Easy prognostic assessment of concomitant organ failure in critically ill patients undergoing mechanical ventilation.

BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening disease. We evaluated the prognostic utility of Model for End-stage Liver Disease excluding INR (MELD-XI) score for predicting mortality in a cohort of critically ill patients on mechanical ventilation. METHODS: In total, 11,091 mechanically ventilated patients were included in our post-hoc retrospective analysis, a subgroup of the VENTILA study (NCT02731898). Evaluation of associations with mortality was done by logistic and Cox regression analysis, an optimal cut-off was calculated using the Youden Index. We divided the cohort in two sub-groups based on their MELD-XI score at the optimal cut-off (12 score points). RESULTS: Peak-, plateau- and positive end-expiratory pressure were higher in patients with MELD-XI>12. Patients with MELD-XI>12 had higher driving pressures (14 ±â€¯6 cmH2O versus 13 ±â€¯6; p < 0.001). MELD-XI was associated with 28-day mortality after correction for relevant cofounders including SAPS II and ventilation pressures (HR 1.04 95%CI 1.03-1.05; p < 0.001. Patients with MELD-XI>12 evidenced both increased hospital (46% versus 27%; p < 0.001) and 28-day mortality (39% versus 22%). CONCLUSIONS: MELD-XI is independently associated with mortality and constitutes a useful and easily applicable tool for risk stratification in critically ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02731898, registered 4 April 2016.

Age-Specific Distribution of Diagnosis and Outcomes of Children Admitted to ICUs: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES: Although several studies have reported outcome data on critically ill children, detailed reports by age are not available. We aimed to evaluate the age-specific estimates of trends in causes of diagnosis, procedures, and outcomes of pediatric admissions to ICUs in a national representative sample. DESIGN: A population-based retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Three hundred forty-four hospitals in South Korea. PATIENTS: All pediatric admissions to ICUs in Korea from August 1, 2009, to September 30, 2014, were covered by the Korean National Health Insurance Corporation, with virtually complete coverage of the pediatric population in Korea. Patients less than 18 years with at least one ICUs admission between August 1, 2009, and September 30, 2014. We excluded neonatal admissions (< 28 days), neonatal ICUs, and admissions for health status other than a disease or injury. The final sample size was 38,684 admissions from 32,443 pediatric patients. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The overall age-standardized admission rate for pediatric patients was 75.9 admissions per 100,000 person-years. The most common primary diagnosis of admissions was congenital malformation (10,897 admissions, 28.2%), with marked differences by age at admission (5,712 admissions [54.8%] in infants, 3,994 admissions [24.6%] in children, and 1,191 admissions [9.9%] in adolescents). Injury was the most common primary diagnosis in adolescents (3,248 admissions, 27.1%). The overall in-hospital mortality was 2,234 (5.8%) with relatively minor variations across age. Neoplasms and circulatory and neurologic diseases had both high frequency of admissions and high in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Admission patterns, diagnosis, management, and outcomes of pediatric patients admitted to ICUs varied by age groups. Strategies to improve critical care qualities of pediatric patients need to be based on the differences of age and may need to be targeted at specific age groups.

Simple functional assessment at hospital discharge can predict long-term outcomes of ICU survivors.

Recent studies showed that physical and/or neuropsychiatric impairments significantly affect long-term mortality of ICU survivors. We conducted this study to investigate that simplified measurement of physical function and level of consciousness at hospital discharge by attending nurses could predict long-term outcomes after hospital discharge. A retrospective analysis of prospectively and retrospectively collected data of 246 patients who received medical ICU treatment was conducted. We grouped patients according to physical function and level of consciousness measured by the simplified method at hospital discharge as follow; group A included patients with alert mental and capable of walking or moving by wheel chairs; group B included those with alert mental and bed-ridden status; and Group C included those with confused mental and bed-ridden status. The two-year survival rate after hospital discharge was compared. Of 246 patients, 157 patients were included in the analysis and there were 103 survivors after two-year follow up. Compared to non-survivors, survivors were more likely to be younger (P = 0.026) and have higher body mass index (P = 0.019) and no malignant disease (P = 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in treatment modalities including medication, use of medical devices, and physical therapy between the survivors and non-survivors. The analysis showed significant differences in survival between the groups classified by physical function (P < 0.001) and level of consciousness (P < 0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that survival rate was significantly lower among the patients in group C than in those in group B or group A (P < 0.001). Simplified method to assess physical function and level of consciousness at hospital discharge can predict long-term outcomes of medical ICU survivors.

