Inflammation, endothelial injury, and the acute respiratory distress syndrome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is often seen in patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aim to test whether inflammatory or endothelial injury markers are associated with the development of ARDS in patients hospitalized after OHCA.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, cohort, pilot study at an urban academic medical center in 2019 that included a convenience sample of adults with non-traumatic OHCA.

Should the CIWA-Ar be the standard monitoring strategy for alcohol withdrawal syndrome in the intensive care unit?

Background: The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol-Revised (CIWA-Ar) is commonly used in hospitals to titrate medications for alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), but may be difficult to apply to intensive care unit (ICU) patients who are too sick or otherwise unable to communicate.

Objectives: To evaluate the frequency of CIWA-Ar monitoring among ICU patients with AWS and variation in CIWA-Ar monitoring across patient demographic and clinical characteristics.

Methods: The study included all adults admitted to an ICU in 2017 after treatment for AWS in the Emergency Department of an academic hospital that standardly uses the CIWA-Ar to assess AWS severity and response to treatment.