Pathophysiological Responses to Bloodstream Infection in Critically Ill Transplant Recipients Compared With Non-Transplant Recipients

BACKGROUND

Identification of bloodstream infection (BSI) in transplant recipients may be difficult due to immunosuppression. Accordingly, we aimed to compare responses to BSI in critically ill transplant and non-transplant recipients and to modify systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria for transplant recipients.

METHODS

We analyzed univariate risks and developed multivariable models of BSI with 27 clinical variables from adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients at the University of Virginia (UVA) and at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). We used Bayesian inference to adjust SIRS criteria for transplant recipients.

RESULTS

We analyzed 38.7 million hourly measurements from 41 725 patients at UVA, including 1897 transplant recipients with 193 episodes of BSI and 53 608 patients at Pitt, including 1614 transplant recipients with 768 episodes of BSI. The univariate responses to BSI were comparable in transplant and non-transplant recipients. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.82 (95% confidence interval [CI], .80-.83) for the model using all UVA patient data and 0.80 (95% CI, .76-.83) when using only transplant recipient data. The UVA all-patient model had an AUC of 0.77 (95% CI, .76-.79) in non-transplant recipients and 0.75 (95% CI, .71-.79) in transplant recipients at Pitt. The relative importance of the 27 predictors was similar in transplant and non-transplant models. An upper temperature of 37.5°C in SIRS criteria improved reclassification performance in transplant recipients.

CONCLUSIONS

Critically ill transplant and non-transplant recipients had similar responses to BSI. An upper temperature of 37.5°C in SIRS criteria improved BSI screening in transplant recipients.

[Extremely prolonged neuromuscular block after a single dose of rocuronium]

Postoperative curarization in patients has been established. Nevertheless, extremely prolonged neuromuscular blockades are rare. We report the case of a prolonged neuromuscular blockade (lasting 10 hours) following a single dose of rocuronium, in an elderly patient with severe renal failure. We have studied the possible causes of prolonged curarization, and discussed the interest of the use of sugammadex in such cases.