Project description:Severe malarial anemia (SMA) remains a major cause of pediatric illness and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here we test the hypothesis that prenatal exposures, reflected by soluble inflammatory mediators in cord blood, can condition an individual's susceptibility to SMA.In a Tanzanian birth cohort (n = 743), we measured cord blood concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), TNF receptors I and II (TNF-RI and TNF-RII), interleukin (IL)-1?, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, and interferon gamma (IFN-?). After adjusting for conventional covariates, we calculated the hazard ratios (HR) for time to first SMA event with log(e) cytokine concentrations dichotomized at the median, by quartile, and per standard deviation (SD) increase.Low levels of TNF, TNF-RI, IL-1?, and IL-5 and high levels of TNF-RII were associated statistically significantly and respectively with approximately 3-fold, 2-fold, 8-fold, 4-fold, and 3-fold increased risks of SMA (Hb < 50 g/L). TNF, TNF-RI, and IL-1? concentrations were inversely and log-linearly associated with SMA risk; the HR (95% confidence interval [CI]) per 1-SD increase were respectively 0.81 (.65, 1.02), 0.76 (.62, .92), and 0.50 (.40, .62).These data suggest that proinflammatory cytokine levels at birth are inversely associated with SMA risk and support the hypothesis that pediatric malarial disease has fetal origins.
Project description:To determine whether treatment with a protocolized sepsis guideline in the emergency department was associated with a lower burden of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2 compared to nonprotocolized usual care in pediatric patients with severe sepsis.Retrospective cohort study.Tertiary care children's hospital from January 1, 2012, to March 31, 2014.Patients older than 56 days old and younger than 18 years old with international consensus defined severe sepsis and who required PICU admission within 24 hours of emergency department arrival were included.The exposure was the use of a protocolized emergency department sepsis guideline. The primary outcome was complete resolution of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2. One hundred eighty nine subjects were identified during the study period. Of these, 121 (64%) were treated with the protocolized emergency department guideline and 68 were not. There were no significant differences between the groups in age, sex, race, number of comorbid conditions, emergency department triage level, or organ dysfunction on arrival to the emergency department. Patients treated with protocolized emergency department care were more likely to be free of organ dysfunction on hospital day 2 after controlling for sex, comorbid condition, indwelling central venous catheter, Pediatric Index of Mortality-2 score, and timing of antibiotics and IV fluids (adjusted odds ratio, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.7-10.4).Use of a protocolized emergency department sepsis guideline was independently associated with resolution of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2 compared to nonprotocolized usual care. These data indicate that morbidity outcomes in children can be improved with the use of protocolized care.
Project description:PURPOSE:Endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) is expressed mainly in endothelial cells and is involved in regulation of the cytoprotective and anticoagulant pathways of protein C. We assessed whether haplotypes in the EPCR gene modify the risk of severe sepsis and/or septic shock (SS/SS) development in critically ill patients. METHODS:Three polymorphisms in the EPCR gene were genotyped in 389 Caucasian critically ill patients, hospitalized in the intensive care units of two major hospitals in Athens, Greece. Multivariate logistic regression analysis controlling for age, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores, sex, and diagnosis was performed to determine the effect of haplotypes H1 and H3 in the EPCR gene on the development of SS/SS. RESULTS:H2 carriers versus all other genotypes combined had a nonsignificant excess of SS/SS (p = 0.087). SS/SS occurred in 38.8% of critically ill patients carrying minor alleles belonging to both H1 and H3 haplotypes, in 58.0% of H1 carriers, 64.3% of H3 carriers, and 65.2% of patients carrying all common alleles (H2). Compared with H2 carriers, the odds ratios (OR) for developing SS/SS were 0.34 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.16-0.76, p = 0.008] for simultaneous H1 and H3 carriers, 0.65 (95% CI 0.37-1.13, p = 0.123) for H1 carriers, and 0.82 (95 % CI 0.39-1.70, p = 0.590) for H3 carriers. CONCLUSIONS:Our results indicate that simultaneous carriers of minor alleles belonging to both the H1 and H3 haplotypes may be at reduced risk of developing SS/SS in this cohort of critically ill patients.