Linguistic Validation of the US National Cancer Institute's Patient-Reported Outcomes Version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events in Korean.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to translate and linguistically validate a Korean-language version of the US National Cancer Institute's Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE). METHODS: All 124 PRO-CTCAE items were translated into Korean (PRO-CTCAE-Korean) using International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research best practices and linguistically validated in a diverse sample of patients undergoing cancer treatment (n = 120) to determine whether the Korean translation captured the original concepts. During the cognitive interviews, participants first completed approximately 60 PRO-CTCAE-Korean questions and were then interviewed to evaluate the conceptual equivalence of the translation to the original PRO-CTCAE English-language source. Interview probes addressed comprehension, clarity, and ease of judgement. Three rounds of interviews were conducted. Items that met the a priori threshold of 10% or more of respondents with comprehension difficulties were considered for rephrasing and retesting. RESULTS: A majority of PRO-CTCAE-Korean items were well comprehended in round 1; 14 items posed comprehension difficulties for at least 10% of respondents in round 1. Four symptom terms (mouth and throat sores, feeling like nothing could cheer you up, frequent urination, and pain, swelling, redness at drug injection or intravenous insertion site) were revised and retested in rounds 2 and 3. For the other 10 symptom terms, no suitable alternative phrasing was identified, and the terms were retested in rounds 2 and 3. After rounds 2 and 3, no item presented difficulties in 20% or more of participants. CONCLUSION: PRO-CTCAE-Korean has been linguistically validated for use in Korean-speaking populations. Quantitative evaluation of this new measure to establish its measurement properties and responsiveness in Korean speakers undergoing cancer treatment is in progress.

Association of statin therapy with clinical outcomes in patients with vasospastic angina: Data from Korean health insurance review and assessment service.

There is conflicting evidence for the clinical benefit of statin therapy in patients with vasospastic angina (VSA). We investigated the association of statin therapy with clinical outcomes in relatively large populations with clinically suspected VSA from a nationwide population-based database. Data were collected from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment database records of 4,099 patients that were in an intensive care unit with VSA between January 1, 2008 and May 31, 2015. We divided the patients into a statin group (n = 1,795) and a non-statin group (n = 2,304). The primary outcome was a composite of cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The median follow-up duration was 3.8 years (interquartile range: 2.2 to 5.8 years). Cardiac arrest or AMI occurred in 120 patients (5.2%) in the statin group, and 97 patients (5.4%) in the non-statin group (P = 0.976). With inverse probability of treatment weighting, there was no significant difference in the rate of cardiac arrest or AMI between the two groups (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-1.30; P = 0.937), or even between the non-statin group and high-intensity statin group (adjusted HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.69-1.70; P = 0.75). The beneficial association of statin use with the primary outcome was consistently lacking across the various comorbidity types. Statin therapy was not associated with reduced cardiac arrest or AMI in patients with VSA, regardless of statin intensity. Prospective, randomized trials will be needed to confirm our findings.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Korea - Trends and impact of hospital volume on outcome: Analysis of national insurance data 2009-2014.

PURPOSE: ECMO use has increased lately. However, differences between adult ECMO and non-ECMO patients admitted to the ICU remain unstudied. In terms of volume-outcome relationship, the impact of ECMO volume on survival has not been validated in a real world cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective analysis of data from the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service over 5 years, between August 1, 2009 and July 31, 2014. The ECMO group comprised patients who received ≥1 ECMO run. Data on patient demographics, ICU and hospital length of stay, cost, treatments, and in-hospital mortality were collected. Usage trends were analyzed by 5 one-year periods. RESULTS: Among 1, 265, 508 ICU patients, 6078 underwent ECMO during the study period. The number of ECMO patients rose by 2.5 times, and ECMO hospitals from 50 to 86 between periods 1 and 5. Compared to non-ECMO patients, the ECMO group was younger (59 years vs. 64 years, p < .0001) with more comorbidities. Healthcare expenditure and in-hospital mortality in the ECMO group were higher (US $23,600 vs. $5100; 63.4% vs. 12.6%; p < .0001). Using multivariable analysis, age ≥ 50 years, CRRT, and annual hospital ECMO volume < 20 negatively impacted survival to discharge. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of ECMO among ICU patients was 0.5%. The expenditure and in-hospital mortality of the ECMO group were four and five times higher than non-ECMO group respectively. An annual hospital ECMO volume ≥ 20 may improve survival to hospital discharge.

Differential prognosis of vasospastic angina according to presentation with sudden cardiac arrest or not: Analysis of the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

BACKGROUND: The long-term prognosis of vasospastic angina (VSA) patients presenting with aborted sudden cardiac death (ASCD) is still unknown. We sought to compare the long-term clinical outcomes between VSA patients presenting with and without ASCD by retrospective analysis of a nationwide population-based database. METHODS: A total of 6972 patients in the Health Insurance Review and Assessment database who were hospitalized in the intensive care unit with VSA between July 1, 2007 and May 31, 2015 were enrolled. Primary outcome was the composite of cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction after discharge. RESULTS: Five hundred ninety-eight (8.6%) VSA patients presented with ASCD. On inverse probability of treatment weighting, ASCD patients had a significantly increased risk of the composite of cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.52; 95% confidence interval, 1.72-3.67; p < 0.001) during the median follow-up duration of 4 years. The association of ASCD presentation with a worse outcome in terms of primary outcome was consistent across various subgroups, including comorbidity type and use of vasodilators (all p-values for interaction: non-significant). ASCD patients treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) had a lower incidence of the composite of cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction during follow-up than those without an ICD (p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: VSA patients that present with ASCD are at increased risk of cardiac arrest or myocardial infarction during long-term follow-up despite adequate vasodilator therapy. An ICD is a potential therapeutic option for secondary prevention.

