Severe maternal morbidity and mortality are often preventable and obstetric early warning systems that alert care providers of potential impending critical illness may improve maternal safety. While literature on outcomes and test characteristics of maternal early warning systems is evolving, there is limited guidance on implementation. Given current interest in early warning systems and their potential role in care, the 2017 Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) Annual Meeting dedicated a session to exploring early warning implementation across a wide range of hospital settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Randomized trials, for example, RECESS, comparing "young" (median, 7-day) versus "middle-aged" (median, 28-day) red blood cells (RBCs), showed no difference in outcome. These data are important; however, they do not inform us about the safety and effectiveness of the oldest RBCs, which some patients receive. It may not be feasible to conduct a clinical trial randomizing patients to receive the oldest blood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The objective of this study is to determine the incidence of and risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and transfusion-associated NEC (TANEC) in very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants pre/post implementation of a peri-transfusion feeding protocol.
Study Design: A retrospective cohort study was conducted including all inborn VLBW infants admitted to the Duke intensive care nursery from 2002 to 2010. We defined NEC using Bell's modified criteria IIA and higher and TANEC as NEC occurring within 48h of a packed red blood cell (pRBC) transfusion.
Background: Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is common in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and is associated with complications that appear related to the duration of blood storage. We hypothesize that hemolysis of stored RBCs results in increases in the availability of non-heme-bound iron, which inhibits macrophage activation.
Study Design And Methods: RBCs were sampled at multiple time points to evaluate hemolysis and iron release.
Background: The relationship between duration of platelet (PLT) storage, currently limited to 5days, and surgical outcomes has not been established. We tested the hypothesis that PLT storage age was associated with adverse outcomes.
Study Design And Methods: A retrospective cohort of aortocoronary bypass (CABG) surgery patients from January 1996 to January 2005 receiving one or more PLT transfusions was selected for study.
Objective: Pulmonary dysfunction is common in transfused patients recovering from heart surgery. Plasma transfusion from female donors has been linked with rare catastrophic lung injury, but its relationship with outcome after cardiac surgery is poorly understood. We examined whether plasma donor gender is related to postcardiac surgery pulmonary dysfunction and death or prolonged hospitalization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Recent evidence demonstrates an association between duration of storage of red blood cells (RBC) and morbidity and mortality after cardiac surgery. We studied the feasibility of two different schemes for categorizing and randomizing age of RBC units transfused in cardiac surgical patients.
Study Design And Methods: In Phase 1, 20 subjects were randomly assigned to standard of care (SOC) versus no RBCs with more than 21 days' storage duration.
Blood Coagul Fibrinolysis
December 2007
Low circulating von Willebrand factor levels increase the risk of bleeding after cardiac surgery. Patients with blood group O may be at greatest risk owing to lower baseline levels of von Willebrand factor compared with patients with other blood groups, and perioperative hemodilution during cardiac surgery may reduce von Willebrand factor to critical levels in these patients. This study tested the hypothesis that patients with blood group O are at increased risk for postoperative bleeding following cardiac surgery, and determined whether the blood group affected perioperative assessment of primary hemostasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacillus thuringiensis is an insect pathogen that is widely used as a biopesticide (E. Schnepf, N. Crickmore, J.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis are closely related gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria of the B. cereus sensu lato group. While independently derived strains of B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn organic solvent-free method for encapsulating progesterone at high loadings within micron-sized inert latex polymer beads is reported. This approach makes use of a polymeric surfactant to emulsify carbon dioxide into an aqueous latex suspension. In this way, preformed approximately 4 microm polystyrene (PS) microparticles surface-grafted with poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) were plasticized and swollen followed by rapid partitioning of progesterone into the polymer matrix.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman chromosome 16 features one of the highest levels of segmentally duplicated sequence among the human autosomes. We report here the 78,884,754 base pairs of finished chromosome 16 sequence, representing over 99.9% of its euchromatin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAt the centenary of Spearman's seminal 1904 article, his general intelligence hypothesis remains one of the most influential in psychology. Less well known is the article's other hypothesis that there is "a correspondence between what may provisionally be called 'General Discrimination' and 'General Intelligence' which works out with great approximation to one or absoluteness" (Spearman, 1904, p. 284).
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