Project description:ObjectivesTo evaluate risk factors for poor functional outcome in 28-day survivors after an episode of severe sepsis.DesignRetrospective cohort study examining data from the Researching Severe Sepsis and Organ Dysfunction in Children: A Global Perspective trial (NCT00049764).SettingOne hundred and four pediatric centers in 18 countries.SubjectsChildren with severe sepsis who required both vasoactive-inotropic infusions and mechanical ventilation and who survived to 28 days (n = 384).InterventionsNone.Measurements and main resultsPoor functional outcome was defined as a Pediatric Overall Performance Category score greater than or equal to 3 and an increase from baseline when measured 28 days after trial enrollment. Median Pediatric Overall Performance Category at enrollment was 1 (interquartile range, 1-2). Median Pediatric Overall Performance Category at 28 days was 2 (interquartile range, 1-4). Thirty-four percent of survivors had decline in their functional status at 28 days, and 18% were determined to have a "poor" functional outcome. Hispanic ethnicity was associated with poor functional outcome compared to the white referent group (risk ratio = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.0-3.0). Clinical factors associated with increased risk of poor outcome included CNS and intra-abdominal infection sources compared to the lung infection referent category (risk ratio = 3.3; 95% CI: 1.4-5.6 and 2.4; 95% CI: 1.0-4.5, respectively); a history of recent trauma (risk ratio = 3.9; 95% CI: 1.4-5.4); receipt of cardiopulmonary resuscitation prior to enrollment (risk ratio = 5.1; 95% CI: 2.9-5.7); and baseline Pediatric Risk of Mortality III score of 20-29 (risk ratio = 2.8; 95% CI: 1.2-5.2) and Pediatric Risk of Mortality III greater than or equal to 30 (risk ratio = 4.5; 95% CI: 1.6-8.0) compared to the referent group with Pediatric Risk of Mortality III scores of 0-9.ConclusionsIn this sample of 28-day survivors of pediatric severe sepsis diminished functional status was common. This analysis provides evidence that particular patient characteristics and aspects of an individual's clinical course are associated with poor functional outcome 28 days after onset of severe sepsis. These characteristics may provide opportunity for intervention in order to improve functional outcome in pediatric patients with severe sepsis. Decline in functional status 28 days after onset of severe sepsis is a frequent and potentially clinically meaningful event. Utilization of functional status as the primary outcome in future pediatric sepsis clinical trials should be considered.
Project description:Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is the most common cause of severe mitral regurgitation. It has been reported that MVP patients-candidates for mitral valve repair (MVRep)-showed an alteration in the antioxidant defense systems as well as in the L-arginine metabolic pathway. In this study, we investigate if oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction are an MVP consequence or driving factors. Forty-five patients undergoing MVRep were evaluated before and 6 months post surgery and compared to 29 controls. Oxidized (GSSG) and reduced (GSH) forms of glutathione, and L-arginine metabolic pathway were analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods while osteoprotegerin (OPG) through the ELISA kit and circulating endothelial microparticles (EMP) by flow cytometry. Six-month post surgery, in MVP patients, the GSSG/GSH ratio decreased while symmetric and asymmetric dimethylarginines levels remained comparable to the baseline. Conversely, OPG levels significantly increased when compared to their baseline. Finally, pre-MVRep EMP levels were significantly higher in patients than in controls and did not change post surgery. Overall, these results highlight that MVRep completely restores the increased oxidative stress levels, as evidenced in MVP patients. Conversely, no amelioration of endothelial dysfunction was evidenced after surgery. Thus, therapies aimed to restore a proper endothelial function before and after surgical repair could benefit MVP patients.
