Search Tag: Sepsis
2018 06 Sep
Septic cardiomyopathy is a key feature of sepsis-associated cardiovascular failure. However, the lack of a clear and consistent definition of septic cardiomyopathy complicates not only the diagnosis but also the investigations of the prevalence of septic cardiomyopathy, according to a review to appear in the journal CHEST. Septic cardiomyopathy,...Read more
2018 29 Aug
Patients with sepsis not requiring life support therapies have a reduced likelihood of being admitted from the emergency department (ED) to the intensive care unit (ICU) when the ICU is crowded, according to new research led by the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. The study is in press in the journal Annals of the American...Read more
2018 04 Jul
Sepsis is a complex syndrome characterised by simultaneous activation of pro- and anti-inflammatory processes. During sepsis, immune cells undergo profound phenotypic modifications in their activation state, response to stimuli, localisation, and numbers. These phenomena are finely regulated by various cytokines and haematopoietic growth factors...Read more
2018 03 Jul
The incidence of sepsis – a condition that is associated with high morbidity and mortality – seems to be increasing. Early appropriate antibiotic treatment is essential to improve survival. Researchers in Spain say that despite advances in sepsis treatment in recent years, educational interventions can still improve the delivery of care. Further...Read more
2018 27 Jun
Sepsis is a leading cause of intensive care unit (ICU) admission in older patients. Currently, however, the only therapies for sepsis remain supportive care, including prompt administration of antibiotics, adequate source control of the underlying infection (if known), and vigilance to prevent iatrogenicity and the other complications of being...Read more
2018 01 Jun
Our clinical experiences of using the Accelerate Pheno™ system have greatly benefited patient care, providing earlier diagnostic certainty. Two complex sepsis cases are discussed, where the impact of rapid identification, with antibiotic sensitivities, of the causative organism from blood cultures is described. At Hampshire Hospitals NHS...Read more
2018 29 May
In the ALBIOS trial, persistence of low (<70%) central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) during early sepsis was associated with higher 90-day mortality, possibly because it reflected underlying cardiac dysfunction, according to an analysis published online in the journal CHEST. Subjects with ScvO2 <70% may benefit most from individually tailored...Read more
2018 29 May
Sepsis has become a leading cause of in-hospital death and new research findings may help explain why this is so. A significant number of patients with suspected sepsis do not have their lactates measured within the recommended timeframe and, as a result, they experience delayed antibiotic therapy and IV fluid administration, as well as increased...Read more
2018 15 May
There is a paradigm shift happening for sepsis. "Sepsis is no longer solely conceptualised as problem of individual patients treated in emergency departments and intensive care units but also as one that is addressed as public health issue with population- and systems-based solutions," says a commentary in the journal Critical Care. Such a...Read more
2018 08 May
… Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) times reduced from days to hours…. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) is pioneering the use of the Accelerate Pheno TM system from Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc., (Accelerate Diagnostics) a leading in vitro diagnostics company, to speed up and improve the diagnostic outcome of antibiotic...Read more
2018 01 May
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition and early detection is critical to ensure that the patient receives timely and appropriate treatment. For almost 25 years, clinicians have used the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria, a measure of the clinical expression of the host response to inflammation, as a marker of sepsis. A new approach...Read more
2018 03 Apr
Chloride, as the major anion of the extracellular fluid, constitutes an important element in the homeostasis of the human organism. Hyperchloraemia, whether a result of the sepsis process or a consequence of its treatment with supraphysiologic chloride fluids, appears to have a negative impact on the clinical outcome of septic patients, according to...Read more
2018 20 Mar
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition and early diagnosis is crucial to ensure that treatment is not delayed. However, as current diagnostic methods are imprecise, the condition is misdiagnosed in 30 percent of patients. Now a microfluidic device developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for measuring neutrophil motility shows promise in the...Read more
2018 16 Mar
Describes an episode of sepsis in a leukaemia patient, whose treatment was early guided by using rapid diagnostics technology to identify the cause of infection. A 4-year-old patient under treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, diagnosed 6 months before, was admitted to the emergency room (ER) at midnight (00h33) due to a fever episode...Read more
2018 16 Mar
An overview of the recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of immune system dysfunction in sepsis. Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection (Singer et al. 2016). Sepsis-induced immune system dysfunction is an important sequelae of sepsis. The persistence of immune system dysfunction...Read more
2018 16 Mar
New research published in Cell Host & Microbe suggests that gut bacteria may help in the fight against sepsis. In the study, mice were given particular microbes, which increased blood levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies, protecting the mice against polymicrobial sepsis. You might also like : Study: Microbiome Disruption May Have Key Role...Read more
2018 13 Mar
Sepsis can cause both brain dysfunction and neuroinflammation. New research from the University of Michigan indicates that gut bacteria play a role in brain dysfunction after sepsis. Researchers explain that sepsis causes gut bacteria to locate in the brain for several days and ultimately resolves in the weeks after the onset of illness. The findings,...Read more
2018 13 Mar
People especially those with critical illness develop sepsis when an infection triggers an overwhelming immune response, ultimately wreaking havoc on the immune system. Traditional approaches to sepsis therapy do not address the critical problem of patients' severely compromised immune systems. Now, a clinical trial demonstrates that a drug that revs...Read more
2018 28 Feb
New research published online in the journal Cell Host & Microbe suggests that gut bacteria may help in the fight against sepsis, a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. In the study, mice were given particular microbes which increased blood levels of immunoglobulin...Read more
2018 15 Feb
Sepsis is a dysregulation of the body's normal inflammatory response to injury and infection. New research from the University of Chicago suggests that efforts to combat sepsis might be more effective if they targeted multiple steps in the molecular processes that drive the illness. Researchers employed a computational model of the human immune response...Read more
2018 06 Feb
To coincide with the Sepsis Unplugged conference, the UK Sepsis Trust (UKST) has announced the publication of the fourth edition of their sepsis manual. The document is described as a comprehensive, peer-reviewed manual, which supports the training and education of all healthcare professionals at every level in how to diagnose and treat sepsis. The...Read more
2018 16 Jan
Patients admitted to intensive care units are mostly suffering from sepsis, septic shock, traumatic haemorrhagic shock (HTS), and traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is known that gaseous messengers, especially nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO), play a key role in those life threatening pathological situations. A review paper, published by Frontiers...Read more
2017 28 Nov
Sepsis is a critical issue in old age and is among the top causes for intensive care unit (ICU) admission in the elderly. Although there are important benefits supposed to be derived from moderate exercise in the elderly population (better cardiovascular fitness, improved microcirculation, less obesity, etc.), improved outcome from sepsis has not been...Read more
2017 22 Nov
Implementation of a sepsis code, Código Sepsis, in October 2015 at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona has led to better detection and a significant reduction in mortality. The hospital is the largest in Barcelona, with more than 1,100 beds and 7,000 employees. The objectives of Código Sepsis are to increase suspicion of sepsis and...Read more
2017 22 Nov
Achieving large-scale behaviour change with the NHS Wales programme In 2016 NHS Wales received the Global Sepsis Award, recognising the work throughout the healthcare system on improving identification and treatment of sepsis, which has coincided with an apparent reduction in mortality and ICU admissions for patients with two International...Read more
2017 22 Nov
Flávia Machado is Professor of Intensive Care and Head of the Intensive Care Section of the Anesthesiology, Pain and Intensive Care Department at the Federal University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. She is one of the founders of the Latin America Sepsis Institute (LASI), which is devoted to quality improvement process in Brazilian hospitals as...Read more