ORIGINAL ARTICLE Covid-19 Surveillance Testing and Resident Outcomes in Nursing Homes Brian E. McGarry, Ashvin D. Gandhi, Michael L. Barnett N Engl J Med 2023; 388:1101-1110DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2210063 Abstract BACKGROUND Despite widespread adoption of surveillance testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) among staff members in skilled nursing facilities, evidence is limited regarding its relationship with outcomes among facility residents. METHO...

ICU Management & Practice, Volume 22 - Issue 5, 2022 The Clinical Utility of Estimated Plasma Volume in Critical Care An overview of clinical evidence that demonstrates the prognostic value of estimated plasma volume (ePVS) in critically ill patients. Relevance Plasma volume (PV) is the total volume of blood plasma – the extracellular fluid volume of the vascular space. It is associated with regulating interstitial and intravascular spaces; hence it c...

Viewpoint  March 20, 2023 The Rapid Growth of Mega-Journals: Threats and Opportunities John P. A. Ioannidis, Angelo Maria Pezzullo, Stefania Boccia JAMA. Published online March 20, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.3212 Mega-journals, those that publish large numbers of articles per year,1 are growing rapidly across science and especially in biomedicine. Although 11 Scopus-indexed journals published more than 2000 biomedical full papers (articles o...

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Acute Effects of Coffee Consumption on Health among Ambulatory Adults Gregory M. Marcus, David G. Rosenthal, Gregory Nah, et al N Engl J Med 2023; 388:1092-1100DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2204737 Abstract BACKGROUND Coffee is one of the most commonly consumed beverages in the world, but the acute health effects of coffee consumption remain uncertain. METHODS We conducted a prospective, randomized, case-crossover trial to examine the effects...

COMMENT|ONLINE FIRST Higher-dose dexamethasone for patients with COVID-19 and hypoxaemia? Anders Perner, Balasubramanian Venkatesh Lancet Published:April 12, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00587-1 Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the RECOVERY trial showed that anti-inflammatory therapy with 6 mg daily dexamethasone improved survival in patients requiring oxygen supplementation.1Additional anti-inflammatory therapy with either interleukin-6 (I...

Original Investigation  Caring for the Critically Ill Patient March 21, 2023 Efficacy and Safety of Early Administration of 4-Factor Prothrombin Complex Concentrate in Patients With Trauma at Risk of Massive Transfusion: The PROCOAG Randomized Clinical Trial Pierre Bouzat, Jonathan Charbit, Paer-Selim Abback, et al JAMA. Published online March 21, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.4080 Key Points Question  Does 4-factor prothrombin ...

Editorial  March 21, 2023 Toward Personalizing Care: Assessing Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects in Randomized Trials Issa J. Dahabreh, Dhruv S. Kazi JAMA. Published online March 21, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.3576 Clinicians know that individual patients may respond differently to a given treatment and that the overall treatment effect reported in a randomized trial of the treatment may not be directly applicable to all patients in clinica...

Original Investigation  Caring for the Critically Ill Patient March 21, 2023 Heterogeneous Treatment Effects of Therapeutic-Dose Heparin in Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 Ewan C. Goligher, Patrick R. Lawler, Thomas P. Jensen, et al JAMA. Published online March 21, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.3651 Key Points Question  What patient characteristics are associated with benefit or harm of therapeutic-dose heparin in patients ho...

ARTICLES|ONLINE FIRST Higher dose corticosteroids in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 who are hypoxic but not requiring ventilatory support (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial RECOVERY Collaborative Group Lancet Published:April 12, 2023 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00510-X Summary Background Low-dose corticosteroids have been shown to reduce mortality for patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or vent...

Time to Move From SOFA 1.0 to 2.0? The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score was developed in 1994, more than 25 years ago. The primary purpose of the score was to provide clinicians with a method that could help them assess and monitor organ dysfunction in critically ill patients. SOFA score became one of the most widely used scoring systems in intensive care. However, many changes have occurred in clinical practice over the last decades. New interventi...