Incidence of hypotension according to the discontinuation order of vasopressors in the management of septic shock: a prospective randomized trial (DOVSS).

BACKGROUND: Vasopressin (AVP) is commonly added to norepinephrine (NE) to reverse shock in patients with sepsis. However, there are no data to support the appropriate strategy of vasopressor tapering in patients on concomitant NE and AVP who are recovering from septic shock. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence of hypotension while tapering vasopressors in patients on concomitant NE and AVP recovering from septic shock. METHODS: Patients with septic shock receiving concomitant NE and AVP were randomly assigned to taper NE first (NE group) or AVP first (AVP group). The primary end point was the incidence of hypotension within one hour of tapering of the first vasopressor. We also evaluated the association between serum copeptin levels and the occurrence of hypotension. RESULTS: The study was stopped early due to a significant difference in the incidence of hypotension after 38 and 40 patients were enrolled in the NE group and the AVP group, respectively. There were 26 patients (68.4%) in the NE group versus 9 patients (22.5%) in the AVP group who developed hypotension after tapering the first vasopressor (p < 0.001). There was a similar finding during the subsequent tapering of the second vasopressor (64.5% in the NE vs 25.0% in the AVP group, p = 0.020). Finally, NE tapering was significantly associated with hypotension during the study period (hazard ratio, 2.221; 95% confidence interval, 1.106-4.460; p = 0.025). The serum copeptin level was lower in patients in whom hypotension developed during tapering of AVP than it was in those without hypotension. CONCLUSIONS: Tapering NE rather than AVP may be associated with a higher incidence of hypotension in patients recovering from septic shock who are on concomitant NE and AVP. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are required to better determine the appropriate strategy for vasopressor tapering. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01493102 . Registered on 15 December 2011.

Mortality after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation: multicenter analysis in Korea.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate factors associated with the mortality of patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the impact of a hospital rapid response system (RRS) on patient mortality in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective multicenter cohort study was done in 22 ICUs of 15 centers from July 1, 2010, to January 31, 2011. We only enrolled patients admitted to ICUs after in-hospital CPR and divided eligible patients into 2 groups-survivors and nonsurvivors. RESULTS: Among 4617 patients, 150 patients were admitted post-CPR, 76 died, and 74 survived. At 24 hours, the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, and the best Glasgow Coma Scale were significantly lower in the nonsurvivors than in the survivors. In multivariate analysis, the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II and presence of lower respiratory infection were both independently associated with mortality. At the first hour after admission, lowest serum potassium and highest heart rate were associated with mortality. At 24 hours after admission, lowest mean arterial pressure, HCO3 level, and venous oxygen saturation level; highest heart rate; and use of vasoactive drugs were associated with mortality. The mortality of patients in hospitals with an RRS was not significantly different from that of hospitals without an RRS. CONCLUSION: Various physiologic and laboratory parameters were associated with the mortality of post-CPR ICU admitted patients, and the presence of an RRS did not reduce mortality of these patients in our study.

Early intervention on the outcomes in critically ill cancer patients admitted to intensive care units.

PURPOSE: To determine whether earlier intervention was associated with decreased mortality in critically ill cancer patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: A retrospective observational study was performed of 199 critically ill cancer patients admitted to the ICU from the general ward between January 2010 and December 2010. A logistic regression model was used to adjust for potential confounding factors in the association between time to intervention and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: In-hospital mortality was 52 %, with a median Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 (SAPS 3) of 80 [interquartile range (IQR) 67-93], and a median Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score of 8 (IQR 5-11). Median time from physiological derangement to intervention (time to intervention) prior to ICU admission was 1.5 (IQR 0.6-4.3) h. Median time to intervention was significantly shorter in survivors than in non-survivors (0.9 vs. 3.0 h; p < 0.001). Additionally, the mortality rates increased significantly with increasing quartiles of time to intervention (p < 0.001, test for trend). Other factors associated with in-hospital mortality were severity of illness, performance status, hematologic malignancy, stem-cell transplantation, presence of three or more abnormal physiological variables, time from derangement to ICU admission, presence of infection, need for mechanical ventilation and vasopressor, and low PaO(2)/FiO(2) ratio. Even after adjusting for potential confounding factors, time to intervention was still significantly associated with hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio 1.445, 95 % confidence interval 1.217-1.717). CONCLUSIONS: Early intervention before ICU admission was independently associated with decreased in-hospital mortality in critically ill cancer patients admitted to the ICU.