Exploring Antibacterial Usage and Pathogen Surveillance over Five Years in a Tertiary Referral Teaching Hospital Adult General Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Antimicrobial resistance is a globally recognised health emergency. Intensive care is an area with significant antimicrobial consumption, particularly increased utilisation of broad-spectrum antibacterials, making stewardship programmes essential. We aimed to explore antibacterial consumption, partnered with pathogen surveillance, over a five-year period (2018 to 2023) in a tertiary referral adult general intensive care unit (ICU).

Intensive Care Management of Severe Hyponatraemia-An Observational Study.

Hyponatraemia is a common electrolyte disorder. For patients with severe hyponatraemia, intensive care unit (ICU) admission may be required. This will enable close monitoring and allow safe management of sodium levels effectively.

Characteristics, Management, and Outcomes of Acute Life-Threatening Asthma in Adult Intensive Care.

Background: There is limited evidence regarding the management of acute life-threatening asthma in intensive care units (ICUs), and few guidelines have details on this. We aimed to describe the characteristics, management, and outcomes of adults with life-threatening asthma requiring ICU admission.

Methods: In this single-centre retrospective observational study, we included consecutive adults with acute asthma requiring ICU admission between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2023.

A qualitative study on the effect of a decision aid on knowledge of cataract surgery in patients in developing countries.

Background: Despite cataract surgery being a safe procedure with a low incidence of perioperative complications rates, poor knowledge, concerns about the effectiveness of treatment and cost-benefit analysis of the procedure significantly hinder cataract surgery uptake rates in Africa. This study describes the effect of a decision aid on knowledge and decision conflict on cataract patients in Africa.

Methods And Analysis: 120 patients with cataracts reporting to a tertiary hospital in Ghana were randomly assigned to receive a decision aid containing information on the possible outcomes of cataract surgery or a control booklet containing general knowledge about cataracts without information about cataract surgery.

Non-Invasive Ventilation for Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Outcomes and Predictors of Failure from an ICU Cohort.

: The use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains controversial. NIV failure in the setting of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure is associated with increased mortality, highlighting the need for careful patient selection. : This is a retrospective observational cohort study.

Severe Parainfluenza Viral Infection-A Retrospective Study of Adult Intensive Care Patients.

There is little known about parainfluenza virus (PIV) infection in adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Here, we aim to describe the characteristics, clinical course and outcomes of PIV infection in adults requiring intensive care. In this retrospective study of consecutive patients admitted to our ICU with confirmed PIV infection over a 7-year period, we report the patient characteristics, laboratory tests and prognostic scores on ICU admission.

Readability and Quality of Online Information on Sickle Cell Retinopathy for Patients.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the readability and quality of Internet-based health information on sickle cell retinopathy.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional website analysis.

Methods: To simulate a patient's online search, the terms "sickle cell retinopathy" and "sickle cell disease in the eye" were entered into the top 3 search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo).

Prone Positioning in Mechanically Ventilated COVID-19 Patients: Timing of Initiation and Outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a broad implementation of proning to enhance oxygenation in both self-ventilating and mechanically ventilated critically ill patients with acute severe hypoxic respiratory failure. However, there is little data on the impact of the timing of the initiation of prone positioning in COVID-19 patients receiving mechanical ventilation. In this study, we analyzed our proning practices in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients.

Detailed Analysis of Primary Non-invasive Respiratory Support and Outcomes of Subjects With COVID-19 Acute Hypoxaemic Respiratory Failure.

Background The role of non-invasive (continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or Non-invasive ventilation (NIV)) respiratory support (NIRS) as a primary oxygenation strategy for COVID-19 patients with acute severe hypoxic respiratory failure (AHRF), as opposed to invasive mechanical ventilation (invasive-MV), is uncertain. While NIRS may prevent complications related to invasive MV, prolonged NIRS and delays in intubation may lead to adverse outcomes. This study was conducted to assess the role of NIRS in COVID-19 hypoxemic respiratory failure and to explore the variables associated with NRIS failure.

Contraflows and cycling safety: Evidence from 22 years of data involving 508 one-way streets.

Contraflow cycling on one-way streets is a low cost intervention that research shows can improve the cycling experience and increase participation. Evidence from several studies suggest that cyclists on contraflows have a lower crash risk. However, implementing contraflow cycling is often controversial, including in the United Kingdom (UK).

Body mass index and clinical outcome of severe COVID-19 patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure: Unravelling the "obesity paradox" phenomenon.

Background And Aims: Although obesity have been generally shown to be an independent risk factor for poor outcomes in COVID-19 infection, some studies demonstrate a paradoxical protective effect ("obesity paradox"). This study examines the influence of obesity categories on clinical outcomes of severe COVID-19 patients admitted to an intensive care unit with acute hypoxic respiratory failure requiring either non-invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation.

Methods: This is a single centre, retrospective study of consecutive COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit between 03/2020 to 03/2021.

Dynamic blood oxygen indices in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure: A cohort study.

Background: Acute hypoxic respiratory failure (AHRF) is a hallmark of severe COVID-19 pneumonia and often requires supplementary oxygen therapy. Critically ill COVID-19 patients may require invasive mechanical ventilation, which carries significant morbidity and mortality. Understanding of the relationship between dynamic changes in blood oxygen indices and clinical variables is lacking.

