use of a robotic intubation system for endotracheal intubations. The Kepler Intubation System was developed, consisting of a remote control center (joystick and intubation cockpit) linked to a standard videolaryngoscope via a robotic arm. Ninety intubations were performed by the Kepler Intubation System on an airway trainer mannequin by a single operator. The first group of 30 intubations was performed with the operator in direct view of the mannequin (direct view group). The second group of 30 intubations was performed with the operator unable to see the mannequin (indirect view group). Thirty semiautomated intubations were also performed during which the robotic system replayed a trace of a previously recorded intubation maneuver (semiautomated group). First-attempt success rates and intubation times for each trial were recorded. Trends were analyzed using linear regression. Data are presented as mean (SD). All intubations were successful at first attempt. The mean intubation times were 46 (18) seconds, 51 (19) seconds, and 41 (1) seconds for the direct view, indirect view, and semiautomated group, respectively. Both the direct and indirect view groups had a negative slope, denoting that each successive trial required less time. The semiautomated group had a slope of 0 and a low SD of 1 second, illustrating the high reproducibility of automated intubations. We concluded that a robotic intubation system has been developed that can allow remote intubations within 40 to 60 seconds.