2014 Aug 1 - Nasal High-Flow versus Venturi Mask Oxygen Therapy after Extubation. Effects on Oxygenation, Comfort, and Clinical Outcome

Salvatore Maurizio Maggiore, Francesco Antonio Idone, Rosanna Vaschetto, Rossano Festa, Andrea Cataldo, Federica Antonicelli, Luca Montini, Andrea De Gaetano, Paolo Navalesi, and Massimo Antonelli  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Aug 1, 2014, vol. 190, no. 3: 282-288

Rationale: Oxygen is commonly administered after extubation. Although several devices are available, data about their clinical efficacy are scarce.

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2014 Jul 1 - Oxygenation Response to Positive End-Expiratory Pressure Predicts Mortality in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. A Secondary Analysis of the LOVS and ExPress Trials

Ewan C. Goligher, Brian P. Kavanagh, Gordon D. Rubenfeld, Neill K. J. Adhikari, Ruxandra Pinto, Eddy Fan, Laurent J. Brochard, John T. Granton, Alain Mercat, Jean-Christophe Marie Richard, Jean-Marie Chretien, Graham L. Jones, Deborah J. Cook, Thomas E. Stewart, Arthur S. Slutsky, Maureen O. Meade, and Niall D. Ferguson  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Vol. Jul 1, 2014, vol. 190, no. 1: pp. 70-76

Rationale: Previous trials of higher positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) failed to demonstrate mortality benefit, possibly because of differences in lung recruitability among patients with ARDS.

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2014 Jul 1 - Increased 1-Year Healthcare Use in Survivors of Severe Sepsis

Hallie C. Prescott, Kenneth M. Langa, Vincent Liu, Gabriel J. Escobar, and Theodore J. Iwashyna  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jul 1, 2014, vol. 190, no. 1: 62-69

Rationale: Hospitalizations for severe sepsis are common, and a growing number of patients survive to hospital discharge. Nonetheless, little is known about survivors’ post-discharge healthcare use.

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2014 Jun 15 - Keratinocyte Growth Factor Promotes Epithelial Survival and Resolution in a Human Model of Lung Injury

Murali Shyamsundar, Daniel F. McAuley, Rebecca J. Ingram, David S. Gibson, Donal O’Kane, Scott T. McKeown, Alex Edwards, Cliff Taggart, Joseph S. Elborn, Carolyn S. Calfee, Michael A. Matthay, and Cecilia M. O’Kane  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jun 15, 2014; vol. 189, no. 12: 1520-1529

Rationale: Increasing epithelial repair and regeneration may hasten resolution of lung injury in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In animal models of ARDS, keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) reduces injury and increases epithelial proliferation and repair. The effect of KGF in the human alveolus is unknown.

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2014 Jun 15 - Endothelial Progenitor Cells and a Stromal Cell–derived Factor-1α Analogue Synergistically Improve Survival in Sepsis

Hongkuan Fan, Andrew J. Goodwin, Eugene Chang, Basilia Zingarelli, Keith Borg, Shuwen Guan, Perry V. Halushka, and James A. Cook  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jun 15, 2014; vol. 189, no. 12: 1509-1519

Rationale: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been associated with human sepsis but their role is incompletely understood. Stromal cell–derived factor (SDF)-1α facilitates EPC recruitment and is elevated in murine sepsis models. Previous studies have demonstrated that the SDF-1α analog CTCE-0214 (CTCE) is beneficial in polymicrobial sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) in mice.

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2014 Jun 1 - Nighttime Cross-Coverage Is Associated with Decreased Intensive Care Unit Mortality. A Single-Center Study

Andre Carlos Kajdacsy-Balla Amaral, Bernardo S. Barros, Camilla C. P. P. Barros, Cameron Innes, Ruxandra Pinto, and Gordon D. Rubenfeld  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jun 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 11: 1395-1401

Rationale: Cross-coverage is associated with medical errors caused by miscommunication during handoffs. However, no direct evidence links handoffs to outcomes, or explains the mechanisms leading to outcomes. Furthermore, the previous literature may overestimate the impact of handoffs because of hindsight bias.

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2014 Jun 1 - Propofol Is Associated with Favorable Outcomes Compared with Benzodiazepines in Ventilated Intensive Care Unit Patients

Nick W. Lonardo, Mary C. Mone, Raminder Nirula, Edward J. Kimball, Kyle Ludwig, Xi Zhou, Brian C. Sauer, Kevin Nechodom, Chiachen Teng, and Richard G. Barton  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jun 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 11: 1383-1394

Rationale: Mechanically ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients are frequently managed using a continuous-infusion sedative. Although recent guidelines suggest avoiding benzodiazepines for sedation, this class of drugs is still widely used. There are limited data comparing sedative agents in terms of clinical outcomes in an ICU setting.

