Raised serum cardiac troponin I concentrations predict hospital mortality in intensive care unit patients

BACKGROUND

Recent work suggests that increased plasma concentrations of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) are common in critically ill patients and are associated with poor outcome. We measured the frequency of increased plasma cTnI concentrations during patients' stay in a mixed medical/surgical intensive care unit (ICU) and compared our findings with hospital mortality.

METHODS

Basic details, organ support, and hospital mortality were recorded for all patients treated in ICU during a 6 month period. cTnI concentrations were sampled daily for all patients, using 0.04 µg litre(-1) as the upper limit of normal, and 0.12 µg litre(-1) as an additional stratification point.

RESULTS

Of 663 patients, 54% were male, with a mean (sd) age of 60 (18) yr, 65% were surgical patients, and the median Acute Physiology and Chronic Ill Health II (APACHE II) score was 15 (inter-quartile range 12-20). Increased cTnI concentrations were found in 345 patients (52%) while in ICU. One hundred and twenty patients (18%) died in hospital. cTnI concentration >0.04 µg litre(-1) was associated with reduced odds of hospital survival, independent of age, medical admission, unplanned admission, APACHE II score, mechanical ventilation, and haemofiltration (adjusted odds ratio 0.25, 95% confidence interval 0.08-0.75, P=0.014). Stratification by the degree of cTnI increase revealed an incremental trend towards a lower odds of hospital survival, including for patients with 'minor' elevations of cTnI (0.05-0.12 µg litre(-1)).

CONCLUSIONS

Increased serum cTnI concentrations during ICU stay independently predicts hospital mortality, even when the threshold is low. We found a trend towards an association between 'minor' elevations in cTnI and higher in-hospital mortality.

Development and validation of a symptom questionnaire for recording outcomes in adult lacrimal surgery

BACKGROUND

A symptom-based questionnaire (the `Lac-Q` questionnaire) for adult patients undergoing lacrimal drainage surgery was developed. The questionnaire yields a numerical score that can be used to assess severity of symptoms.

METHODOLOGY

In this study, the questionnaire was evaluated in 17 consecutive patients undergoing 22 dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) procedures. The questionnaire was administered pre- and postoperatively. The pathology encountered at operation was recorded. The success of surgery was judged by patient satisfaction, endoscopic evaluation of DCR stomal patency, and objective lacrimal drainage testing using the functional endoscopic dye test (FEDT). In a further group of 12 pre-operative cases, the questionnaire was repeated after 4-6 weeks but before surgery, to assess test-retest reliability in the absence of clinical change.

RESULTS

The Lac-Q questionnaire was based on two broad categories of eye-specific scores and social impact scores. A numerical score, the `Lac-Q` score, was generated pre- and postoperatively. When compared to pre-operative scores, the reduction in Lac-Q scores postoperatively was significant. Postoperative scores also correlated well with objective lacrimal drainage testing using the FEDT. Analysis of symptom scores shows that the questionnaire was reliable with regard to content validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and responsiveness to clinical change.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the Lac-Q questionnaire is a useful clinical tool to evaluate outcomes after adult lacrimal surgery.

C-reactive protein as a predictor of outcome after discharge from the intensive care: a prospective observational study

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have found plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) to be a predictor of outcome after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU). To assess the generalizability of this finding, we assessed the value of CRP on the day of ICU discharge as a predictor of unplanned ICU readmission and unexpected death within 2 weeks. Plasma albumin and white cell count at discharge were also considered as markers associated with ongoing inflammation.

METHODS

This was a single-centre observational study involving a medical-surgical ICU in a university teaching hospital. Data were prospectively collected from 1487 admissions involving 1401 patients over a 12 month period. Patients' admission details and APACHE II score were collected in addition to plasma CRP, white cell count, and albumin values from the day of discharge from ICU. We assessed the difference in these variables between patients who were readmitted, who died unexpectedly, and those who did not.

