Publications by authors named "Merdji H"

Introduction: First-line oxygenation strategy in patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure consists in standard oxygen or high-flow nasal oxygen therapy. Clinical practice guidelines suggest the use of high-flow nasal oxygen rather than standard oxygen. However, findings remain contradictory with a low level of certainty.

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Background: Despite scarce data, invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) is widely suggested as first-line ventilatory support in cardiogenic shock (CS) patients. We assessed the real-life use of different ventilation strategies in CS and their influence on short and mid-term prognosis.

Methods: FRENSHOCK was a prospective registry including 772 CS patients from 49 centers in France.

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Background: Cardiogenic shock and sepsis are severe haemodynamic states that are frequently present concomitantly, leading to substantial mortality. Despite its frequency and clinical significance, there is a striking lack of literature on the outcomes of combined sepsis and cardiogenic shock.

Methods: FRENSHOCK was a prospective registry including 772 patients with cardiogenic shock from 49 centres.

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  • - Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is common in cardiac arrest patients, but diagnosing it post-arrest is difficult, leading to debate over the effectiveness of biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) for this purpose.
  • - The study analyzed the role of various biomarkers in diagnosing and predicting VAP within 48 hours following cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia, using a randomized clinical trial as a foundation.
  • - Results showed that VAP patients had distinct clinical features and higher biomarker levels indicating VAP; CRP was notably associated with VAP, demonstrating an area under the curve (AUC) greater than 0.70 in analyses.
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  • The study investigates sex-specific differences in organ dysfunction among ICU patients with sepsis or septic shock using the SOFA score.
  • An analysis of 5,947 patients showed that women had a lower mean total SOFA score on admission compared to men, influenced particularly by coagulation, liver, and renal components.
  • Although significant differences were observed, there were no notable variations in ICU length of stay or mortality rates between sexes, suggesting the need for reevaluation of SOFA scoring criteria based on sex.
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  • * In a study involving 772 patients with cardiogenic shock, 21.3% had CKD, and these patients were generally older and had more health issues, which contributed to increased mortality.
  • * Renal replacement therapy (RRT) was associated with a higher risk of death regardless of CKD status, highlighting the need for collaborative care between cardiac and kidney specialists to better manage these patients.
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To create robust and adaptable methods for lung pneumonia diagnosis and the assessment of its severity using chest X-rays (CXR), access to well-curated, extensive datasets is crucial. Many current severity quantification approaches require resource-intensive training for optimal results. Healthcare practitioners require efficient computational tools to swiftly identify COVID-19 cases and predict the severity of the condition.

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  • ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) is linked to a high risk of bleeding, and this study aimed to explore how ECMO affects fibrinolysis markers over time in these patients.
  • In the study involving 30 patients, key fibrinolysis markers like tPA and D-dimer increased significantly in bleeding patients before a hemorrhagic event, while nonbleeding patients showed a decreasing trend in these markers.
  • Results indicated that higher tPA levels were associated with bleeding events, suggesting that monitoring these fibrinolytic markers could be crucial in managing patients on ECMO.
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Introduction: Toll-like receptors play crucial roles in the sepsis-induced systemic inflammatory response. Septic shock mortality correlates with overexpression of neutrophilic TLR2 and TLR9, while the role of TLR4 overexpression remains a debate. In addition, TLRs are involved in the pathogenesis of viral infections such as COVID-19, where the single-stranded RNA of SARS-CoV-2 is recognized by TLR7 and TLR8, and the spike protein activates TLR4.

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Background: The effects of pharmacological therapy on cardiogenic shock (CS) survivors have not been extensively studied. Thus, this study investigated the association between guideline-directed heart failure (HF) medical therapy (GDMT) and one-year survival rate in patients who are post-CS.

Methods And Results: FRENSHOCK (French Observatory on the Management of Cardiogenic Shock in 2016) registry was a prospective multicenter observational survey, conducted in metropolitan French intensive care units and intensive cardiac care units.