AuguR: A Scalable Open-Source Interactive Web Application for Routinely Collected Data.

Most data collected by hospitals as a consequence of the delivery of routine care is not utilised for analytics or organisational intelligence. This project aims to develop tools to enhance the utilisation of routinely collected cancer data within hospitals across England. This was achieved by developing a web application using open source tools to provide health care professionals and hospital managers with easy to use, interactive analytics for cancer data.

Distribution of High-Sensitivity Troponin Taken Without Conventional Clinical Indications in Critical Care Patients and Its Association With Mortality.

Objectives: To describe the distribution of high-sensitivity troponin in a consecutive cohort of patients in critical care units, regardless of clinical indication, and its association with clinical outcomes.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: Single-center teaching hospital.

Clinical characteristics and outcome of critically ill COVID-19 patients with acute kidney injury: a single centre cohort study.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common manifestation among patients critically ill with SARS-CoV-2 infection (Coronavirus 2019) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The pathophysiology of renal failure in this context is not fully understood, but likely to be multifactorial. The intensive care unit outcomes of patients following COVID-19 acute critical illness with associated AKI have not been fully explored.

Conscious prone positioning during non-invasive ventilation in COVID-19 patients: experience from a single centre.

Critically ill patients admitted to hospital following SARS-CoV-2 infection often experience hypoxic respiratory failure and a proportion require invasive mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygenation. The combination of prone positioning and non-invasive ventilation in conscious patients may have a role in improving oxygenation. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of prone positioning in spontaneously ventilating patients receiving non-invasive ventilation admitted to the intensive care.

Regionally-structured explanations behind area-level populism: An update to recent ecological analyses.

Heavy geographic patterning to the 2016 Brexit vote in UK and Trump vote in US has resulted in numerous ecological analyses of variations in area-level voting behaviours. We extend this work by employing modelling approaches that permit regionally-specific associations between outcome and explanatory variables. We do so by generating a large number of regional models using penalised regression for variable selection and coefficient evaluation.

Design Exposition Discussion Documents for Rich Design Discourse in Applied Visualization.

We present and report on Design Exposition Discussion Documents (DExDs), a new means of fostering collaboration between visualization designers and domain experts in applied visualization research. DExDs are a collection of semi-interactive web-based documents used to promote design discourse: to communicate new visualization designs, and their underlying rationale, and to elicit feedback and new design ideas. Developed and applied during a four-year visual data analysis project in criminal intelligence, these documents enabled a series of visualization re-designs to be explored by crime analysts remotely - in a flexible and authentic way.

Map LineUps: Effects of spatial structure on graphical inference.

Fundamental to the effective use of visualization as an analytic and descriptive tool is the assurance that presenting data visually provides the capability of making inferences from what we see. This paper explores two related approaches to quantifying the confidence we may have in making visual inferences from mapped geospatial data. We adapt Wickham et al.

Moving beyond sequential design: Reflections on a rich multi-channel approach to data visualization.

We reflect on a four-year engagement with transport authorities and others involving a large dataset describing the use of a public bicycle-sharing scheme. We describe the role visualization of these data played in fostering engagement with policy makers, transport operators, the transport research community, the museum and gallery sector and the general public. We identify each of these as `channels'--evolving relationships between producers and consumers of visualization--where traditional roles of the visualization expert and domain expert are blurred.

The effects of a sublethal dose of botulinum serotype e on the swimming performance of channel catfish fingerlings.

Abstract Visceral toxicosis of catfish (VTC) is a disease of cultured Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus in the Mississippi Delta region and surrounding states. The etiology of VTC is associated with botulinum serotype E (BoNT/E), which causes blockage of acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, leading to weakness and paralysis of skeletal muscles (including those involved in swimming). This study attempted to determine if sublethal exposure to purified BoNT/E caused reductions in swimming performance and metabolism of Channel Catfish.

Spatial representations are specific to different domains of knowledge.

There is evidence that many abstract concepts are represented cognitively in a spatial format. However, it is unknown whether similar spatial processes are employed in different knowledge domains, or whether individuals exhibit similar spatial profiles within and across domains. This research investigated similarities in spatial representation in two knowledge domains--mathematics and music.

The vocational continuum: how to make sense of vocational outcomes after group cognitive behavioural therapy for chronic pain sufferers.

Introduction: Vocational outcomes following group CBT programmes for patients with chronic pain are scarcely reported within the literature, despite their importance as measures of function. This study reports vocational, physical and psychological outcomes following a group CBT programme for patients suffering chronic pain. The study aimed to examine the vocational situation of chronic pain patients who completed a group CBT programme, using a scale known as the vocational continuum.

Long-term follow-up after TIPS: use of Doppler velocity criteria for detecting elevation of the portosystemic gradient.

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of Doppler ultrasound as a screening test for detecting elevated portosystemic gradients in failing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS).

Materials And Methods: Twenty-seven of 61 patients who underwent TIPS creation between November 1991 and March 1996 were studied. At routine intervals, angle-corrected velocity measurements of portal venous and intrashunt blood flow (at the portal venous, middle, and hepatic venous levels of the shunt) were obtained.