Linear Association Between Hypoalbuminemia and Increased Risk of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Critically Ill Adults.

Unlabelled: We hypothesized that low serum albumin would contribute to pulmonary edema formation, thereby independently increasing the risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome in critically ill patients.

Design: Retrospective analysis of prospective cohort.

Setting: Medical, surgical, and cardiovascular ICUs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Comparison of COVID-19 versus influenza on the incidence, features, and recovery from acute kidney injury in hospitalized United States Veterans.

Acute kidney injury is a common complication in patients hospitalized with SARSCoV-2 (COVID-19), with prior studies implicating multiple potential mechanisms of injury. Although COVID-19 is often compared to other respiratory viral illnesses, few formal comparisons of these viruses on kidney health exist. In this retrospective cohort study, we compared the incidence, features, and outcomes of acute kidney injury among Veterans hospitalized with COVID-19 or influenza and adjusted for baseline conditions using weighted comparisons.

Renin-angiotensin aldosterone inhibitor use at hospital discharge among patients with moderate to severe acute kidney injury and its association with recurrent acute kidney injury and mortality.

Recurrent episodes of acute kidney injury (AKI) are common among AKI survivors. Renin-angiotensin aldosterone inhibitors (RAASi) are often indicated for these patients but may increase the risk for recurrent AKI. Here, we examined whether RAASi associates with a higher risk for recurrent AKI and mortality among survivors of moderate to severe AKI in a retrospective cohort of Veterans who survived Stage II or III AKI.

Timing of Recovery From Moderate to Severe AKI and the Risk for Future Loss of Kidney Function.

Rationale & Objective: The extent of recovery of kidney function following acute kidney injury (AKI) is known to be associated with future chronic kidney disease. Less is known about how the timing of recovery affects the rate of future loss of kidney function.

Study Design: We performed a retrospective cohort study examining the independent association between the timing of recovery from moderate to severe AKI and future loss of kidney function.

Acute Kidney Injury as a Risk Factor for Delirium and Coma during Critical Illness.

Rationale: Acute kidney injury may contribute to distant organ dysfunction. Few studies have examined kidney injury as a risk factor for delirium and coma.

Objectives: To examine whether acute kidney injury is associated with delirium and coma in critically ill adults.

An automated approach to calculating the daily dose of tacrolimus in electronic health records.

Clinical research often requires extracting detailed drug information, such as medication names and dosages, from Electronic Health Records (EHR). Since medication information is often recorded as both structured and unstructured formats in the EHR, extracting all the relevant drug mentions and determining the daily dose of a medication for a selected patient at a given date can be a challenging and time-consuming task. In this paper, we present an automated approach using natural language processing to calculate daily doses of medications mentioned in clinical text, using tacrolimus as a test case.

Race, kidney disease progression, and mortality risk in HIV-infected persons.

Background And Objectives: The burden of HIV-associated chronic kidney disease (CKD) is growing in the United States, partially because of increased HIV-infection rates among African Americans. We determined the prevalence, incidence, and risk of rapid estimated GFR (eGFR) decline, ESRD, and death among HIV-infected (HIV+) African-American and non-African-American individuals cared for at the Comprehensive Care Center in Nashville, Tennessee, from January 1, 1998, through December 31, 2005.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: Mixed effects, competing risks, and Poisson and Cox regression models were used to assess the risk of rapid eGFR decline (defined as ≥50% decrease in baseline eGFR), CKD5/ESRD, and death.