RESULTS

We found that 9.9% of patients discharged were either readmitted (7.0%) or died unexpectedly (2.9%). Patients who were readmitted had a lower plasma albumin concentration [20 (16, 24) vs 22 (19, 27), P<0.001] and a higher admission APACHE II score [median (inter-quartile range, IQR) 16.5 (13, 21) vs 15 (12, 18), P=0.02]. Patients who died unexpectedly on the ward were older [mean (sd): 76 (12) vs 59 (19), P<0.001] and had a higher APACHE II score [21 (17.25, 26) vs 15 (12, 18), P<0.001]. There was not a statistically significant difference in CRP concentration between patients who either required ICU readmissions or died unexpectedly on the ward and those who did not.

CONCLUSIONS

In a mixed medical-surgical intensive care, plasma CRP measured at the day of discharge from intensive care is not a predictor of readmissions or deaths.

Urinary tract pathogens and resistance pattern

BACKGROUND

Epidemiology and resistance patterns of bacterial pathogens in paediatric urinary tract infections (UTIs) show large inter-regional variability, and rates of bacterial resistance are changing due to different antibiotic treatment. Empiric therapy to treat UTI should be tailored to the surveillance data on the epidemiology and resistance patterns of common uropathogens to reduce treatment failures and emergence of bacterial resistance within the community.

OBJECTIVE

A retrospective data review was carried out to evaluate the resistance patterns to commonly used antibiotics in children with culture proven UTIs.

METHODS

All infants and children with culture proven UTI from 2002 to 2008 were included. Urine culture was deemed positive with a pure growth >10(5) (single organism).

RESULTS

A total of 547 UTIs were confirmed on urine cultures in 337 patients. An average of 78 cases were diagnosed each year. E coli was the most commonly grown pathogen (92%). From 2002 to 2008, rising resistance patterns were noted for trimethoprim (p<or=0.05) and Augmentin (p<or=0.001). In contrast, resistance to cefalexin and nitrofurantoin remained relatively low (11% and 7%, respectively, in 2008).

CONCLUSION

Our data suggest that there has been an increasing resistance trend to the first-line antibiotics like trimethoprim and Augmentin against E coli. In accordance with NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) guidance, each region should monitor resistance patterns to urinary pathogens on a regular basis and use antibiotics with a low resistance pattern. Further studies are required from other centres in the UK to look at similar data.

Interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility of the Fernandez classification for distal radius fractures

We have evaluated the clinical application of the Fernandez classification without questioning the scientific validity, by assessing the interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility. A set of 25 radiographs of distal radius fractures were given to six assessors along with details of Fernandez classification. The assessors classified the fractures on two different occasions 3 months apart. The outcome was assessed using kappa statistics and demonstrated poor interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility. Caution should be exercised when using this classification for clinical practice and research.

The evolution of chemosystematics

Chemosystematics has been used to distinguish plants and other organisms that are useful for food and those best avoided. Originally unwritten, this knowledge has been progressively formalized with useful, harmful and inactive chemical constituents from relevant taxa now identified and recorded. This knowledge has led to insights into taxonomy of these plants, animals and micro-organisms. Advances in analytical instrumentation, in particular chromatography, followed by electronic detection methods, have speeded these studies, culminating in metabolic profiling, ("metabolomics"). The huge array of chemical constituents isolated from plants combined with morphological and cytological data take their place as part of the overall Natural History of the organism in its environment. The study of, DNA (genomics) and to a certain extent m-RNA (transcriptomics) and proteins (proteomics), has led to the immense subject of molecular biology which relates the phenotype of a taxon to its genome. This type of chemosystematics on its own does not of course describe the small molecules in plants, often called, perhaps misguidedly, "secondary compounds", or how they relate to each other, to the plant containing them or to the environment. Economic uses flow from this knowledge, such as the topic of non-protein amino acids and amines, which from 1958 to the present has produced information from the chemotaxonomic to the severely practical. Literature on the subject from 1909 to the present charts developments in the discovery of new compounds and their use in systematics. Often a mere catalogue, a list of plant constituents is nevertheless part of the overall description of a plant.

Medians for second-trimester maternal serum markers: geographical differences and variation caused by median multiples-of-median equations

OBJECTIVES

To establish gestational age-specific mid-trimester normal medians for the prenatal serum markers alpha fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and unconjugated oestriol (uE3) for a Belgian population by using the Beckman Coulter Access chemiluminiscent immunoassays; to compare these data with data obtained from other geographical regions; to propose regression coefficients for regressed medians and analyse variation induced by different regression equations; to evaluate the effect of formulas used for gestation correction on estimating risk in Down's syndrome.