Project description:OBJECTIVES:To describe the epidemiology, morbidity, and mortality of new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in children with severe sepsis. DESIGN:Secondary analysis of a prospective, cross-sectional, point prevalence study. SETTING:International, multicenter PICUs. PATIENTS:Pediatric patients with severe sepsis identified on five separate days over a 1-year period. INTERVENTIONS:None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Of 567 patients from 128 PICUs in 26 countries enrolled, 384 (68%) developed multiple organ dysfunction syndrome within 7 days of severe sepsis recognition. Three hundred twenty-seven had multiple organ dysfunction syndrome on the day of sepsis recognition. Ninety-one of these patients developed progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, whereas an additional 57 patients subsequently developed new multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, yielding a total proportion with severe sepsis-associated new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome of 26%. Hospital mortality in patients with progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome was 51% compared with patients with new multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (28%) and those with single-organ dysfunction without multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (10%) (p < 0.001). Survivors of new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome also had a higher frequency of moderate to severe disability defined as a Pediatric Overall Performance Category score of greater than or equal to 3 and an increase of greater than or equal to 1 from baseline: 22% versus 29% versus 11% for progressive, new, and no multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, respectively (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:Development of new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome is common (26%) in severe sepsis and is associated with a higher risk of morbidity and mortality than severe sepsis without new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Our data support the use of new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome as an important outcome in trials of pediatric severe sepsis although efforts are needed to validate whether reducing new or progressive multiple organ dysfunction syndrome leads to improvements in more definitive morbidity and mortality endpoints.
Project description:MotivationSepsis is a leading cause of death and disability in children globally, accounting for ∼3 million childhood deaths per year. In pediatric sepsis patients, the multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is considered a significant risk factor for adverse clinical outcomes characterized by high mortality and morbidity in the pediatric intensive care unit. The recent rapidly growing availability of electronic health records (EHRs) has allowed researchers to vastly develop data-driven approaches like machine learning in healthcare and achieved great successes. However, effective machine learning models which could make the accurate early prediction of the recovery in pediatric sepsis patients from MODS to a mild state and thus assist the clinicians in the decision-making process is still lacking.ResultsThis study develops a machine learning-based approach to predict the recovery from MODS to zero or single organ dysfunction by 1 week in advance in the Swiss Pediatric Sepsis Study cohort of children with blood-culture confirmed bacteremia. Our model achieves internal validation performance on the SPSS cohort with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) of 79.1% and area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) of 73.6%, and it was also externally validated on another pediatric sepsis patients cohort collected in the USA, yielding an AUROC of 76.4% and AUPRC of 72.4%. These results indicate that our model has the potential to be included into the EHRs system and contribute to patient assessment and triage in pediatric sepsis patient care.Availability and implementationCode available at https://github.com/BorgwardtLab/MODS-recovery. The data underlying this article is not publicly available for the privacy of individuals that participated in the study.Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Project description:To compare the prevalence, resource utilization, and mortality for pediatric severe sepsis identified using two established identification strategies.Observational cohort study from 2004 to 2012.Forty-four pediatric hospitals contributing data to the Pediatric Health Information Systems database.Children 18 years old or younger.We identified patients with severe sepsis or septic shock by using two International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification-based coding strategies: 1) combinations of International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification codes for infection plus organ dysfunction (combination code cohort); 2) International Classification of Diseases, 9th edition, Clinical Modification codes for severe sepsis and septic shock (sepsis code cohort). Outcomes included prevalence of severe sepsis, as well as hospital and ICU length of stay, and mortality. Outcomes were compared between the two cohorts examining aggregate differences over the study period and trends over time. The combination code cohort identified 176,124 hospitalizations (3.1% of all hospitalizations), whereas the sepsis code cohort identified 25,236 hospitalizations (0.45%), a seven-fold difference. Between 2004 and 2012, the prevalence of sepsis increased from 3.7% to 4.4% using the combination code cohort and from 0.4% to 0.7% using the sepsis code cohort (p < 0.001 for trend in each cohort). Length of stay (hospital and ICU) and costs decreased in both cohorts over the study period (p < 0.001). Overall, hospital mortality was higher in the sepsis code cohort than the combination code cohort (21.2% [95% CI, 20.7-21.8] vs 8.2% [95% CI, 8.0-8.3]). Over the 9-year study period, there was an absolute reduction in mortality of 10.9% (p < 0.001) in the sepsis code cohort and 3.8% (p < 0.001) in the combination code cohort.Prevalence of pediatric severe sepsis increased in the studied U.S. children's hospitals over the past 9 years, whereas resource utilization and mortality decreased. Epidemiologic estimates of pediatric severe sepsis varied up to seven-fold depending on the strategy used for case ascertainment.
