No abstract

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with chronic pulmonary inflammation and progressive lung dysfunction, possibly associated with the formation of neutrophil myeloperoxidase (MPO)-derived oxidants. Expectorated sputum specimens from adult CF patients were analyzed for MPO characteristic protein modifications and found to contain large amounts of active MPO as well as high levels of protein-associated 3-chlorotyrosine and 3,3'-dityrosine, products that result from MPO activity, compared with expectorated sputum from non-CF subjects. Sputum levels of nitrite (NO(2)(-)) and nitrate (NO(3)(-)), indicating local production of nitric oxide (NO. ), were not elevated but in fact were slightly reduced in CF. However, there was a slight increase in protein-associated 3-nitrotyrosine in CF sputum compared with controls, reflecting the formation of reactive nitrogen intermediates, possibly through MPO-catalyzed oxidation of NO(2)(-). CF sputum MPO was found to contribute to oxidant-mediated cytotoxicity toward cultured tracheobronchial epithelial cells; however, peroxidase-dependent protein oxidation occurred primarily within sputum proteins, suggesting scavenging of MPO-derived oxidants by CF mucus and perhaps formation of secondary cytotoxic products within CF sputum. Our findings demonstrate the formation of MPO-derived oxidizing and possibly nitrating species within the respiratory tract of subjects with CF, which collectively may contribute to bronchial injury and respiratory failure in CF.

BACKGROUND:Patients who experience intra‐hospital transfers to a higher level of care (eg, ward to intensive care unit [ICU]) are known to have high mortality. However, these findings have been based on single‐center studies or studies that employ ICU admissions as the denominator.OBJECTIVE:To employ automated bed history data to examine outcomes of intra‐hospital transfers using all hospital admissions as the denominator.DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study.SETTING:A total of 19 acute care hospitals.PATIENTS:A total of 150,495 patients, who experienced 210,470 hospitalizations, admitted to these hospitals between November 1st, 2006 and January 31st, 2008.MEASUREMENTS:Predictors were age, sex, admission type, admission diagnosis, physiologic derangement on admission, and pre‐existing illness burden; outcomes were: 1) occurrence of intra‐hospital transfer, 2) death following admission to the hospital, 3) death following transfer, and 4) total hospital length of stay (LOS).RESULTS:A total of 7,868 hospitalizations that began with admission to either a general medical surgical ward or to a transitional care unit (TCU) had at least one transfer to a higher level of care. These hospitalizations constituted only 3.7% of all admissions, but accounted for 24.2% of all ICU admissions, 21.7% of all hospital deaths, and 13.2% of all hospital days. Models based on age, sex, preadmission laboratory test results, and comorbidities did not predict the occurrence of these transfers.CONCLUSIONS:Patients transferred to higher level of care following admission to the hospital have excess mortality and LOS. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010;. © 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Methods: We evaluated patients in annual intervals before and after bundle implementation in March 2013. We evaluated bundle compliance and compared outcome measures across groups with multivariable logistic regression. Because of their perceived risk for iatrogenic fluid overload, we also evaluated patients with a history of heart failure and/or chronic kidney disease.Measurements and Main Results: We identified 18,122 patients with sepsis and intermediate lactate values, including 36.1% treated after implementation. Full bundle compliance increased from 32.2% in 2011 to 44.9% after bundle implementation (P , 0.01). Hospital mortality was 8.8% in 2011, 9.3% in 2012, and 7.9% in 2013 (P = 0.02). Treatment after bundle implementation was associated with an adjusted hospital mortality odds ratio of 0.81 (95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.99; P = 0.04). Decreased hospital mortality was observed primarily in patients with a heart failure and/or kidney disease history (P , 0.01) compared with patients without this history (P . 0.40). This corresponded to notable changes in the volume of fluid resuscitation in patients with heart failure and/or kidney disease after implementation.Conclusions: Multicenter implementation of a treatment bundle for patients with sepsis and intermediate lactate values improved bundle compliance and was associated with decreased hospital mortality. These decreases were mediated by improved mortality and increased fluid administration among patients with a history of heart failure and/or chronic kidney disease.

No abstract