Predicting symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage versus lacunar disease in patients with longstanding hypertension.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hypertension results in a spectrum of subcortical cerebrovascular disease. It is unclear why some individuals develop ischemia and others develop hemorrhage. Risk factors may differ for each population. We identify factors that predispose an individual to subcortical symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) compared with ischemia. METHODS: Demographic and laboratory data were prospectively collected for hypertensive patients presenting with ischemic stroke or sICH during an 8.5-year period. Neuroimaging was retrospectively reviewed for acute (subcortical lacunes [<2.0 cm] versus subcortical sICH) and chronic (periventricular white matter disease and cerebral microbleeds) findings. We evaluated the impact of age, race, sex, serum creatinine, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, low-density lipoprotein, presence of periventricular white matter disease or cerebral microbleeds, and other factors on the risk of sICH versus acute lacune using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Five hundred seventy-one patients had subcortical pathology. The presence of cerebral microbleeds (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 3.39; confidence interval [CI], 2.09-5.50) was a strong predictor of sICH, whereas severe periventricular white matter disease predicted ischemia (OR, 0.56 risk of sICH; CI, 0.32-0.98). This association was strengthened when the number of microbleeds was evaluated; subjects with >5 microbleeds had an increased risk of sICH (OR, 4.11; CI, 1.96-8.59). It remained significant when individuals with only cortical microbleeds were removed (OR, 1.77, CI, 1.13-2.76). An elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (OR, 1.19 per 10 mm/h increase; CI, 1.06-1.34) was significantly associated with sICH, whereas low-density lipoprotein was associated with ischemic infarct (OR, 0.93 risk of sICH per 10 mg/dL increase; CI, 0.86-0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Subclinical pathology is the strongest predictor of the nature of subsequent symptomatic event. Low-density lipoprotein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate may also have a role in risk stratification.

Together in Care: An Enhanced Meals on Wheels Intervention Designed to Reduce Rehospitalizations among Older Adults with Cardiopulmonary Disease-Preliminary Findings.

Rehospitalizations in the Medicare population may be influenced by many diverse social factors, such as, but not limited to, access to food, social isolation, and housing safety. Rehospitalizations result in significant cost in this population, with an expected increase as Medicare enrollment grows. We designed a pilot study based upon a partnership between a hospital and a local Meals on Wheels agency to support patients following an incident hospitalization to assess impact on hospital utilization. Patients from an urban medical center who were 60 years or older, had a prior hospitalization in the past 12 months, and had a diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were recruited. Meals on Wheels provided interventions over 3 months of the patient's transition to home: food delivery, home safety inspection, social engagement, and medical supply allocation. Primary outcome was reduction of hospital expenditure. In regard to the results, 84 participants were included in the pilot cohort, with the majority (54) having COPD. Mean age was 74.9 ± 10.5 years; 33 (39.3%) were female; 62 (73.8%) resided in extreme socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Total hospital expenditures while the cohort was enrolled in the transition program were $435,258 ± 113,423, a decrease as compared to $1,445,637 ± 325,433 (p < 0.01) of the cohort's cost during the three months prior to enrollment. In conclusion, the initiative for patients with advanced chronic diseases resulted in a significant reduction of hospitalization expenditures. Further investigations are necessary to define the impact of this intervention on a larger cohort of patients as well as its generalizability across diverse geographic regions.

Comparing Critical Care Admissions Among Urban Populations Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, reassessing intensive care unit (ICU) use by population should be a priority for hospitals planning for critical care resource allocation. In our study, we reviewed the impact of COVID-19 on a community hospital serving an urban region, comparing the sociodemographic distribution of ICU admissions before and during the pandemic. We executed a time-sensitive analysis to see if COVID-19 ICU admissions reflect the regional sociodemographic populations and ICU admission trends before the pandemic. Sociodemographic variables included sex, race, ethnicity, and age of adult patients (ages 18 years and older) admitted to the hospital's medical and cardiac ICUs, which were converted to COVID-19 ICUs. The time period selected was 18 months, which was then dichotomized into pre-COVID-19 admissions (December 1, 2018 to March 13, 2020) and COVID-19 ICU admissions (March 14 to May 31, 2020). Variables were compared using Fisher's exact tests and Wilcoxon tests when appropriate. During the 18-month period, 1,861 patients were admitted to the aforementioned ICUs. The mean age of the patients was 62.75 (SD 15.57), with the majority of these patients being male (52.23%), White (64.43%), and non-Hispanic/Latinx (95.75%). Differences were found in racial and ethnic distribution comparing pre-COVID-19 admissions to COVID-19 admissions. Compared with pre-COVID-19 ICU admissions, we found an increase in African American versus White admissions (P = .01) and an increase in Hispanic/Latinx versus non-Hispanic/Latinx admissions (P < .01), during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first 3 months of admissions to COVID-19 ICUs, the number of admissions among Hispanic/Latinx and African American patients increased while the number of admissions among non-Hispanic/Latinx and White patient decreased, compared with the pre-COVID-19 period. These findings support development of strategies to enhance allocation of resources to bolster novel, equitable strategies to mitigate the incidence of COVID-19 in urban populations.

