New indications for the use of therapeutic hypothermia

Nomogram and randomized survival forest model for predicting sepsis risk in patients with cerebral infarction in the intensive care unit

BACKGROUND

To construct a nomogram and a Randomized Survival Forest (RSF) model for predicting the occurrence of sepsis in patients with cerebral infarction in intensive care units (ICUs).

METHODS

A total of 1,963 patients were included from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV database version 2.0 (MIMIC-IV v2.0). Screening features based on Cox regression and Lasso regression for nomogram and RSF modeling.

RESULTS

Patients were randomly split into a training set (1,374 cases) and a validation set (589 cases) at a ratio of 7:3. Risk factors in the nomogram model included atenolol, bicarbonate, calcium, clopidogrel, dipyridamole, heart failure, lymphocyte percent, midazolam, propofol, rhabdomyolysis, vancomycin, white blood cells, and antibiotics. In the training and validation sets, the nomogram predicted sepsis on the 3rd day of admission with an AUC of 0.798 and 0.765 and predicted sepsis on the 7th day with an AUC of 0.808 and 0.736, respectively. In the training and validation sets, the RSF model predicted sepsis on the 3rd day of admission with an AUC of 0.899 and 0.775 and predicted sepsis on the 7th day with an AUC of 0.913 and 0.768, respectively CONCLUSIONS: The two models can reliably predict the probability of sepsis in patients with cerebral infarction in the intensive care unit, which can help clinicians to assess the condition and provide timely medical interventions for patients. The RSF model has better performance.

From childhood maltreatment to adult inflammation: Evidence for the mediational status of social anxiety and low positive affect

Prior work has established a robust association between childhood maltreatment and systemic inflammatory activation later in life; however, the mechanisms involved in this process remain incompletely understood. The purpose of this investigation was to examine potential mechanistic roles for social anxiety (SA) symptoms and low positive affect (PA) in the path from childhood maltreatment to elevations in circulating interleukin (IL)-6, a common biomarker of inflammatory activation. In addition, building on prior work establishing linkages between mindful awareness and reductions in systemic inflammation, we examined the potential role of trait mindfulness as a moderator of the relationships among childhood maltreatment, SA, low PA, and IL-6. A serial mediation model utilizing a large epidemiologic dataset (final N ​= ​527) supported our central hypothesis that the direct effect of childhood maltreatment on IL-6 was fully serially statistically mediated by SA symptoms and low PA (but not high negative affect). Additionally, results indicated that individuals falling in the upper versus lower quartiles of SA symptoms demonstrated significantly elevated concentrations of IL-6, a finding that has not been previously reported. Trait mindfulness moderated the association between low PA and IL-6, to the exclusion of any paths related to negative affect. Additionally, results indicated that the effect of child maltreatment on IL-6 bypasses SA to indirectly impact IL-6 via negative affect. Overall, we conclude that childhood maltreatment and SA symptoms have a significant influence on IL-6, albeit indirectly via low PA, and the influence of PA on IL-6 may be uniquely susceptible to influence by individual differences in mindfulness.

"Having the compass-drawing the map": Exploring nurses' management of pain and other discomforts during use of analgosedation in intensive care

AIM

To explore the deliberation and enactment processes of nurses in relation to pain and other discomforts in the critically ill patients after the implementation of an analgosedation protocol.

BACKGROUND

Nurses in intensive care units (ICU) face great challenges when managing pain and other discomforts and distinguishing between patients' needs for analgesics and sedatives. An analgosedation protocol favouring pain management, light sedation and early mobilization was implemented in a university hospital ICU in Norway in 2014. Changing sedation paradigms resulting in an increasing number of awake patients during critical illness is expected to affect nursing practice.

DESIGN

Exploratory, single-unit study in a mixed adult ICU.

METHODS

Data collection with participant observation and semi-structured interviews in sixteen clinical situations in 2014 and 2015. Thirteen experienced certified critical care nurses were included. Thematic content analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

An overall theme "Having the compass-drawing the map" emerged from the analysis. The protocol or strategy of analgosedation appeared to provide a direction for treatment and care, although requiring extensive interpretation of needs and individualization of care, often in challenging situations. The overall theme was abstracted from three themes: "Interpreting a complex whole," "Balancing conflicting goals" and "Experiencing strain from acting across ideals."

