Critical Care News

This week, the benefits of using telemedicine to address sleep disorders and provide cystic fibrosis care; rituximab may be an effective adjuvant treatment for systemic sclerosis and PAH; the FDA says facilities should move away from crisis capacity conservation measures; and researchers call for standardization to identify and categorize environmental exposures when assessing interstitial lung disease progression.

The FDA recommended that facilities begin to move away from “crisis capacity conservation measures” implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as reusing decontaminated respirators.

An exhaled breath test that uses high-pressure photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry accurately identified patients with lung cancer, according to recent data in JAMA Network Open.

About half of the first-year positions that were offered in the 2021 Main Residency Match were in primary care, family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, and most of these positions have been filled, according to the National Resident Matching Program.

One in eight patients hospitalized with COVID-19 developed toxic metabolic encephalopathy including multiple etiologies in most patients, in a retrospective, multicenter cohort study published in Neurocritical Care.

The Severe COVID-19 Adaptive Risk Predictor, or SCARP, tool showed greater than 80% accuracy in predicting a patient’s progression from moderate to severe COVID-19 disease or death within 14 days of hospitalization, researchers wrote.

A biomarker panel with retinol binding protein 4, N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide and glial fibrillary acid protein discerned ischemic stroke from intracerebral hemorrhage with modest accuracy, researchers reported in Neurology.

The American Heart Association released a set of three scientific statements that outline the nurse’s role in the management of ischemic stroke, with separate statements for hyperacute/emergency care, the ICU and stroke units.

The risk for invasive mechanical ventilation, hospitalization and death in those with COVID-19 increased with BMI, according to research published in MMWR.

A longitudinal study quantifying neuroplasticity in the ipsilesional and contralesional human motor cortex following a stroke demonstrated “a period of enhanced synaptic plasticity” that was strongest about 2 weeks after the event.