Project description:Background: Early detection of pediatric severe sepsis is necessary in order to optimize effective treatment, and new methods are needed to facilitate this early detection. Objective: Can a machine-learning based prediction algorithm using electronic healthcare record (EHR) data predict severe sepsis onset in pediatric populations? Methods: EHR data were collected from a retrospective set of de-identified pediatric inpatient and emergency encounters for patients between 2-17 years of age, drawn from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, with encounter dates between June 2011 and March 2016. Results: Pediatric patients (n = 9,486) were identified and 101 (1.06%) were labeled with severe sepsis following the pediatric severe sepsis definition of Goldstein et al. (1). In 4-fold cross-validation evaluations, the machine learning algorithm achieved an AUROC of 0.916 for discrimination between severe sepsis and control pediatric patients at the time of onset and AUROC of 0.718 at 4 h before onset. The prediction algorithm significantly outperformed the Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction score (PELOD-2) (p < 0.05) and pediatric Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) (p < 0.05) in the prediction of severe sepsis 4 h before onset using cross-validation and pairwise t-tests. Conclusion: This machine learning algorithm has the potential to deliver high-performance severe sepsis detection and prediction through automated monitoring of EHR data for pediatric inpatients, which may enable earlier sepsis recognition and treatment initiation.
Project description:ObjectivesSevere sepsis is a significant cause of healthcare use and morbidity among pediatric patients, but little is known about readmission diagnoses. We sought to determine the most common readmission diagnoses after pediatric severe sepsis, the extent to which post-sepsis readmissions may be potentially preventable, and whether patterns of readmission diagnoses differ compared with readmissions after other common acute medical hospitalizations.DesignObservational cohort study.SettingNational Readmission Database (2013-2014), including all-payer hospitalizations from 22 states.PatientsFour-thousand five-hundred twenty-eight pediatric severe sepsis hospitalizations, matched by age, gender, comorbidities, and length of stay to 4,528 pediatric hospitalizations for other common acute medical conditions.InterventionsNone.Measurements and main resultsWe compared rates of 30-day all cause, diagnosis-specific, and potentially preventable hospital readmissions using McNemar's chi-square tests for paired data. Among 5,841 eligible pediatric severe sepsis hospitalizations with live discharge, 4,528 (77.5%) were matched 1:1 to 4,528 pediatric hospitalizations for other acute medical conditions. Of 4,528 matched sepsis hospitalizations, 851 (18.8% [95% CI, 16.0-18.2]) were rehospitalized within 30 days, compared with 775 (17.1% [95% CI, 17.1-20.0]) of matched hospitalizations for other causes (p = 0.02). The most common readmission diagnoses were chemotherapy, device complications, and sepsis, all of which were several-fold higher after sepsis versus after matched nonsepsis hospitalization. Only 11.5% of readmissions were for ambulatory care sensitive conditions compared with 23% of rehospitalizations after common acute medical conditions.ConclusionsMore than one in six children surviving severe sepsis were rehospitalized within 30 days, most commonly for maintenance chemotherapy, medical device complications, or recurrent sepsis. Only a small proportion of readmissions were for ambulatory care sensitive conditions.