The Effect of Eliminating Intermediate Severity Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts on Overall Medication Alert Burden and Acceptance Rate.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the effects of reducing the number of drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts in an order entry system. METHODS: Retrospective pre-post analysis at an urban medical center of the rates of medication alerts and alert acceptance during a 5-month period before and 5-month period after the threshold for firing DDI alerts was changed from "intermediate" to "severe." To ensure that we could determine varying response to each alert type, we took an in-depth look at orders generating single alerts. RESULTS: Before the intervention, 241,915 medication orders were placed, of which 25.6% generated one or more medication alerts; 5.3% of the alerts were accepted. During the postintervention period, 245,757 medication orders were placed of which 16.0% generated one or more medication alerts, a 37.5% relative decrease in alert rate (95% confidence interval [CI]: -38.4 to -36.8%), but only a 9.6% absolute decrease (95% CI: -9.4 to -9.9%). 7.4% of orders generating alerts were accepted postintervention, a 39.6% relative increase in acceptance rate (95% CI: 33.2-47.2%), but only a 2.1% absolute increase (95% CI: 1.8-2.4%). When only orders generating a single medication alert were considered, there was a 69.1% relative decrease in the number of orders generating DDI alerts, and an 85.7% relative increase in the acceptance rate (95% CI: 58.6-126.2%), though only a 1.8% absolute increase (95% CI: 1.3-2.3%). CONCLUSION: Eliminating intermediate severity DDI alerts resulted in a statistically significant decrease in alert burden and increase in the rate of medication alert acceptance, but alert acceptance remained low overall.

Factors associated with medication warning acceptance for hospitalized adults.

BACKGROUND: Computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems can warn clinicians ordering medications about potential allergic or adverse reactions, duplicate therapy, and interactions with other medications. Clinicians frequently override these warnings. Understanding the factors associated with warning acceptance should guide revisions to these systems. OBJECTIVE: Increase understanding of the factors associated with medication warning acceptance. DESIGN: Retrospective study of all single-medication warnings generated in a CPOE system from October 2009 through April 2010. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENTS: All adult non-intensive care unit patients hospitalized during the study period. RESULTS: A total of 40,391 medication orders generated a single-medication warning during the 7-month study period. Of these warnings, 47% were duplicate warnings, 47% interaction warnings, 6% allergy warnings, 0.1% adverse reaction warnings, and 9.8% were repeated for the same patient, medication, and provider. Only 4% of warnings were accepted. In multivariate analysis, warning acceptance was positively associated with male patient gender, admission to a service other than internal medicine, caregiver status other than resident, parenteral medications, lower numbers of warnings, and allergy or adverse reaction warning types. Older patient age, longer length of stay, inclusion on the Institute for Safe Medication Practice's List of High Alert Medications, and interaction warning type were all negatively associated with warning acceptance. CONCLUSIONS: Medication warnings are rarely accepted. Acceptance is more likely when the warning is infrequently encountered, and least likely when it is potentially most important. Warning systems should be redesigned to increase their effectiveness for the sickest patients, the least experienced physicians, and the medications with the greatest potential to cause harm.

Combination therapy with interferon-alpha(2b), ribavirin, and amantadine in chronic hepatitis C nonresponders to interferon and ribavirin.

Standard therapies for the treatment of hepatitis C are ineffective in almost 50% of patients. Amantadine is an antiviral agent that may have activity against hepatitis C virus. In this pilot study, we evaluated the efficacy of a combination of interferon, ribavirin, and amantadine in patients with chronic hepatitis C who had previously failed 6-12 months of treatment with interferon and ribavirin. In this prospective open-label study, 23 patients were treated with a combination of interferon-alpha(2b) 3 million units subcutaneously three times per week, ribavirin 1000-1200 mg daily, and amantadine 100 mg twice daily for 6-12 months. Treatment was discontinued at 6 months if the patients had detectable HCV RNA by PCR. All patients were followed for 6 months after the completion of treatment. At the end of treatment, the biochemical response was 47% and the virological response was 30%. However, the rate of sustained virological response was only 13% (3/23). There were no unexpected side effects with triple therapy. In conclusion, triple therapy with interferon, ribavirin and amantadine resulted in a low sustained viral clearance in chronic hepatitis C patients who had previously failed interferon and ribavirin combination therapy.