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  • International guidelines suggest keeping body temperature below 37.8 °C for unconscious patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), but targeting 33 °C may yield better results for patients with a nonshockable rhythm.
  • The study aimed to determine if inducing hypothermia at 33 °C leads to higher survival rates and better functional outcomes compared to maintaining normal body temperature (normothermia).
  • Data was gathered from two clinical trials involving unconscious OHCA patients with nonshockable rhythms, comparing those treated with hypothermia versus normothermia for a minimum of 24 hours, analyzing various factors influencing outcomes.*
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  • * Out of 350 patients analyzed, those with DIC had a higher incidence of AKI (86.8%) compared to those without DIC (74.2%), and their AKI was generally more severe.
  • * After controlling for other factors, the presence of DIC significantly raised the risk of severe AKI and the need for renal replacement therapy, with odds ratios indicating a more than twofold increased risk.
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The use of ultrashort pulse lasers in medical treatments is increasing and is already an essential tool, particularly in the treatment of eyes, bones and skin. One of the main advantages of laser treatment is that it is fast and minimally invasive. Due to the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with matter, X-rays can be generated during the laser ablation process.

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Background: Whether preventive inhaled antibiotics may reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia is unclear.

Methods: In this investigator-initiated, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled, superiority trial, we assigned critically ill adults who had been undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation for at least 72 hours to receive inhaled amikacin at a dose of 20 mg per kilogram of ideal body weight once daily or to receive placebo for 3 days. The primary outcome was a first episode of ventilator-associated pneumonia during 28 days of follow-up.

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Background & Aims: After a prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay patients experience increased mortality and morbidity. The primary aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of nutritional status, body mass composition and muscle strength, as assessed by body mass index (BMI), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), handgrip (HG) test, and that of the biological features to predict one-year survival at the end of a prolonged ICU stay.

Methods: This was a multicenter prospective observational study.

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  • Despite advances in critical care, there’s a lack of focus on sex and gender disparities affecting ICU patient management and outcomes.
  • Sex refers to biological traits, while gender encompasses sociocultural roles; current data on these differences in the ICU is inconsistent and insufficient.
  • Addressing these disparities is essential for improving patient care, requiring future research on the mechanisms behind these differences and development of targeted interventions for better outcomes.
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  • The study investigates the impact of skin mottling on patients with cardiogenic shock, finding that nearly 39% of patients showed mottling at admission, which is linked to worse outcomes.
  • In a cohort of 772 patients, those with mottling had higher rates of invasive support, longer hospital stays, and increased mortality at both 30 days and 1 year compared to those without mottling.
  • The study concludes that skin mottling can be a valuable assessment tool in guiding therapy for cardiogenic shock patients, indicating the need for more aggressive treatment to improve survival chances.
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Background: Respiratory mechanics is a key element to monitor mechanically ventilated patients and guide ventilator settings. Besides the usual basic assessments, some more complex explorations may allow to better characterize patients' respiratory mechanics and individualize ventilation strategies. These advanced respiratory mechanics assessments including esophageal pressure measurements and complete airway closure detection may be particularly relevant in critically ill obese patients.

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Objectives: Staphylococcus epidermidis (SE) is a supposedly low-virulence agent, which may cause proven bloodstream infections (BSIs), with little-known consequences on intensive care unit (ICU) patients. We aimed at studying ICU patients diagnosed with BSIs caused by SE (SE-BSIs).

Methods: We constituted a retrospective cohort in two medical ICUs.

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  • This study explored the characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with active cancer who were admitted for cardiogenic shock, finding that they made up about 6.6% of the 772 enrolled patients.
  • Although active cancer patients had similar initial in-hospital outcomes as non-cancer patients, they required more intensive drug management but received less mechanical support.
  • While both groups had similar 30-day mortality rates, the active cancer group had significantly higher long-term mortality rates at 1 year, indicating that active cancer dramatically impacts survival after initial treatment for cardiogenic shock.
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  • Biological rhythms play a crucial role in immune functions, and disruptions in these rhythms, particularly body temperature, are observed in septic shock patients within the ICU.
  • A study involving 162 septic shock patients examined their body temperature over 24 hours, finding that factors like gender and medication usage influenced temperature metrics, such as period, amplitude, and mesor.
  • The analysis revealed that lower mesor values and higher amplitude were linked to increased mortality rates, suggesting they could serve as important prognostic indicators for high-risk patients in septic shock, potentially enhancing automated patient monitoring systems in hospitals.
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