CONCLUSION

Nurses seem to attend adequately to patient pain, but the approach to discomforts other than pain appears unsystematic and haphazard. More explicit goals of care and strategies to handle discomfort as distinct from pain are needed. More research is needed to identify effective comfort measures for ICU patients.

Successful Use of Therapeutic Hypothermia for Refractory Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has rarely been utilized as an adjunct to anticonvulsants in treating patients with refractory convulsive status epilepticus (CSE). However, determining the effectiveness of TH in CSE is difficult due to the unavoidable use of sedative drugs to manage hypothermia. Additionally, the effectiveness of TH has not been studied in patients with refractory non-convulsive status epilepticus (NCSE). Here, we report the successful use of TH without additional sedative drugs in a patient with temporal lobe epilepsy and refractory NCSE. A 46-year-old man was referred to the neurology department because of recurrent seizure attacks. Electroencephalography (EEG) after first-line status treatment showed continuous periodic discharges consistent with NCSE. He was started simultaneously on continuous EEG monitoring and TH, but was not administered any benzodiazepines to control shivering or maintain TH. During TH, EEG abnormalities gradually improved, and the patient regained consciousness in accordance with the improvement in EEG. The patient was alert and his EEG had normalized a few days after starting TH. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the successful treatment of refractory NCSE with TH. As no sedative drugs were used during the maintenance of hypothermia, NCSE control may have been achieved by TH alone.

Hypothermia for acute spinal cord injury--a review

OBJECTIVE

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a catastrophic neurological event with no proven treatments that protect against its consequences. Potential benefits of hypothermia in preventing/limiting central nervous system injury are now well known. There has been an interest in its potential use after SCI. This article reviews the current experimental and clinical evidence on the use of therapeutic hypothermia in patients with SCI.

METHODS

Review of literature.

RESULTS

There are various mechanisms by which hypothermia is known to protect the central nervous system. Modest hypothermia (32°C-34°C) can deliver the potential benefits of hypothermia without incurring the complications associated with deep hypothermia. Several recent experimental studies have repeatedly shown that the use of hypothermia provides the benefit of neuroprotection after SCI. Although older clinical studies were often focused on local cooling strategies and demonstrated mixed results, more recent data from systemic hypothermia use demonstrate its safety and its benefits. Endovascular cooling is a safe and reliable method of inducing hypothermia.

CONCLUSIONS

There is robust experimental and some clinical evidence that hypothermia is beneficial in acute SCI. Larger, multicenter trials should be initiated to further study the usefulness of systemic hypothermia in SCI.

Therapeutic hypothermia: benefits, mechanisms and potential clinical applications in neurological, cardiac and kidney injury

Therapeutic hypothermia involves the controlled reduction of core temperature to attenuate the secondary organ damage which occurs following a primary injury. Clinicians have been increasingly using therapeutic hypothermia to prevent or ameliorate various types of neurological injury and more recently for some forms of cardiac injury. In addition, some recent evidence suggests that therapeutic hypothermia may also provide benefit following acute kidney injury. In this review we will examine the potential mechanisms of action and current clinical evidence surrounding the use of therapeutic hypothermia. We will discuss the ideal methodological attributes of future studies using hypothermia to optimise outcomes following organ injury, in particular neurological injury. We will assess the importance of target hypothermic temperature, time to achieve target temperature, duration of cooling, and re-warming rate on outcomes following neurological injury to gain insights into important factors which may also influence the success of hypothermia in other organ injuries, such as the heart and the kidney. Finally, we will examine the potential of therapeutic hypothermia as a future kidney protective therapy.

Current and future role of therapeutic hypothermia

Therapeutic moderate hypothermia has been advocated for use in traumatic brain injury, stroke, cardiac arrest-induced encephalopathy, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, hepatic encephalopathy, and spinal cord injury, and as an adjunct to aneurysm surgery. In this review, we address the trials that have been performed for each of these indications, and review the strength of the evidence to support treatment with mild/moderate hypothermia. We review the data to support an optimal target temperature for each indication, as well as the duration of the cooling, and the rate at which cooling is induced and rewarming instituted. Evidence is strongest for prehospital cardiac arrest and neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. For traumatic brain injury, a recent meta-analysis suggests that cooling may increase the likelihood of a good outcome, but does not change mortality rates. For many of the other indications, such as stroke and spinal cord injury, trials are ongoing, but the data are insufficient to recommend routine use of hypothermia at this time.

