Prediction of intra-abdominal injury using natural language processing of electronic medical record data.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to use natural language processing to predict the presence of intra-abdominal injury using unstructured data from electronic medical records. METHODS: This was a random-sample retrospective observational cohort study leveraging unstructured data from injured patients taken to one of 9 acute care hospitals in an integrated health system between 2015 and 2021. Patients with International Classification of Diseases External Cause of Morbidity codes were identified. History and physical, consult, progress, and radiology report text from the first 8 hours of care were abstracted. Annotator dyads independently annotated encounters' text files to establish ground truth regarding whether intra-abdominal injury occurred. Features were extracted from text using natural language processing techniques, bag of words, and principal component analysis. We tested logistic regression, random forests, and gradient boosting machine to determine accuracy, recall, and precision of natural language processing to predict intra-abdominal injury. RESULTS: A random sample of 7,000 patient encounters of 177,127 was annotated. Only 2,951 had sufficient information to determine whether an intra-abdominal injury was present. Among those, 84 (2.9%) had an intra-abdominal injury. The concordance between annotators was 0.989. Logistic regression of features identified with bag of words and principal component analysis had the best predictive ability, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.9, recall of 0.73, and precision of 0.17. Text features with greatest importance included "abdomen," "pelvis," "spleen," and "hematoma." CONCLUSION: Natural language processing could be a screening decision support tool, which, if paired with human clinical assessment, can maximize precision of intra-abdominal injury identification.

Type 2 Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infection: A Disastrous Diagnosis Not To Be Missed.

Necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs) are severe, life-threatening forms of infection. Tissues from the epidermis to the deep musculature may be affected. This includes necrotizing forms of cellulitis, myositis, and fasciitis. Delayed diagnosis can lead to widespread tissue loss, limb loss, and mortality, representing a group of infectious surgical emergencies requiring time-sensitive aggressive debridement. This article presents a unique case with a particularly ambiguous and vague presentation of type 2, group A streptococcal NSTI in an intravenous drug abuser. This rapidly spreading infection subjected her to profound morbidity, with loss of all four extremities. Type 2 NSTIs are particularly challenging to diagnose as they often present without classic signs of skin changes, subcutaneous air, and crepitus. They also spread more rapidly and, as such, have a higher morbidity and mortality rate than type 1 NSTIs. We are striving to increase physician awareness of such cases, with the aim of earlier recognition and earlier limb and life-saving interventions.

Preventive Measures and Active Response against COVID-19 Taken by All Four Provinces, Two Independent Territories, and the Federal State of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Islamabad.

The novel coronavirus disease outbreak started in December, 2019 in Wuhan, China. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic due to uncontrolled situation. Pakistani government management against COVID-19 was excellent having 204.65 million population, all four provinces, two independent territories, and federal state took different initiative in pandamic situation c. that's why the situation was under control in Pakistan due to state respond urgently to halt the spread of disease. With rapid response and full support of the government of Pakistan, the situation was under control in all aspects of life, June 17, 2019, each district of Pakistan recorded at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 due to remarkable effort against pandemic. The state of Pakistan declare urgency and fastest action to control the situation, economic package, ventilator manufacturing, and diagnostic kits were manufactured locally. The DRAP Pakistan permitted to use different drugs against COVID-19 and purchased vaccines from China. Due to the planning and management of the Pakistani Government, the situation was under control as compared with neighborhood countries (China and India), in both countries COVID-19 waves was lethal.

Effect of high flow transnasal dry air on core body temperature in intubated human subjects.

PURPOSE: Early initiation of hypothermia is recommended in the setting of cardiac arrest. Current hypothermia methods are invasive and expensive and not applicable in ambulatory settings. We investigated the evaporative cooling effect of high flow transnasal dry air on core esophageal temperature in human volunteers. METHODS & RESULTS: A total of 32 subjects (mean age 53.2 ± 9.3 yrs., mean weight 90 ± 17 kg) presenting for elective electrophysiological procedures were enrolled for the study. Half of the subjects were men. Following general anesthesia induction, high flow (30 LPM) medical grade ambient dry air with a relative humidity ∼20% was administered through a nasal mask for 60 min. Core temperature was monitored at the distal esophagus. Half of the subjects (16/32) were subject to high flow air and the remainder served as controls. Over a 1-h period, mean esophageal temperature decreased from 36.1 ± 0.3 °C to 35.5 ± 0.1 °C in the test subjects (p < 0.05). No significant change in temperature was observed in the control subjects (36.3 ± 0.3 °C to 36.2 ± 0.2 °C, p = NS). No adverse events occurred. CONCLUSION: Transnasal high flow dry air through the nasopharynx reduces core body temperature. This mechanism can be harnessed to induce hypothermia in patients where clinically indicated without any deleteriouseffects in a short time exposure.

Rapid Induction of Therapeutic Hypothermia Using Transnasal High Flow Dry Air.

