Aim: Our objective was to describe the impact of hyponatremia on the outcomes of COVID-19 patients [outcomes selected: intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation or death].
Methods: Two groups of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively screened on the basis of plasma sodium level at admission: hyponatremic (sodium < 135 mM, n = 92) or normonatremic (sodium ≥ 135 mM, n = 198) patients. Pearson's chi- (qualitative variables) and Student's T tests (quantitative variables) were used to compare the two groups.
Study Objective: Efforts to reduce unnecessary and unnecessarily long antibiotic treatment for community-acquired pneumonia have been attempted through use of procalcitonin and through guidelines based on serial clinical assessment. Our aim is to compare guideline-based clinical assessment- and procalcitonin algorithm-guided antibiotic use among patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
Methods: We performed a pragmatic, randomized, multicenter trial from November 2012 to April 2015 at 12 French hospitals.