Highlights ■ The elderly had higher severity, more comorbidities, and longer intensive care unit and hospital stays than adults. ■ They required more assistance resources and had higher hospital mortality. ■ Independent mortality predictors: age ≥60, frailty, arrhythmia, transplant, acute kidney injury, vasopressors and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities, therapeutic resources, and mortality rates of elderly patients with COVID-19 admitted to an intensive care unit. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients […]

Highlights ■ Public intensive care unit COVID-19 patients presented with more comorbidities and higher severity at admission. ■ Public intensive care units required more invasive organ support (e.g., mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and renal replacement therapy) but less non-invasive ventilation and high-flow nasal cannula than private intensive care units. ■ In-hospital mortality was higher in public intensive care units, with an increased risk of death even after adjusting for patient characteristics and illness severity at intensive care unit admission. ABSTRACT Objective: […]

ABSTRACT Objective: To systematically review the effects of recruitment maneuvers on patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis using the PICO methodology with keywords (respiratory distress syndrome, recruitment maneuvers, lung recruitment, acute respiratory distress syndrome, alveolar recruitment, and adult acute respiratory distress syndrome). Studies involving patients >18 years, regardless of sex, with acute respiratory distress syndrome, mechanically ventilated for at least 24 h, published in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, with no year restrictions, were included. […]

Highlights Gradient Boosting Machine and Random Forest models were built for prediction of mortality at cardiac intensive care units. A total of 9,761 intensive care unit stays of patients admitted under a Cardiac Surgery and Cardiac Medical services were studied. The AUROC and AUPRC values were significantly superior to seven conventional systems compared. The machine learning models’ calibration curves were substantially closer to the ideal line. ABSTRACT Objective: Logistic Regression has been used traditionally for the development of most predictor […]

ABSTRACT Highlights Renal involvement was frequent in patients with COVID-19 and related to worse outcomes. Diuretic use, mechanical ventilation, proteinuria, hematuria, age, and creatine phosphokinase and D-dimer levels were risk factors for acute kidney injury. Acute kidney injury, mechanical ventilation, elevated SOFA Score, and elevated ATN-ISS were associated with mortality. The second wave was associated with greater severity; however, the mortality rates were similar between the two periods. This may reflect the effectiveness of vaccines and the constant learning that […]

Highlights Previous influenza vaccination was associated with a reduced need for hospitalization after COVID-19 diagnosis. In 60 days of outpatient setting, four deaths occurred (three in the hospitalized and one in the non-hospitalized group). The persistence of more than two symptoms in 60 days was observed in 31.9% of patients. ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate deaths, hospitalizations, and persistence of symptoms in patients with COVID-19 after infection in an outpatient setting during the first COVID-19 wave in Brazil. Methods: This prospective […]

Highlights Higher plasma levels of CCL2 and lower plasma levels of TNF-α are associated with a greater risk of transfer to hemodialysis or mortality. Lower levels of IL-17 in the dialysate are associated with a greater risk of transfer to hemodialysis or mortality. These findings suggest that inflammatory biomarkers can be valuable tools for predicting all-cause mortality and transfer to hemodialysis in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis. ABSTRACT Objective: This study aimed to evaluate inflammatory biomarkers in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis […]

ABSTRACT Objective To review the long-term outcomes (functional status and psychological sequelae) of survivors of critical illnesses due to epidemic viral pneumonia before the COVID-19 pandemic and to establish a benchmark for comparison of the COVID-19 long-term outcomes. Methods This systematic review of clinical studies reported the long-term outcomes in adults admitted to intensive care units who were diagnosed with viral epidemic pneumonia. An electronic search was performed using databases: MEDLINE®, Web of Science™, LILACS/IBECS, and EMBASE. Additionally, complementary searches […]

ABSTRACT Heart failure is the leading cause of cardiac-related hospitalizations. Limited access to reevaluations and outpatient appointments restricts the application of modern therapies. Telemedicine has become an essential resource in the healthcare system because of its countless benefits, such as higher and more frequent appointments and faster titration of medications. This narrative review aimed to demonstrate the evidence and unresolved issues related to the use of telemedicine in patients with heart failure. No studies have examined heart failure prevention; however, […]

Highlights We compared characteristics between patients admitted during the first and second waves. There were 1,427 intensive care unit patients with COVID-19: 421 (first wave) and 1,006 (second wave). The patients in the second wave were younger and less severely ill at the time of intensive care unit admission. Patients exhibited similar mortality rates and need for invasive organ support. ABSTRACT Objective To describe and compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients admitted to intensive care units during the […]