by Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today SEATTLE — Add-on treatment with the biologic therapy dupilumab (Dupixent) was associated with reduced severe exacerbations and improved lung function in patients with allergic asthma in a post-hoc analysis of phase III data from the Liberty Asthma Quest study reported here. The analysis compared outcomes in patients with allergic disease versus those [… read more]
More than 60% of patients receiving mechanical ventilation have continued to receive daily chest x-rays since the publication of guidelines recommending against the practice. The findings came from a database review of hundreds of thousands of patients and were published in JAMA Network Open. The American College of Radiology once recommended daily chest films in [… read more]
by Diana Swift, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today Laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery deserves further investigation for prevention of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) progression in some patients with gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD), after favorable results were seen in a phase II study. Known as the WRAP-IPF trial, the study found GERD surgery was safe and well tolerated, with fewer serious adverse [… read more]
Fluoroquinolone warning labels keep getting longer. In 2018 the U.S. FDA ordered stronger cautions about mental health side effects, and severe hypoglycemia causing coma and death. Mental health disturbances now attributed to fluoroquinolones include: Attention disturbances Disorientation Agitation Nervousness Short-term memory loss Delirium The risk of hypoglycemic coma now gets a specific mention on the [… read more]
Obese people are significantly more likely to survive severe illness due to infections, as compared to people with normal weights, according to analyses of three large data sets presented at a European conference. Among more than 1.5 million hospitalizations for pneumonia in the U.S. between 2013-2014, obese patients (BMI > 30) were 29% more likely [… read more]
Another large study suggests that there is no benefit to early initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in patients with severe sepsis with septic shock and acute kidney injury (AKI). And many patients whose renal replacement was delayed recovered sufficient kidney function to avoid dialysis entirely. Because AKI is associated with worse outcomes in critical [… read more]
By Milton Packer MD November 28, 2018 If you ask most laypeople what medical schools do, they will tell you that their primary mission is to train people on how to be great doctors. While this is an understandable answer, for most of recent history, it was wrong. In the 1800s, there were over 400 U.S. [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny MD [@heart_lung] with illustrations by Carla M Canepa MD [@_carlemd_] “I’ve never known any trouble than an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.” -Schopenhauer The last few decades have infamously boasted numerous failed therapies for sepsis and septic shock. Because sepsis represents an explosive and chaotic cacophony of pro and anti-inflammatory mediators – treatments which [… read more]
Severe hyponatremia (often defined as a serum sodium < 120 mEq/L) occurs most often in people with pituitary or lung tumors, those taking antipsychotic or other neuroleptic drugs, heavy beer drinkers, or the elderly. Usually sodium levels decline slowly over weeks or months prior to detection, allowing time for the brain to compensate, with only [… read more]
by Ed Susman, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today SAN DIEGO — Noninvasive ventilation aimed for use at home by late-stage patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) actually saves patients and the healthcare system money by helping to keep individuals out of the hospital and doctors’ offices, researchers said here. Nightly home noninvasive ventilation (commonly called BiPAP) was [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny MD [@heart_lung] In a recent and excellent open-access review, Gattinoni, Quintel and Marini ask which is worse, volutrauma or atelectrauma [1]? This concise review is an absolute must-read and forms the fabric from which this short article assembles. Last spring – in Montreal – I was asked a few questions about volutrauma [… read more]
Oral Anticoagulants in the ICU: A summary of the evidence for efficacy in atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, and unique clinical cases Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are recommended as the preferred treatment for venous thromboembolism (VTE) and as a first-line option for stroke prevention in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), but warfarin may be preferred in certain [… read more]
Well-done bag-mask ventilation can produce adequate gas exchange for the vast majority of cardiac arrest patients, but does not provide a secure airway and is physically taxing. Patients in cardiac arrest undergoing CPR tend to immediately receive bag-mask ventilation, which is often interrupted to perform endotracheal intubation. To facilitate intubation, chest compressions may also be [… read more]
Procalcitonin (PCT) is an FDA-approved test for use in guiding clinical decisions on starting, continuing, or stopping antibiotics in patients with lower respiratory tract infections, such as community-acquired pneumonia. Procalcitonin is also approved for use in determining whether to stop antibiotics. Most of the small studies testing procalcitonin-driven algorithms have shown the method to be generally safe [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny MD [@heart_lung] with illustrations by Carla M Canepa MD [@_carlemd_] “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” -Mark Twain Case An 89 year old man with a 100 pack-year smoking history is admitted with weakness and inability to take anything by mouth. He was discharged 2 months prior after a treatment [… read more]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dupilumab (Dupixent, Sanofi/Regeneron) as “add-on maintenance therapy in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma aged 12 years and older with an eosinophilic phenotype or with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma,” according to the manufacturer’s news release. In randomized trials, asthmatic patients with higher blood eosinophil counts (≥ 150 cells/µL) failing corticosteroid [… read more]
Neither typical antipsychotics (haloperidol) or newer antipsychotics (ziprasidone) were effective in treating delirium in critically ill patients, in a major randomized trial. The results call into question widely used pharmacologic treatments for ICU delirium. Authors enrolled 1,183 adult patients at medical or surgical ICUs at 16 U.S. medical centers who developed delirium while critically ill [… read more]
How many days of steroids should be taken by people with COPD exacerbations severe enough to require hospitalization? In 2013, the REDUCE trial (JAMA) suggested five days of systemic corticosteroids are as good as longer 10-14 day courses, among 314 patients hospitalized with severe COPD exacerbations. This contradicted the prevailing GOLD guidelines at the time, [… read more]
Jon-Emile S. Kenny MD [@heart_lung] “Once had a love and it was a gas …” -Blondie Case A 56 year old professor returns from a hiking trip in the ‘Four Corners’ area of New Mexico. She was previously well and decided to rent a secluded desert cabin whilst writing a novel on the ethical obligations [… read more]
Procalcitonin-driven algorithms did not lead to lower antibiotic use for suspected pneumonias in the emergency department, in a large randomized trial. The multicenter ProACT trial enrolled 1,656 patients presenting with symptoms of pneumonia at multiple emergency departments. Patients were randomized to receive care guided by procalcitonin results (with thresholds to guide initiation or withholding of antibiotics), [… read more]
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