Patterns of diuretic titration during inpatient management of acute decompensated heart failure.

Introduction: Hospitalization rates for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) have increased, resulting in 6.5 million hospital days annually. Despite this, optimal diuretic strategies for managing ADHF remain unclear, highlighting the need to analyze diuretic practice patterns in ADHF treatment.

Optimal Initial Intravenous Loop Diuretic Dosing in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure.

Background: Nearly one-half of patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) are discharged with unresolved congestion, elevating rehospitalization risk. This may be due to suboptimal intravenous (IV) loop diuretic dosing, which may be influenced by home oral diuretic dose.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the association between: 1) home oral loop diuretic dose and optimal initial IV loop diuretic dosing in ADHF; and 2)receiving optimal initial IV loop diuretic dosing and length of stay and 30-day readmission.

Hospital and Surgeon Adherence to Pediatric Tonsillectomy Guidelines Regarding Perioperative Dexamethasone and Antibiotic Administration.

Objectives: To (1) determine adherence to American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation guidelines for pediatric tonsillectomy recommending routine administration of perioperative dexamethasone and against routine antibiotic administration among surgeons and hospitals in a multihospital network and (2) evaluate the impact of adherence on the risk of complications.

Study Design: Case series with chart review.

Setting: Multihospital network.

Low-density liquid water is the mother of ice: on the relation between mesostructure, thermodynamics and ice crystallization in solutions.

Predicting the temperature and extent of ice freezing in aqueous solutions is crucial for areas as diverse as cryobiology and materials design. It has long been recognized that the thermodynamics of liquid water controls the temperature and kinetics of ice crystallization. Parameterizations of the freezing temperatures in terms of the water activity of the solution have been successfully established, but the fundamental origin of the thermodynamic control of the non-equilibrium crystallization of ice has remained elusive.