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2014 Jun 1 - Predicting Survival after Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Severe Acute Respiratory Failure. The Respiratory Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Survival Prediction (RESP) Score

Matthieu Schmidt, Michael Bailey, Jayne Sheldrake, Carol Hodgson, Cecile Aubron, Peter T. Rycus, Carlos Scheinkestel, D. Jamie Cooper, Daniel Brodie, Vincent Pellegrino, Alain Combes, and David Pilcher  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Jun 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 11: 1374-1382

Rationale: Increasing use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for acute respiratory failure may increase resource requirements and hospital costs. Better prediction of survival in these patients may improve resource use, allow risk-adjusted comparison of center-specific outcomes, and help clinicians to target patients most likely to benefit from ECMO.

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2014 May 15 - Reduction of Bacterial Resistance with Inhaled Antibiotics in the Intensive Care Unit

Lucy B. Palmer and Gerald C. Smaldone  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. May 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 10: 1225-1233

Rationale: Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) are the dominant airway pathogens in the intensive care unit (ICU) and present a major treatment challenge to intensivists. Aerosolized antibiotics (AA) result in airway concentrations of drug 100-fold greater than the minimal inhibitory concentration of most bacteria including MDRO. These levels, without systemic toxicity, may eradicate MDRO and reduce the pressure for selection of new resistant organisms.

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2014 May 15 - Risk Factors for Physical Impairment after Acute Lung Injury in a National, Multicenter Study

Dale M. Needham, Amy W. Wozniak, Catherine L. Hough, Peter E. Morris, Victor D. Dinglas, James C. Jackson, Pedro A. Mendez-Tellez, Carl Shanholtz, E. Wesley Ely, Elizabeth Colantuoni, and Ramona O. Hopkins with the National Institutes of Health NHLBI ARDS Network  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. May 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 10: 1214-1224

Rationale: Existing studies of risk factors for physical impairments in acute lung injury (ALI) survivors were potentially limited by single-center design or relatively small sample size.

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2014 May 15 - Association between Source of Infection and Hospital Mortality in Patients Who Have Septic Shock

Aleksandra Leligdowicz, Peter M. Dodek, Monica Norena, Hubert Wong, Aseem Kumar, and Anand Kumar for the Co-operative Antimicrobial Therapy of Septic Shock Database Research Group  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. May 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 10: 1204-1213

Rationale: Mortality caused by septic shock may be determined by a systemic inflammatory response, independent of the inciting infection, but it may also be influenced by the anatomic source of infection.

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2014 May 1- Small Acute Increases in Serum Creatinine Are Associated with Decreased Long-Term Survival in the Critically Ill

Adam Linder, Chris Fjell, Adeera Levin, Keith R. Walley, James A. Russell, and John H. Boyd  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. May 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 9: 1075-1081

Rationale: Long-term outcomes after acute kidney injury (AKI) are poorly described.

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2014 May 1 - Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Survivors of Severe Sepsis

Sachin Yende, Walter Linde-Zwirble, Florian Mayr, Lisa A. Weissfeld, Steven Reis, and Derek C. Angus  Am. J Resp. Crit. Care Med. May 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 9: 1065-1074

Rationale: The risk of cardiovascular events after severe sepsis is not known, and these events may explain increased long-term mortality in survivors of severe sepsis.

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2014 Apr 15 - Electronic Implementation of a Novel Surveillance Paradigm for Ventilator-associated Events. Feasibility and Validation

Peter M. C. Klein Klouwenberg, Maaike S. M. van Mourik, David S. Y. Ong, Janneke Horn, Marcus J. Schultz, Olaf L. Cremer, and Marc J. M. Bonten  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 8: 947-955

Rationale: Accurate surveillance of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is hampered by subjective diagnostic criteria. A novel surveillance paradigm for ventilator-associated events (VAEs) was introduced.

