Antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring in critically ill adult patients - An international perspective on access, utilisation, and barriers.

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is an effective method for individualising antimicrobial therapy in critically ill patients. The 2021 ADMIN-intensive care unit survey studied a wide range of intensive care unit clinicians worldwide to gain their perspectives on antimicrobial TDM. This article reports the responses from this survey relating to TDM access, utilisation, and barriers.

Wearable Devices to Diagnose and Monitor the Progression of COVID-19 Through Heart Rate Variability Measurement: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Recent studies have linked low heart rate variability (HRV) with COVID-19, indicating that this parameter can be a marker of the onset of the disease and its severity and a predictor of mortality in infected people. Given the large number of wearable devices that capture physiological signals of the human body easily and noninvasively, several studies have used this equipment to measure the HRV of individuals and related these measures to COVID-19.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the utility of HRV measurements obtained from wearable devices as predictive indicators of COVID-19, as well as the onset and worsening of symptoms in affected individuals.

International survey of antibiotic dosing and monitoring in adult intensive care units.

Background: In recent years, numerous dosing studies have been conducted to optimize therapeutic antibiotic exposures in patients with serious infections. These studies have led to the inclusion of dose optimization recommendations in international clinical practice guidelines. The last international survey describing dosing, administration and monitoring of commonly prescribed antibiotics for critically ill patients was published in 2015 (ADMIN-ICU 2015).

Effects of additional gonadotropin-releasing hormone and prostaglandin F treatment to an estradiol/progesterone-based embryo transfer protocol for recipient lactating dairy cows.

This study was designed to evaluate whether the utilization of a second PGF treatment at the end of an estradiol/progesterone (E2/P4)-based protocol with or without GnRH at the beginning of the protocol would improve pregnancy rates of lactating Holstein cows assigned to timed embryo transfer. A total of 501 lactating Holstein cows in 5 farms were enrolled in the experiment. Within farm, cows were blocked by parity and, within block, were assigned randomly to (1) insertion of an intravaginal P4 device (controlled internal drug-releasing device; CIDR) and estradiol benzoate on d -11, PGF on d -4, CIDR withdrawal and an injection of estradiol cypionate on d -2, and timed embryo transfer on d 7 (1-PGF; n = 164); (2) the same treatments as 1-PGF, but with PGF administered on d -4 and -2 (2-PGF; n = 171); and (3) 2-PGF with the addition of a GnRH treatment on d -11 (GnRH2-PGF; n = 166).