Publications by authors named "Stephen Wisniewski"

Background: Blood shortages and utilization stewardship have motivated the trauma community to evaluate futility cutoffs during massive transfusions (MTs). Recent single-center studies have confirmed meaningful survival in ultra-MT (≥20 U) and super-MT (≥50 U), while others advocate for earlier futility cut points. We sought to evaluate whether transfusion volume and intensity cut points could predict 100% mortality in a multicenter analysis.

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Background: The use of low titer group O whole blood (LTOWB) for resuscitation of patients with traumatic hemorrhage is becoming increasingly common. Practices regarding the administration of RhD-positive LTOWB to childbearing age females (CBAFs) vary between institutions due to concerns about RhD alloimmunization. This study examined practices related to LTOWB transfusion as they pertain to age and sex.

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AbstractIn response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute launched five multisite clinical trials testing candidate host tissue-directed medical interventions to hasten recovery, improve function, and reduce morbidity and mortality. Speed, flexibility, and collaboration were essential. This article from the Steering and Executive committees describes the Collaborating Network of Networks for Evaluating Covid-19 and Therapeutic Strategies (CONNECTS) research program that enrolled 6690 participants and evaluated 18 intervention strategies using 10 molecular agents across the care continuum (outpatient, inpatient, and post discharge), and reports lessons learned from this initiative.

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Objectives: The delta shock index (ΔSI), defined as the change in shock index (SI) over time, is associated with hospital morbidity and mortality, but prehospital studies about ΔSI are limited. We investigate the association of prehospital ΔSI with mortality and resource utilization, hypothesizing that increases in SI among field trauma patients are associated with increased mortality and blood product transfusion.

Methods: We performed a multicenter, retrospective, observational study from the Linking Investigators in Trauma and Emergency Services (LITES) network.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study’s goal was to investigate how home and neighborhood environments affect neurobehavioral outcomes in children who experienced severe traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).
  • It involved children under 18 years old, who were admitted to intensive care with a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 8 or lower, and used a multicenter observational design to track various outcomes after 12 months.
  • Results showed that factors related to home and neighborhood life significantly influenced neurobehavioral outcomes like intellectual ability and behavior adjustment, particularly in older children, while global functioning was not as affected.
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The authors summarize the methodology for a new pragmatic comparative effectiveness research investigation, Cooling Prospectively Infants with Mild Encephalopathy (COOLPRIME), which uses sites' existing mild hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) treatment preference (hypothermia or normothermia) to assess hypothermia effectiveness and safety. COOLPRIME's primary aim is to determine the safety and effectiveness of hypothermia compared to normothermia in mild HIE. Engagement of Families and Community Affected by Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy strongly favored Effectiveness over Efficacy Trials leading to COOL PRIME design.

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Article Synopsis
  • Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and hemorrhage significantly contribute to trauma-related fatalities, especially in patients with polytrauma, leading researchers to explore better diagnostic and prognostic methods.
  • The study utilized blood samples from a cohort to assess the predictive ability of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) levels in patients experiencing hemorrhagic shock, with or without TBI, through classification tree analysis.
  • Results indicated that GFAP levels, particularly greater than 286 pg/ml at patient arrival, effectively predicted TBI presence and associated outcomes, whereas UCH-L1 did not show significant predictive value in the studied scenarios.
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Increasingly long and complex informed consents have yielded studies demonstrating comparatively low participant and with traditional face-to-face approaches. In parallel, interest in electronic consents for clinical and research genomics has steadily increased, yet limited data are available for trio-based genomic discovery studies. We describe the design, development, implementation, and validation of an electronic iConsent application for trio-based genomic research deployed to support genomic studies of cerebral palsy.

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Background: Sarcoidosis staging primarily has relied on the Scadding chest radiographic system, although chest CT imaging is finding increased clinical use.

Research Question: Whether standardized chest CT scan assessment provides additional understanding of lung function beyond Scadding stage and demographics is unknown and the focus of this study.

Study Design And Methods: We used National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute study Genomics Research in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and Sarcoidosis (GRADS) cases of sarcoidosis (n = 351) with Scadding stage and chest CT scans obtained in a standardized manner.

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Objective: To determine the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of early cold stored platelet transfusion compared with standard care resuscitation in patients with hemorrhagic shock.

Background: Data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of early cold stored platelet transfusion are lacking following severe injury.

Methods: A phase 2, multicenter, randomized, open label, clinical trial was performed at 5 US trauma centers.

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Purpose: An observational study of children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Approaches and Decisions in Acute Pediatric TBI [ADAPT] Trial) demonstrated the benefits of inpatient rehabilitation on functional outcomes for those with more severely impaired consciousness when medically stable. We conducted a secondary analysis to assess whether using an inpatient rehabilitation or skilled nursing facility after acute hospitalization was associated with better motor, neuropsychological, and behavioral outcomes compared to receiving only non-inpatient rehabilitation among children with severe TBI.

Materials And Methods: We included 180 children who used an inpatient rehabilitation or skilled nursing facility and 74 children who only received non-inpatient rehabilitation from the ADAPT trial.