DESIGN

Data derived from 862 fresh serum samples from women being screened for Down's syndrome pregnancy, composed of selected pregnancies deemed to be normal, were examined in a retrospective study. Regressed medians were calculated by using a first-degree logarithmic-linear fit of the raw data. Multiples-of-median (MoM) values estimated by using a simple logarithmic-linear equation were compared with those calculated with higher-degree polynomials chosen with a goodness-of-fit analysis. Model-specific variation was estimated and the effect on risk for Down's syndrome was evaluated.

RESULTS

Regressed medians (Y) for Access serum markers AFP (IU/ml), HCG (IU/ml) and uE3 (nmol/l) for a Belgian population can be estimated with the equation Y = 10((A+BX)) with X = decimal weeks. The best fit was obtained with a third-degree and a second-degree polynomial for AFP and uE3, respectively. Differences between the medians and among the slopes of the geographical populations were found to be significant (analysis of covariance, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Belgian marker medians versus gestational time are found to show a pattern that is similar to that in the literature. The log-linear equation is observed to give a good fit and can be suggested as a tool for calculating median MoM values for Belgian laboratories that use Access biochemical prenatal markers.

Sclerochoroidal calcification associated with Gitelman syndrome and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition

Sclerochoroidal calcification is an uncommon condition. Metabolic evaluation and clinical examination are important to exclude associated systemic conditions such as the Bartter and Gitelman syndromes. It has been suggested that the lesions seen in sclerochoroidal calcification are calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals. This report describes the first documented case in the UK of sclerochoroidal calcification associated with Gitelman syndrome and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition.

Hemlock alkaloids from Socrates to poison aloes

Hemlock (Conium maculatum L. Umbelliferae) has long been known as a poisonous plant. Toxicity is due to a group of piperidine alkaloids of which the representative members are coniine and gamma-coniceine. The latter is the more toxic and is the first formed biosynthetically. Its levels in relation to coniine vary widely according to environmental conditions and to provenance of the plants. Surprisingly, these piperidine alkaloids have turned up in quite unrelated species in the monocotyledons as well as the dicotyledons. Aloes, for instance, important medicinal plants, are not regarded as poisonous although some species are very bitter. Nevertheless a small number of mostly local species contain the alkaloids, especially gamma-coniceine and there have been records of human poisoning. The compounds are recognized by their characteristic mousy smell. Both acute and chronic symptoms have been described. The compounds are neurotoxins and death results from respiratory failure, recalling the effects of curare. Chronic non-lethal ingestion by pregnant livestock leads to foetal malformation. Both acute and chronic toxicity are seen with stock in damp meadows and have been recorded as problems especially in North America. The alkaloids derive biosynthetically from acetate units via the polyketide pathway in contrast to other piperidine alkaloids which derive from lysine.

A randomised controlled trial comparing Drawtex with standard dressings for exuding wounds

OBJECTIVE

This randomised controlled clinical trial compared a capillary dressing (Drawtex, now rebranded as Vibriant RCD [Vibriant Technology Services]) with routine practice for exuding wounds greater than 2.5 x 2.5 cm.

METHOD

The target population was 300 control and 300 test subjects across three sites in the UK, but recruitment difficulties resulted in only 125 patients being evaluable. Wound progress was recorded by nurses' perception of the progress of wound healing and by objective digital imaging. In the final analysis digital images were randomised (in time order) and a panel of nurses who were not otherwise involved in the research project graded the wound's progress.

RESULTS

After deconvolution of the data, the subjective (nurse perception) method of evaluation determined that the new dressing resulted in wound improvement in 12.7% more patients than did routine practice, but the blinded assessment method (based on the digital images) showed that routine practice was better by 6.6%.

CONCLUSION

Evaluation of wound progress is clearly difficult. Human nature makes us favour novelty if we believe it is going to be better. Making interpretation more objective removed that bias and did not demonstrate a significant advantage for the test dressing. The findings suggest that unblinded assessment by trial nurses is unacceptable on its own. Blinded assessments may miss finer nuances of wound progression, but are likely to be more accurate. The authors suggest that the true result lies somewhere in the middle, with the trial dressing likely to be as effective as, but not more effective than, a standard dressing.