Year in review 2007: Critical Care--shock

The research papers on shock published in Critical Care throughout 2007 are related to three major subjects: the modulation of the macrocirculation and microcirculation during shock, focusing on arginine vasopressin, erythropoietin and nitric oxide; studies on metabolic homeostasis (acid–base status, energy expenditure and gastrointestinal motility); and basic supportive measures in critical illness (fluid resuscitation and sedation, and body-temperature management). The present review summarizes the key results of these studies and provides a brief discussion in the context of the relevant scientific and clinical background.

Therapeutic hypothermia: past, present, and future

Cardiac arrest causes devastating neurologic morbidity and mortality. The preservation of the brain function is the final goal of resuscitation. Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has been considered as an effective method for reducing ischemic injury of the brain. The therapeutic use of hypothermia has been utilized for millennia, and over the last 50 years has been routinely employed in the operating room. TH gained recognition in the past 6 years as a neuroprotective agent in victims of cardiac arrest after two large, randomized, prospective clinical trials demonstrated its benefits in the postresuscitation setting. Extensive research has been done at the cellular and molecular levels and in animal models. There are a number of proposed applications of TH, including traumatic brain injury, acute encephalitis, stroke, neonatal hypoxemia, and near-drowning, among others. Several devices are being designed with the purpose of decreasing temperature at a fast and steady rate, and trying to avoid potential complications. This article reviews the historical development of TH, and its current indications, methods of induction, and potential future.

Moderate hypothermia as treatment for spinal cord injury

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The Effect of Different Topical Negative Pressures on Microvascular Blood Flow in Reperfused Myocardium during Hypothermia

Objective

Hypothermia is known to limit the extent of myocardial infarction. The earlier hypothermia is applied to an ischemic myocardium, the more tissue can be salvaged. Topical negative pressure (TNP) is known to increase blood flow and stimulate angiogenesis in subcutaneous tissue and skeletal muscle. We have previously shown that a myocardial TNP of −50 mm Hg significantly increases microvascular blood flow in the underlying myocardium in ischemic and reperfused porcine myocardium. The present study was designed to elucidate the effect of different TNP levels on microvascular blood flow in reperfused myocardium during hypothermia.

Methods

Seven pigs underwent median sternotomy. The microvascular blood flow in the myocardium was recorded before and after the application of −50, −75, −100, −125, and −150 mm Hg using laser Doppler velocimetry. Analysis was performed in the epicardium and at a depth of 6 to 8 mm in the myocardium after 40 minutes of occlusion of the left anterior descending artery followed by cooling to 31°C, and reperfusion for another 20 minutes.

Results

A TNP of −50 mm Hg significantly increased blood the flow in the epicardium, from 116.7 ± 10.0 PU to 244.5 ± 52.6 PU (*P < 0.05) at 31°C. A TNP of −50 mm Hg significantly increased microvascular blood flow in the myocardium, from 155.0 ± 8.4 PU to 236.7 ± 61.5 PU (*P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Only a TNP of −50 mm Hg, applied over the left anterior descending artery region in reperfused hypothermic myocardium significantly increased the microvascular blood flow in the epicardium and in the myocardium.

Therapeutic hypothermia

Therapeutic hypothermia has been used for millennia, but in recent years was not in much clinical use due to an apparent high risk of complications. More recently, the benefits of induced therapeutic hypothermia have been rediscovered, mainly with the improvement in neurological outcome in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims. In addition, therapeutic hypothermia has been suggested to improve outcome in other neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury, neonatal asphyxia, cerebrovascular accidents and intracranial hypertension. This article reviews the history of the discovery of therapeutic hypothermia, as well as the current therapeutic applications and ways to deliver this treatment. Cooling techniques and recovery processes, as well as potential complications are also reviewed. Clinicians caring for a wide variety of critically ill patients should be familiar with the use of therapeutic hypothermia.