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2014 Apr 15 - Corticosteroids Are Associated with Repression of Adaptive Immunity Gene Programs in Pediatric Septic Shock

Hector R. Wong, Natalie Z. Cvijanovich, Geoffrey L. Allen, Neal J. Thomas, Robert J. Freishtat, Nick Anas, Keith Meyer, Paul A. Checchia, Scott L. Weiss, Thomas P. Shanley, Michael T. Bigham, Sharon Banschbach, Eileen Beckman, Kelli Harmon, and Jerry J. Zimmerman  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 8: 940-946

Rationale: Corticosteroids are prescribed commonly for patients with septic shock, but their use remains controversial and concerns remain regarding side effects.

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2014 Apr 15 - Validation of Cell-Cycle Arrest Biomarkers for Acute Kidney Injury Using Clinical Adjudication

Azra Bihorac, Lakhmir S. Chawla, Andrew D. Shaw, Ali Al-Khafaji, Danielle L. Davison, George E. DeMuth, Robert Fitzgerald, Michelle Ng Gong, Derrel D. Graham, Kyle Gunnerson, Michael Heung, Saeed Jortani, Eric Kleerup, Jay L. Koyner, Kenneth Krell, Jennifer LeTourneau, Matthew Lissauer, James Miner, H. Bryant Nguyen, Luis M. Ortega, Wesley H. Self, Richard Sellman, Jing Shi, Joely Straseski, James E. Szalados, Scott T. Wilber, Michael G. Walker, Jason Wilson, Richard Wunderink, Janice Zimmerman, and John A. Kellum  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 8: 932-939

Rationale: We recently reported two novel biomarkers for acute kidney injury (AKI), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP)-2 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7), both related to G1 cell cycle arrest.

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2014 Apr 1 - Pseudomonas aeruginosa Type-3 Secretion System Dampens Host Defense by Exploiting the NLRC4-coupled Inflammasome

Emmanuel Faure, Jean-Baptiste Mear, Karine Faure, Sylvain Normand, Aurélie Couturier-Maillard, Teddy Grandjean, Viviane Balloy, Bernhard Ryffel, Rodrigue Dessein, Michel Chignard, Catherine Uyttenhove, Benoit Guery, Philippe Gosset, Mathias Chamaillard, and Eric Kipnis  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 7: 799-811

Rationale: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a major problem pathogen responsible for severe infections in critically ill patients, triggers, through a functional type-3 secretion system (T3SS), the activation of an intracellular cytosolic sensor of innate immunity, NLRC4. Although the NLRC4-inflammasome–dependent response contributes to increased clearance of intracellular pathogens, it seems that NLRC4 inflammasome activation decreases the clearance of P. aeruginosa, a mainly extracellular pathogen.

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2014 Apr 1 - Aging Mesenchymal Stem Cells Fail to Protect Because of Impaired Migration and Antiinflammatory Response

Martha L. Bustos, Luai Huleihel, Maria G. Kapetanaki, Christian L. Lino-Cardenas, Lyle Mroz, Bryon M. Ellis, Bryan J. McVerry, Thomas J. Richards, Naftali Kaminski, Nayra Cerdenes, Ana L. Mora, and Mauricio Rojas  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 7: 787-798

Rationale: Aging is characterized by functional impairment and reduced capacity to respond appropriately to environmental stimuli and injury. With age, there is an increase in the incidence and severity of chronic and acute lung diseases. However, the relationship between age and the lung’s reduced ability to repair is far from established and necessitates further research in the field.

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2014 Apr 1 - Transforming Growth Factor β–induced Protein Promotes Severe Vascular Inflammatory Responses

Jong-Sup Bae, Wonhwa Lee, Ju-Ock Nam, Jung-Eun Kim, Shin-Woo Kim, and In-San Kim  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Apr 1, 2014, vol. 189, no. 7: 779-786

Rationale: Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory condition resulting from bacterial infections; it has a high mortality rate and limited therapeutic options. Despite extensive research into the mechanisms driving bacterial sepsis, the target molecules controlling vascular leakage are still largely unknown. Transforming growth factor β–induced protein (TGFBIp) is an extracellular matrix protein expressed in several cell types, which is known to interact with integrins.

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2014 Mar 15 - The Beta Agonist Lung Injury Trial Prevention. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Gavin D. Perkins, Simon Gates, Daniel Park, Fang Gao, Chris Knox, Ben Holloway, Daniel F. McAuley, James Ryan, Joseph Marzouk, Matthew W. Cooke, Sarah E. Lamb, and David R. Thickett  Am. J. Resp. Crit. Care Med. Mar 15, 2014, vol. 189, no. 6: 674-683

Rationale: Experimental studies suggest that pretreatment with β-agonists might prevent acute lung injury (ALI).

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