Defining Community-Acquired Pneumonia Severity on Presentation to Hospital
CURB-65: the easy-to-use clinical prediction rule helps us triage patients with pneumonia to inpatient or outpatient care. What is this actually based upon? This is the original study used to develop the CURB-65. Here are some things to think about…
Multicenter Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care (TRICC)
This is the landmark trial that compares a restrictive to a liberal red blood cell transfusion strategy. Here are some things to think about when reading this article: What are our current pRBC transfusion goals for most patients? How are…
Comparison of 8 vs 15 Days of Antibiotic Therapy for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in Adults
The optimal duration of antibiotic treatment for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is not known. Shortening the course of therapy may help decrease antibiotic resistance and adverse effects of giving prolonged antibiotics. This study looks to establish that mortality and recurrent infections…
Hydrocortisone Therapy for Patients with Septic Shock
Sepsis continues to affect 1.5 million people and lead to 250,000 deaths in the U.S., according to the CDC. The CORTICUS study reviewed here (article below) is the landmark study evaluating the potential benefit of corticosteroids in septic patients. As…
Reduced Lung-Cancer Mortality with Low-Dose CT Screening
Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer death, ahead of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers. However, screening strategies have been comparatively limited. This landmark article demonstrates the use of low-dose CT to screen for lung cancer, and…
Adjunct Prednisone Therapy for Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia
What role do corticosteroids have in acute infection, particularly in pneumonia requiring hospitalization? This study from Switzerland argues there might be some benefits. As you can imagine, there is some controversy about the use of steroids.
Dyspnea after Bone Marrow Transplant: Recognize and Treat Graft-versus-Host Disease
Thank you Maralee for an interesting presentation of cough and dyspnea in a patient post-bone marrow transplant. What further work-up is indicated with this representative CT scan?