Short-term vital parameter forecasting in the intensive care unit: A benchmark study leveraging data from patients after cardiothoracic surgery.

Patients in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are closely and continuously monitored, and many machine learning (ML) solutions have been proposed to predict specific outcomes like death, bleeding, or organ failure. Forecasting of vital parameters is a more general approach to ML-based patient monitoring, but the literature on its feasibility and robust benchmarks of achievable accuracy are scarce. We implemented five univariate statistical models (the naïve model, the Theta method, exponential smoothing, the autoregressive integrated moving average model, and an autoregressive single-layer neural network), two univariate neural networks (N-BEATS and N-HiTS), and two multivariate neural networks designed for sequential data (a recurrent neural network with gated recurrent unit, GRU, and a Transformer network) to produce forecasts for six vital parameters recorded at five-minute intervals during intensive care monitoring.

Systematic Assessment of Shock Severity in Postoperative Cardiac Surgery Patients.

Background: The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) shock classification has been shown to provide robust mortality risk stratification in a variety of cardiovascular patients.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the SCAI shock classification in postoperative cardiac surgery intensive care unit (CSICU) patients.

Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 26,792 postoperative CSICU admissions at a heart center between 2012 and 2022.

Rapid Pacing Decreases L-type Ca Current and Alters Cacna1c Isogene Expression in Primary Cultured Rat Left Ventricular Myocytes.

The L-type calcium current (I) is the first step in cardiac excitation-contraction-coupling and plays an important role in regulating contractility, but also in electrical and mechanical remodeling. Primary culture of cardiomyocytes, a widely used tool in cardiac ion channel research, is associated with substantial morphological, functional and electrical changes some of which may be prevented by electrical pacing. We therefore investigated I directly after cell isolation and after 24 h of primary culture with and without regular pacing at 1 and 3 Hz in rat left ventricular myocytes.

Standardized Forearm Angiography Increases Procedural Success Rates of Coronary Angiography and PCI: A Retrospective Analysis of an all-Comers Patient Cohort in a Real-Life Scenario.

Background: There is a consensus, that Transradial-Access (TRA) for coronary procedures should be preferred over Transfemoral-Access (TFA). Previously, Forearm-Artery-Angiography (FA) was mainly performed when difficulties during the advancement of the guidewire/-catheter were encountered. We explored the implication of a Standardized Forearm-Angiography (SFA) on procedural success rates of TRA under real-world conditions.

Prevalence and predictors of difficult vascular anatomy in forearm artery access for coronary angiography and PCI.

Transradial access has established as preferred access for cardiac catheterization. Difficult vascular anatomy (DVA) is a noticeable threat to procedural success. We retrospectively analyzed 1397 consecutive cardiac catheterizations to estimate prevalence and identify predictors of DVA.