Expiratory Muscle Activity Counteracts Positive End-Expiratory Pressure and Is Associated with Fentanyl Dose in Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Hypoxemia during mechanical ventilation might be worsened by expiratory muscle activity, which reduces end-expiratory lung volume through lung collapse. A proposed mechanism of benefit of neuromuscular blockade in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the abolition of expiratory efforts. This may contribute to the restoration of lung volumes.

Comorbidity burden conditions the prognostic performance of D-dimer in elderly patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Introduction: The prognostic accuracy of D-dimer for risk assessment in acute Pulmonary Embolism (APE) patients may be hampered by comorbidities. We investigated the impact of comorbidity burden (CB) by using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), on the prognostic ability of D-dimer to predict 30 and 90-day mortality in hemodynamically stable elderly patients with APE.

Methods: All patients aged >65 years with normotensive APE, consecutively evaluated in the Emergency Department since 2010 through 2014 were included in this retrospective cohort study.

Comorbidity assessment as predictor of short and long-term mortality in elderly patients with hemodynamically stable acute pulmonary embolism.

Elderly patients presenting with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) frequently have significant underlying comorbidities which may condition the prognosis. The current study aimed to determine the ability of Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score to predict short and long-term mortality in elderly patients with hemodynamically stable acute PE. All hemodynamically stable patients aged >65 years with acute PE, evaluated in the Emergency Department since 2010 through 2014, were included in this retrospective cohort study.