Interrater Reliability of the 2015 Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference Criteria for Pediatric ARDS.

Background: Diagnostic guidelines for pediatric ARDS (PARDS) were developed at the 2015 Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC). Although this was an improvement in creating pediatric-specific diagnostic criteria, there remains potential for variability in identification of PARDS.

Research Question: What is the interrater reliability of the 2015 PALICC criteria for diagnosing moderate to severe PARDS? What clinical criteria and patient factors are associated with diagnostic disagreements?

Study Design And Methods: Patients with acute hypoxic respiratory failure admitted from 2016 to 2021 who received invasive mechanical ventilation were retrospectively reviewed by two pediatric ICU physicians.

Procalcitonin to Detect Suspected Bacterial Infections in the PICU.

Objectives: Nonspecific clinical symptoms frequently lead to suspicion of bacterial infection in critically ill children. Clinicians send bacterial cultures for suspected infection and begin an empiric course of antibiotics while microbiology results are pending. We investigated whether the biomarker procalcitonin could be useful to predict confirmed bacterial infection in critically ill children in the PICU, before culture results are available.

Pediatric Early Warning Score and unplanned readmission to the pediatric intensive care unit.

Background And Objectives: Early unplanned Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) readmission is associated with greater length of stay and mortality. No tools exist to identify children at risk for PICU readmission. The Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) currently identify children at risk for deterioration on the ward.