The needs of older people with mental health problems according to the user, the carer, and the staff

BACKGROUND

Individual assessment of needs has been recognised as the most appropriate way to allocate health and social care resources. These assessments, however, are often made by the staff or by a carer who acts as an advocate for the user themselves. Little is known about how these proxy measures compare to how individual patients perceive their own needs.

AIM

The aim of this study was to measure and compare ratings of need for older people with mental health problems by the older person themselves, their carer, and an appropriate staff member.

METHOD

One-hundred and one older people were identified from various mental health services and 87 users, 57 carers, and 95 staff were interviewed using the Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) to identify met and unmet needs.

RESULTS

Users identified significantly fewer of their needs (5.5) than either staff (8.1) or carers (8.3) did, but this difference was accounted for by people with dementia reporting less needs. Users identified fewer psychological or social needs (e.g. daytime activities, company, or carer distress) than staff or carers did. The average Kappa indicating level of agreement between staff and user was 0.52, between user and carer was 0.53, and between carer and user was 0.58. This showed only a fair level of reliability between different ratings of need.

CONCLUSIONS

User perspectives should be given a high priority when assessing individual needs. Fears that assessment of need would be unduly time-consuming or would simply reflect individual demands should be allayed. A user-based assessment will assist healthcare providers to prioritise needs according to what the user themselves consider to be most important, beneficial, and acceptable to them. Reliance solely on assessment by staff or carers may not lead to the most equitable or appropriate use of services.

Scale-down of continuous filtration for rapid bioprocess design: Recovery and dewatering of protein precipitate suspensions

The early specification of bioprocesses often has to be achieved with small (tens of millilitres) quantities of process material. If extensive process discovery is to be avoided at pilot or industrial scale, it is necessary that scale-down methods be created that not only examine the conditions of process stages but also allows production of realistic output streams (i.e., streams truly representative of the large scale). These output streams can then be used in the development of subsequent purification operations. The traditional approach to predicting filtration operations is via a bench-scale pressure filter using constant pressure tests to examine the effect of pressure on the filtrate flux rate and filter cake dewatering. Interpretation of the results into cake resistance at unit applied pressure (alpha) and compressibility (n) is used to predict the pressure profile required to maintain the filtrate flux rate at a constant predetermined value. This article reports on the operation of a continuous mode laboratory filter in such a way as to prepare filter cakes and filtrate similar to what may be achieved at the industrial scale. Analysis of the filtration rate profile indicated the filter cake to have changing properties (compressibility) with time. Using the insight gained from the new scale-down methodology gave predictions of the flux profile in a pilot-scale candle filter superior to those obtained from the traditional batch filter used for laboratory development.

A comparison of healing rates on two pressure-relieving systems

The authors have previously reported the preliminary results of a randomized-controlled trial comparing the relative efficacy of two pressure-relieving systems: Huntleigh Nimbus 3 and Aura Cushion, and Pegasus Cairwave Therapy System and ProActive Seating Cushion (Russell et al, 2000). Although both the mattresses and cushions were effective treatments for pressure ulcers, the Huntleigh equipment was demonstrated to be statistically more effective for heel ulcers, but no differences were demonstrated for sacral ulcers. This article gives a more detailed analysis of the 141 patients assessed using computerized-image analysis of the digital images of sacral ulcers captured during the trial and specifically discusses the healing rates and other patient characteristics. Ninety-eight per cent of ulcers examined were deemed superficial (Torrance grade 2a, 2b, 3). Precision of image analysis assessed by within- and between-batch coefficients of variation was excellent: calibration CV 0.93-1.84%; area CV 4.61-5.72%. The healing rates on the two mattresses were not shown to be statistically different from each other.

MRI in a case of muslin-induced granuloma

When intracranial aneurysms are deemed nonclippable, an accepted alternative neurosurgical treatment is to reinforce the aneurysm wall by wrapping or coating it with various materials, including muslin (cotton gauze). Granulomatous or "foreign-body" reactions, sometimes referred to as "muslinomas" or "gauzomas," and adhesive arachnoiditis are known but rare complications. Experience with MRI in these cases is limited. We describe the clinical and MRI features of a muslinoma developing after treatment of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm.