COVID-19 vaccination and major cardiovascular and haematological adverse events in Abu Dhabi: retrospective cohort study.

The widespread administration of COVID-19 vaccines has prompted a need to understand their safety profile. This investigation focuses on the safety of inactivated and mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, particularly concerning potential cardiovascular and haematological adverse events. A retrospective cohort study was conducted for 1.

Intercropping maize with brachiaria can be a double-edged sword strategy.

Background: Intercropping is commonly implemented as a way of promoting sustainable agriculture. Some of the benefits of intercropping include improving resource-use efficiency and soil quality as well as promoting pest control. As for pest control, intercropping can often engender pest repellency/confusion and promote natural biological control.

Evaluation of a digital system to predict unplanned admissions to the intensive care unit: A mixed-methods approach.

Background: We have developed the Hospital Alerting Via Electronic Noticeboard (HAVEN) which aims to identify hospitalised patients most at risk of reversible deterioration. HAVEN combines patients' vital-sign measurements with laboratory results, demographics and comorbidities using a machine learnt algorithm.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify variables or concepts that could improve HAVEN predictive performance.

A Chest Patch for Continuous Vital Sign Monitoring: Clinical Validation Study During Movement and Controlled Hypoxia.

Background: The standard of care in general wards includes periodic manual measurements, with the data entered into track-and-trigger charts, either on paper or electronically. Wearable devices may support health care staff, improve patient safety, and promote early deterioration detection in the interval between periodic measurements. However, regulatory standards for ambulatory cardiac monitors estimating heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) do not specify performance criteria during patient movement or clinical conditions in which the patient's oxygen saturation varies.

Detecting Deteriorating Patients in the Hospital: Development and Validation of a Novel Scoring System.

Late recognition of patient deterioration in hospital is associated with worse outcomes, including higher mortality. Despite the widespread introduction of early warning score (EWS) systems and electronic health records, deterioration still goes unrecognized. To develop and externally validate a Hospital- wide Alerting via Electronic Noticeboard (HAVEN) system to identify hospitalized patients at risk of reversible deterioration.

Remote health diagnosis and monitoring in the time of COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is rapidly spreading across the globe. The clinical spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia requires early detection and monitoring, within a clinical environment for critical cases and remotely for mild cases, with a large spectrum of symptoms. The fear of contamination in clinical environments has led to a dramatic reduction in on-site referrals for routine care.

Trajectories of vital signs in patients with COVID-19.

Background: The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has placed a huge strain on UK hospitals. Early studies suggest that patients can deteriorate quickly after admission to hospital. The aim of this study was to model changes in vital signs for patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

Cross-sectional centiles of blood pressure by age and sex: a four-hospital database retrospective observational analysis.

Objectives: National guidelines for identifying physiological deterioration and sepsis in hospitals depend on thresholds for blood pressure that do not account for age or sex. In populations outside hospital, differences in blood pressure are known to occur with both variables. Whether these differences remain in the hospitalised population is unknown.

Protocol for a prospective, controlled, cross-sectional, diagnostic accuracy study to evaluate the specificity and sensitivity of ambulatory monitoring systems in the prompt detection of hypoxia and during movement.

Introduction: Automated continuous ambulatory monitoring may provide an alternative to intermittent manual vital signs monitoring. This has the potential to improve frequency of measurements, timely escalation of care and patient safety. However, a major barrier to the implementation of these wearable devices in the ward environment is their uncertain reliability, efficiency and data fidelity.

The effect of fractional inspired oxygen concentration on early warning score performance: A database analysis.

Objectives: To calculate fractional inspired oxygen concentration (FiO) thresholds in ward patients and add these to the National Early Warning Score (NEWS). To evaluate the performance of NEWS-FiO against NEWS when predicting in-hospital death and unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admission.

Methods: A multi-centre, retrospective, observational cohort study was carried out in five hospitals from two UK NHS Trusts.

Estimation of respiratory rate from motion contaminated photoplethysmography signals incorporating accelerometry.

Estimation of respiratory rate (RR) from photoplethysmography (PPG) signals has important applications in the healthcare sector, from assisting doctors onwards to monitoring patients in their own homes. The problem is still very challenging, particularly during the motion for large segments of data, where results from different methods often do not agree. The authors aim to propose a new technique which performs motion reduction from PPG signals with the help of simultaneous acceleration signals where the PPG and accelerometer sensors need to be embedded in the same sensor unit.

A comparison of the ability of the National Early Warning Score and the National Early Warning Score 2 to identify patients at risk of in-hospital mortality: A multi-centre database study.

Aims: To compare the ability of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) to identify patients at risk of in-hospital mortality and other adverse outcomes.

Methods: We undertook a multi-centre retrospective observational study at five acute hospitals from two UK NHS Trusts. Data were obtained from completed adult admissions who were not fit enough to be discharged alive on the day of admission.

Predicting in-hospital mortality and unanticipated admissions to the intensive care unit using routinely collected blood tests and vital signs: Development and validation of a multivariable model.

Aim: The National Early Warning System (NEWS) is based on vital signs; the Laboratory Decision Tree Early Warning Score (LDT-EWS) on laboratory test results. We aimed to develop and validate a new EWS (the LDTEWS:NEWS risk index) by combining the two and evaluating the discrimination of the primary outcome of unanticipated intensive care unit (ICU) admission or in-hospital mortality, within 24 h.

Methods: We studied emergency medical admissions, aged 16 years or over, admitted to Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) and Portsmouth Hospitals (PH).

Smoothing Effect in Vital Sign Recordings: Fact or Fiction? A Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Manual and Continuous Vital Sign Measurements to Assess Data Smoothing in Postoperative Care.

Background: Data smoothing of vital signs has been reported in the anesthesia literature, suggesting that clinical staff are biased toward measurements of normal physiology. However, these findings may be partially explained by clinicians interpolating spurious values from noisy signals and by the undersampling of physiological changes by infrequent manual observations. We explored the phenomenon of data smoothing using a method robust to these effects in a large postoperative dataset including respiratory rate, heart rate, and oxygen saturation (SpO2).

Unsupervised Bayesian Inference to Fuse Biosignal Sensory Estimates for Personalizing Care.

The role of sensing technologies, such as wearables, in delivering precision care is becoming widely acceptable. Given the very large quantities of sensor data that rapidly accumulate, there is a need to employ automated algorithms to label biosignal sensor data. In many real-life clinical applications, no such expert labels are available, and algorithms for processing sensor data must be relied upon, without access to the "ground truth.

Breathing Rate Estimation From the Electrocardiogram and Photoplethysmogram: A Review.

Breathing rate (BR) is a key physiological parameter used in a range of clinical settings. Despite its diagnostic and prognostic value, it is still widely measured by counting breaths manually. A plethora of algorithms have been proposed to estimate BR from the electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse oximetry (photoplethysmogram, PPG) signals.

A Robust Fusion Model for Estimating Respiratory Rate From Photoplethysmography and Electrocardiography.

Objective: Respiratory rate (RR) estimation algorithms based on the photoplethymogram (PPG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) lack clinical robustness. This is because the PPG and ECG respiratory modulations are dependent on patient physiology, regardless of general signal quality. The present work describes an RR estimation algorithm using respiratory quality indices (RQIs) that assess the presence or absence of the PPG- and ECG-derived respiratory modulations.