Rapid Mortality Review in the Intensive Care Unit: An In-Person, Multidisciplinary Improvement Initiative.

Background: Significant resources have been allocated to decreasing the number of preventable deaths in hospitals, but identifying preventable factors and then leveraging them to effect system-wide change remains challenging.

Objective: To determine the ability of a novel in-person, multidisciplinary "rapid mortality review" process to identify deaths that are preventable and action items that lead to improvements in care.

Methods: Rapid mortality review sessions were conducted weekly for patients who died in the medical intensive care unit.

Insights on pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy: a seven-patient case series.

Pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM) is a disease process wherein tumor cells are thought to embolize to the pulmonary circulation causing pulmonary hypertension (PH) and death from right heart failure. Presented herein are clinical, laboratory, radiographic, and histologic features across seven cases of PTTM. Highlighted in this publication are also involvement of pulmonary venules and clinical features distinguishing PTTM from clinical mimics.

Reduced COPD Exacerbation Risk Correlates With Improved FEV: A Meta-Regression Analysis.

Background: The mechanism by which various classes of medication reduce COPD exacerbation risk remains unknown. We hypothesized a correlation between reduced exacerbation risk and improvement in airway patency as measured according to FEV.

Methods: By systematic review, COPD trials were identified that reported therapeutic changes in predose FEV (dFEV) and occurrence of moderate to severe exacerbations.

An evolutionary, structural and functional overview of the mammalian TEAD1 and TEAD2 transcription factors.

TEAD proteins constitute a family of highly conserved transcription factors, characterized by a DNA-binding domain called the TEA domain and a protein-binding domain that permits association with transcriptional co-activators. TEAD proteins are unable to induce transcription on their own. They have to interact with transcriptional cofactors to do so.