Early induction of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is recommended in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (CA); however, currently no reliable methods exist to initiate cooling. We investigated the effect of high flow transnasal dry air on brain and body temperatures in adult porcine animals. Adult porcine animals (n = 23) under general anesthesia were subject to high flow of transnasal dry air. Mouth was kept open to create a unidirectional airflow, in through the nostrils and out through the mouth. Brain, internal jugular, and aortic temperatures were recorded. The effect of varying airflow rate and the air humidity (0% or 100%) on the temperature profiles were recorded. The degree of brain cooling was measured as the differential temperature from baseline. A 10-minute exposure of high flow dry air caused rapid cooling of brain and gradual cooling of the jugular and the aortic temperatures in all animals. The degree of brain cooling was flow dependent and significantly higher at higher airflow rates (0.8°C ± 0.3°C, 1.03°C ± 0.6°C, and 1.3°C ± 0.7°C for 20, 40, and 80 L, respectively, p < 0.05 for all comparisons). Air temperature had minimal effect on the brain cooling over 10 minutes with similar decrease in temperature at 4°C and 30°C. At a constant flow rate (40 LPM) and temperature, the degree of cooling over 10 minutes during dry air exposure was significantly higher compared to humid air (100% saturation) (1.22°C ± 0.35°C vs. 0.21°C ± 0.12°C, p < 0.001). High flow transnasal dry air causes flow dependent cooling of the brain and the core temperatures in intubated porcine animals. The mechanism of cooling appears to be evaporation of nasal mucus as cooling is mitigated by humidifying the air. This mechanism may be exploited to initiate TH in CA.

Association Between Left Atrial Stiffness Index and Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence in Patients Undergoing Left Atrial Ablation.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with significant abnormalities of left atrial (LA) systolic and diastolic function. This study describes a novel measure, LA stiffness index, that estimates LA diastolic function and its association with clinical outcomes of catheter ablation. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 219 AF patients referred for ablation (59% paroxysmal, mean CHA2DS2VASc score 1.7 ± 1.4) were enrolled. Atrial pressure and volume loops were prepared from invasive pressure measures and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging volumetric data during sinus rhythm for all patients. An LA stiffness index was created, defined by the ratio of change in LA pressure to volume during passive filling of LA (ΔP/ΔV). Patients were followed prospectively. Mean LA stiffness index for AF patients was 0.6 ± 0.5 mm Hg/mL (paroxysmal AF 0.51 ± 0.4 and persistent AF 0.73 ± 0.6; P < 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed a rise in the stiffness index with age, increasing at a rate of 0.02 mm Hg/mL per year (P < 0.001). The LA stiffness index was higher in patients with previous LA ablation(s) for AF (0.51 ± 0.35 versus 0.83 ± 0.70; P < 0.001). Forty of 160 patients had recurrence after AF ablation with a mean follow-up of 10.4 ± 7.6 months. Patients with recurrence had higher stiffness index than those without recurrence (0.83 ± 0.46 versus 0.40 ± 0.22; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: LA stiffness index, a novel measure to assess LA diastolic function, increases with age and is higher in persistent AF and in the setting of repeat AF ablation. Greater LA stiffness index was independently associated with recurrence of AF after LA ablation.

Relationship between left atrial appendage morphology and stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an important cause of stroke. Given the morbidity and mortality associated with stroke, the risk stratification of patients based on left atrial appendage (LAA) characteristics is of great interest. OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between LAA morphology and LAA characteristics including the extent of trabeculations, orifice diameter, and length with prevalent stroke in a large cohort of patients with drug refractory AF who underwent AF ablation to develop mechanistic insight regarding the risk of stroke. METHODS: An institutional cohort of 1063 patients referred for AF ablation from 2003 to 2012 was reviewed to identify patients that underwent preprocedural cardiac computed tomography (CT). LAA morphology was characterized as chicken wing, cactus, windsock, or cauliflower by using previously reported methodology. Left atrial size and LAA trabeculations, morphology, orifice diameter, and length were compared between patients with prevalent stroke and patients without prevalent stroke. RESULTS: Of 678 patients with CT images, 65 (10%) had prior stroke or transient ischemic attack. In univariate analyses, prevalent heart failure (7.7% in cases vs 2.8% in controls; P = .033), smaller LAA orifice (2.26 ± 0.52 cm vs 2.78 ± 0.71 cm ; P < .001), shorter LAA length (5.06 ± 1.17 cm vs 5.61 ± 1.17 cm; P < .001), and extensive LAA trabeculations (27.7% vs 14.4%; P = .019) were associated with stroke. LAA morphologies were unassociated with stroke risk. In multivariable analysis, smaller LAA orifice diameter and extensive LAA trabeculations remained independently associated with thromboembolic events. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of LAA trabeculations and smaller LAA orifice diameter are associated with prevalent stroke and may mediate the previously described association of cauliflower LAA morphology with stroke.