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Objective: Treating traumatic hemorrhage is time sensitive. Prehospital care and transport modes (eg, helicopter and ground) may influence in-hospital events. We hypothesized that prehospital time (on-scene time [OST] and total prehospital time [TPT]) and transport mode are associated with same-day transfusion and mortality.

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Article Synopsis
  • Therapeutic-dose heparin may reduce the need for organ support in noncritically ill COVID-19 patients, but its effect on long-term symptoms and quality of life (QOL) is unclear.
  • The ACTIV-4a trial randomized 727 hospitalized COVID-19 patients to either therapeutic or prophylactic heparin, with a focus on their symptoms and QOL at a 90-day follow-up using the EQ-5D-5L survey.
  • Results indicated that about 50% experienced at least one symptom post-hospitalization, with therapeutic heparin linked to reduced physical impairment, but no significant differences in overall symptoms or QOL scores between the heparin treatment groups.
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Being overweight or obese is common among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but whether interventions targeted at weight loss improve functional impairments is unknown. INSIGHT (Intervention Study in Overweight Patients with COPD) tested whether a pragmatic low-intensity lifestyle intervention would lead to better physical functional status among overweight or obese participants with COPD. The trial was a 12-month, multicenter, patient-level pragmatic clinical trial.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of annual trauma patient volume on outcomes for emergency medical services (EMS) agencies.

Background: Regionalization of trauma care saves lives. The underlying concept driving this is a volume-outcome relationship.

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Introduction: Effective trauma system organization is crucial to timely access to care and requires accurate understanding of injury and resource locations. Many systems rely on home zip codes to evaluate geographic distribution of injury; however, few studies have evaluated the reliability of home as a proxy for incident location after injury.

Methods: We analyzed data from a multicenter prospective cohort collected from 2017 to 2021.

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Article Synopsis
  • Low-titer group O whole blood (LTOWB) resuscitation is increasingly used in trauma cases, aiming to improve patient outcomes compared to traditional blood component resuscitation.
  • In a study involving over 1,000 severely injured patients, no significant differences in 4-hour mortality rates were found between LTOWB and blood component resuscitation in the overall group.
  • However, for patients with a higher prehospital risk of mortality, LTOWB resuscitation showed a significant reduction in both 4-hour and 28-day mortality rates.
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Background: The pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea in pregnancy remains poorly understood and studies examining the effect of treatment with positive airway pressure on pregnancy have been limited.

Objective: This study aimed to perform a randomized controlled trial of positive airway pressure treatment for obstructive sleep apnea in pregnancy.

Study Design: Participants with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m underwent polysomnography at 14 to 20 weeks' gestation (visit 1) and those with obstructive sleep apnea (apnea-hypopnea index ≥5 but <50) were enrolled.

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Background And Objectives: In paediatric trauma patients, there are limited prospective data regarding blood components and mortality, with some literature suggesting decreased mortality with high ratios of plasma and platelets to red blood cells (RBCs) in massive transfusions; however, most paediatric massive transfusions occur for non-traumatic aetiologies and few studies assess blood product ratios in these children. This study's objective was to evaluate whether high blood product ratios or low deficits conferred a survival benefit in children with non-traumatic life-threatening bleeding.

Materials And Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the five-year, multicentre, prospective, observational massive transfusion epidemiology and outcomes in children study of children with life-threatening bleeding from US, Canadian and Italian medical centres.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has the highest incidence of all common neurological disorders, and poses a substantial public health burden. TBI is increasingly documented not only as an acute condition but also as a chronic disease with long-term consequences, including an increased risk of late-onset neurodegeneration. The first Commission on TBI, published in 2017, called for a concerted effort to tackle the global health problem posed by TBI.

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Objective: Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) is provoked by multiple mechanisms and is perceived to be one driver of massive transfusions (MT). Single laboratory values using prothrombin time (INR) or thrombelastography (TEG) are used to clinically define this complex process. We used a proteomics approach to test whether current definitions of TIC (INR, TEG, or clinical judgement) are sufficient to capture the majority of protein changes associated with MT.

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Background: To describe the incidence and factors predicting visual outcome in patients with infectious endophthalmitis following intravitreal anti-VEGF injection.

Methods: Retrospective, single-site, cohort study. Patients with acute endophthalmitis within 6 weeks of intravitreal anti-VEGF injection who were referred to our practice after inciting injection or were injected by us between January 2010 and July 2017 were included.

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Objective: Few studies have assessed the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process in children surviving severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We evaluated whether receiving inpatient rehabilitation after acute hospitalization was associated with better functional outcomes compared to receiving only non-inpatient rehabilitation in children with severe TBI and explored an effect modification for Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score at hospital discharge.

Methods: We included 254 children who received rehabilitation following severe TBI from a multinational observational study.

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Background: Many persons with a history of smoking tobacco have clinically significant respiratory symptoms despite an absence of airflow obstruction as assessed by spirometry. They are often treated with medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but supporting evidence for this treatment is lacking.

Methods: We randomly assigned persons who had a tobacco-smoking history of at least 10 pack-years, respiratory symptoms as defined by a COPD Assessment Test score of at least 10 (scores range from 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating worse symptoms), and preserved lung function on spirometry (ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV] to forced vital capacity [FVC] ≥0.

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