Rapid and Robust Identification of Sepsis Using SeptiCyte RAPID in a Heterogeneous Patient Population.

SeptiCyte RAPID is a transcriptional host response assay that discriminates between sepsis and non-infectious systemic inflammation (SIRS) with a one-hour turnaround time. The overall performance of this test in a cohort of 419 patients has recently been described [Balk et al., J Clin Med 2024, 13, 1194].

Major Publications in the Critical Care Pharmacotherapy Literature: 2023.

Objectives: We aimed to summarize the most significant and impactful publications describing the pharmacotherapeutic care of critically ill patients in 2023.

Data Sources: PubMed/MEDLINE and the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology Pharmacotherapy Literature Update.

Study Selection: Randomized controlled trials and prospective studies of adult critically ill patients assessing a pharmacotherapeutic intervention and reporting clinical endpoints published between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, were eligible for inclusion in this article.

Association between Dexmedetomidine Use and Mortality in Patients with COVID-19 Receiving Invasive Mechanical Ventilation: A U.S. National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Study.

(1) : Dexmedetomidine is a sedative for patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) that previous single-site studies have found to be associated with improved survival in patients with COVID-19. The reported clinical benefits include dampened inflammatory response, reduced respiratory depression, reduced agitation and delirium, improved preservation of responsiveness and arousability, and improved hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and ventilation-perfusion ratio. Whether improved mortality is evident in large, multi-site COVID-19 data is understudied.

The Role of Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Management of Pneumonia.

Biomarkers are used in the diagnosis, severity determination, and prognosis for patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Selected biomarkers may indicate a bacterial infection and need for antibiotic therapy (C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells). Biomarkers can differentiate CAP patients who require hospital admission and severe CAP requiring intensive care unit admission.