Molecular diagnosis of bacteremia in a pediatric intensive care unit: a step forward.

Aim: T2Bacteria® Panel detects six ESKAPE pathogens in around 3.5 h directly in whole blood. Our aim was to compare T2Bacteria with simultaneous blood culture in critically ill children with suspected bloodstream infection. Materials & methods: Retrospective study of critically ill children admitted to our tertiary-care center (2018-2020). Results: A total of 60 patients were recruited, including 63 episodes and 75 T2Bacteria/blood cultures were performed. Overall agreement between T2Bacteria and blood culture was 78.7% with a discordance of 21.3% (16/75 samples). Conclusion: T2Bacteria Panel may be useful in critically ill children providing an accurate and fast diagnosis of bacteremia directly from blood sample and detecting pathogens not recovered in blood cultures.

Diaphragm Ultrasonography to Predict Noninvasive Respiratory Treatment Failure in Infants With Severe Bronchiolitis.

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive respiratory support is commonly used in treatment of bronchiolitis. Determinants of failure are needed to prevent delayed intubation. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational pilot study in infants admitted to a pediatric ICU. Diaphragmatic excursion (dExc), diaphragmatic inspiratory/expiratory time, and diaphragmatic thickening fraction (dTF) were recorded at admission, 24 h, and 48 h in both hemidiaphragms. RESULTS: Twenty-six subjects were included (14 on HFNC and 12 on NIV) with a total of 56 ultrasonographic evaluations. Three subjects required invasive ventilation. Sixty-four percent of the subjects on HFNC required NIV as rescue therapy and 2/14 invasive ventilation (14.2%). In the HFNC group there were no differences in dExc between those who required escalation to NIV or invasive ventilation and those who didn't. Left dTF was higher in subjects on HFNC requiring invasive ventilation versus those needing NIV (left dTF 47% vs 22% [13-30]; P = .046, r = 0.7). Diaphragmatic I:E ratios were higher in infants on HFNC requiring invasive ventilation and diaphragmatic expiratory time was shorter (left P = .038; right P = .02). In the NIV group there were no differences in dExc, I:E ratios, or dTF between subjects needing escalation to invasive ventilation and those who didn't. We found no correlation between a clinical work of breathing score and echographic dTF. CONCLUSIONS: In infants with moderate or severe bronchiolitis receiving HFNC, the use of ultrasonographic left dTF could help predict respiratory treatment failure and need for invasive ventilation. The use of ultrasonographic dExc is of little help to predict both.

Acute Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure in Children at the Start of COVID-19 Outbreak: A Nationwide Experience.

STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective, multicenter, and observational study with the aim of describing physiological characteristics, respiratory management, and outcomes of children with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF) from different etiologies receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) compared with those affected by SARS-CoV-2. METHODS AND MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients met the inclusion criteria: 9 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 19 patients without COVID-19. Non-COVID-19 patients had more pre-existing comorbidities (78.9% vs. 44.4%) than COVID-19 patients. At AHRF onset, non-COVID-19 patients had worse oxygenation (PaO2/FiO2 = 95 mmHg (65.5-133) vs. 150 mmHg (105-220), p = 0.04), oxygenation index = 15.9 (11-28.4) vs. 9.3 (6.7-10.6), p = 0.01), and higher PaCO2 (48 mmHg (46.5-63) vs. 41 mmHg (40-45), p = 0.07, that remained higher at 48 h: 54 mmHg (43-58.7) vs. 41 (38.5-45.5), p = 0.03). In 12 patients (5 COVID-19 and 7 non-COVID-19), AHRF evolved to pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS). All non-COVID-19 patients had severe PARDS, while 3 out of 5 patients in the COVID-19 group had mild or moderate PARDS. Overall Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine (PICU) mortality was 14.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Children with AHRF due to SARS-CoV2 infection had fewer comorbidities and better oxygenation than patients with non-COVID-19 AHRF. In this study, progression to severe PARDS was rarely observed in children with COVID-19.

Candidemia Diagnosis With T2 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in a PICU: A New Approach.

OBJECTIVES: Early diagnosis of invasive Candida infections is a challenge for pediatricians, intensivists, and microbiologists. To fill this gap, a new nanodiagnostic method has been developed using manual application of T2 nuclear magnetic resonance to detect Candida species. The aim of this study was to evaluate, prospectively, the usefulness as a tool diagnosis of the T2Candida panel in pediatric patients admitted at the PICU compared with blood culture. DESIGN: This is a prospective, observational, and unicentric study to compare T2Candida results with simultaneous blood cultures for candidemia diagnose. SETTING: This study was carried out in a 1,300-bed tertiary care hospital with a 16-bed medical-surgical PICU. PATIENTS: Sixty-three patients from 0 to 17 years old were enrolled in this study, including those undergoing solid organ transplantation (kidney, liver, pulmonary, multivisceral, intestinal, and heart) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Seven patients were positive by the T2Candida test. Only two of them had the simultaneous positive blood culture. T2Candida yielded more positive results than blood cultures. CONCLUSIONS: T2Candida might be useful for the diagnosis of candidemia in PICUs. The prevalence of candidemia might be underestimated in this pediatric population. The use of this diagnostic tool in these units may help clinicians to start adequate and timely antifungal treatments.

Asynchrony, neural drive, ventilatory variability and COMFORT: NAVA versus pressure support in pediatric patients. A non-randomized cross-over trial.

PURPOSE: To determine if neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) improves asynchrony, ventilatory drive, breath-to-breath variability and COMFORT score when compared to pressure support (PS). METHODS: This is a non-randomized short-term cross-over trial in which 12 pediatric patients with asynchrony (auto-triggering, double triggering or non-triggered breaths) were enrolled. Four sequential 10-min periods of data were recorded after 20 min of ventilatory stabilization (wash-out) at each of the following settings: baseline PS with the ventilator settings determined by the attending physician (1-PS(b)); PS after optimization (2-PS(opt)); NAVA level set so that maximum inspiratory pressure (P(max)) equaled P(max) in PS (3-NAVA); same settings as in 2-PS(opt) (4-PS(opt)). RESULTS: The median asynchrony index was significantly lower during NAVA (2.0%) than during 2-PS(opt) (8.5%, p = 0.017) and 4-PS(opt) (7.5%, p = 0.008). In NAVA mode, the NAVA trigger accounted on average for 66% of triggered breaths. The median trigger delay with respect to neural inspiratory time was significantly lower during NAVA (8.6%) than during 2-PS(opt) (25.2%, p = 0.003) and 4-PS(opt) (28.2%, p = 0.0005). The median electrical activity of the diaphragm (EAdi) change during trigger delay normalized to maximum inspiratory EAdi difference was significantly lower during NAVA (5.3%) than during 2-PS(opt) (21.7%, p = 0.0005) and 4-PS(opt) (24.6%, p = 0.001). The coefficient of variation of tidal volume was significantly higher during NAVA (44.2%) than during 2-PS(opt) (19.8%, p = 0.0002) and 4-PS(opt) (23.0%, p = 0.0005). The median COMFORT score during NAVA (15.0) was lower than that during 2-PS(opt) (18.0, p = 0.0125) and 4-PS(opt) (17.5, p = 0.039). No significant changes for any variable were observed between 1-PS(b) and 2-PS(opt). CONCLUSIONS: Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist as compared to optimized PS results in improved synchrony, reduced ventilatory drive, increased breath-to-breath mechanical variability and improved patient comfort.