Publications by authors named "Lisa K Torres"

Critical care uses syndromic definitions to describe patient groups for clinical practice and research. There is growing recognition that a "precision medicine" approach is required and that integrated biologic and physiologic data identify reproducible subpopulations that may respond differently to treatment. This article reviews the current state of the field and considers how to successfully transition to a precision medicine approach.

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Low-dose carbon monoxide (CO) is under investigation in clinical trials to treat non-cancerous diseases and has an excellent safety profile. Due to early detection and cancer awareness, an increasing number of cancer patients are diagnosed at early stages, when potentially curative surgical resection can be done. However, many patients ultimately experience recurrence.

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Background: Sepsis is a heterogeneous syndrome, and the identification of clinical subphenotypes is essential. Although organ dysfunction is a defining element of sepsis, subphenotypes of differential trajectory are not well studied. We sought to identify distinct Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score trajectory-based subphenotypes in sepsis.

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Macrophages exert critical functions during kidney injury, inflammation, and tissue repair or fibrosis. Mitochondrial structural and functional aberrations due to an imbalance in mitochondrial fusion/fission processes are implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic kidney disease. Therefore, we investigated macrophage-specific functions of mitochondrial fusion proteins, mitofusin (MFN)1 and MFN2, in modulating macrophage mitochondrial dynamics, biogenesis, oxidative stress, polarization, and fibrotic response.

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Article Synopsis
  • Sepsis is becoming a major public health issue, largely due to an aging population and increased use of immunosuppressive treatments in various medical conditions.
  • The condition leads to severe and lasting immunosuppression, making patients more vulnerable to secondary infections and higher mortality rates.
  • The review emphasizes the need to understand sepsis mechanisms, identify biomarkers for impaired immunity, and explore new treatments, advocating for a tailored approach to immunotherapy in future patient care.
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COVID-19-associated respiratory failure offers the unprecedented opportunity to evaluate the differential host response to a uniform pathogenic insult. Understanding whether there are distinct subphenotypes of severe COVID-19 may offer insight into its pathophysiology. Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score is an objective and comprehensive measurement that measures dysfunction severity of six organ systems, i.

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Background: Although acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with high mortality, its direct causal link with death is unclear. Clarifying this link is important to justify costly research on prevention of ARDS.

Objective: To estimate the attributable mortality, if any, of ARDS.

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The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) tool is a commonly used measure of illness severity. Calculation of the respiratory subscore of SOFA is frequently limited by missing arterial oxygen pressure (Pa) data. Although missing Pa data are commonly replaced with normal values, the performance of different methods of substituting Pa for SOFA calculation is unclear.

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Objectives: We describe the process by which a PICU and a PICU care team were incorporated into a hospital-wide ICU care model during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Design: A descriptive, retrospective report from a single-center PICU.

Setting: Twenty-three bed, quaternary PICU, within an 862-bed hospital.

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Mitophagy, by maintaining mitochondrial quality control, plays a key role in maintaining kidney function and is impaired in pathologic states. Macrophages are well known for their pathogenic role in kidney fibrosis. Here, we report that PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy in macrophages is compromised in experimental and human kidney fibrosis.

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The prevalence of obesity is rising worldwide and obese patients comprise a specific population in the intensive care unit. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) incidence is increased in obese patients. Exposure of rodents to hyperoxia mimics many of the features of ARDS.

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Background: Observational studies suggest that some patients meeting criteria for ARDS no longer fulfill the oxygenation criterion early in the course of their illness. This subphenotype of rapidly improving ARDS has not been well characterized. We attempted to assess the prevalence, characteristics, and outcomes of rapidly improving ARDS and to identify which variables are useful to predict it.

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