Kashani, Kianoush

This study aimed to assess the one-year mortality risk based on discharge serum chloride among the hospital survivors. We analyzed a cohort of adult hospital survivors at a tertiary referral hospital from 2011 through 2013. We categorized discharge serum chloride; ≤96, 97–99, 100–102, 103–105, 106–108, and ≥109 mmoL/L. We performed Cox proportional hazard analysis to assess the association of discharge serum chloride with one-year mortality after hospital discharge, using discharge serum chloride of 103–105 mmoL/L as the reference group. Of 56,907 eligible patients, 9%, 14%, 26%, 28%, 16%, and 7% of patients had discharge serum chloride of ≤96, 97–99, 100–102, 103–105, 106–108, and ≥109 mmoL/L, respectively. We observed a U-shaped association of discharge serum chloride with one-year mortality, with nadir mortality associated with discharge serum chloride of 103–105 mmoL/L. When adjusting for potential confounders, including discharge serum sodium, discharge serum bicarbonate, and admission serum chloride, one-year mortality was significantly higher in both discharge serum chloride ≤99 hazard ratio (HR): 1.45 and 1.94 for discharge serum chloride of 97–99 and ≤96 mmoL/L, respectively; p < 0.001) and ≥109 mmoL/L (HR: 1.41; p < 0.001), compared with discharge serum chloride of 103–105 mmoL/L. The mortality risk did not differ when discharge serum chloride ranged from 100 to 108 mmoL/L. Of note, there was a significant interaction between admission and discharge serum chloride on one-year mortality. Serum chloride at hospital discharge in the optimal range of 100–108 mmoL/L predicted the favorable survival outcome. Both hypochloremia and hyperchloremia at discharge were associated with increased risk of one-year mortality, independent of admission serum chloride, discharge serum sodium, and serum bicarbonate.

AIMS To report the major characteristics and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients treated with ACE inhibitors and ARBs and compare the different effects of the two drugs for outcomes of COVID-19 patients. METHODS This is a retrospective, two-center case series of 198 consecutive COVID-19 patients with a history of hypertension. RESULTS Among 198 patients, 58 (29.3%) and 16 (8.1%) were on were on ARB and ACEI, respectively. Patients who were on ARB or ACEI/ARB had a significantly lower rate of severe illness and ARDS when compared with patients treated with ACEI alone or not receiving RAAS blocker (P＜0.05). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that patients with ARB in their antihypertensive regimen had a trend towards a higher survival rate when compared with individuals without ARB (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.07-1.02; P=0.054). The occurrence rates of severe illness, ARDS, and death were similar in the two groups regardless of receiving ACEI. The Cox-regression analysis to compared ACEI vs. ARB groups showed a significantly lower mortality rate in the ARB group (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.03; 95% CI, 0.00-0.58; P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS Our data may provide some evidence of using ARB, but not ACEI, was associated with a reduced rate of severe illness and ARDS, indicating their potential protective impact in COVID-19. Further large sample sizes and multiethnic populations are warranted to confirm our findings.

The American Society of Nephrology has established a new initiative, AKI!Now , with the goal of promoting excellence in the prevention and treatment of AKI by building a foundational program that transforms education and delivery of AKI care, aiming to reduce morbidity and associated mortality and to improve long-term outcomes. In this article, we describe our current efforts to improve early recognition and management involving inclusive interdisciplinary collaboration between providers, patients, and their families; discuss the ongoing need to change some of our current AKI paradigms and diagnostic methods; and provide specific recommendations to improve AKI recognition and care. In the hospital and the community, AKI is a common and increasingly frequent condition that generates risks of adverse events and high costs. Unfortunately, patients with AKI may frequently have received less than optimal quality of care. New classifications have facilitated understanding of AKI incidence and its impact on outcomes, but they are not always well aligned with AKI pathophysiology. Despite ongoing research efforts, treatments to promote or hasten kidney recovery remain ineffective. To avoid progression, the current approach to AKI emphasizes the promotion of early recognition and timely response. However, a lack of awareness of the importance of early recognition and treatment among health care team members and the heterogeneity of approaches within the health care teams assessing the patient remains a major challenge. Early identification is further complicated by differences in settings where AKI occurs (the community or the hospital), and by differences in patient populations and cultures between the intensive care unit and ward environments. To address these obstacles, we discuss the need to improve education at all levels of care and to generate specific guidance on AKI evaluation and management, including the development of a widely applicable education and an AKI management toolkit, engaging hospital administrators to incorporate AKI as a quality initiative, and raising awareness of AKI as a complication of other disease processes.

Background and objectives This study aimed to investigate the association between in-hospital trajectories of serum sodium and risk of in-hospital and 1-year mortality in patients in hospital. Design, setting, participants, & measurements This is a single-center cohort study. All adult patients who were hospitalized from years 2011 through 2013 who had available admission serum sodium and at least three serum sodium measurements during hospitalization were included. The trend of serum sodium during hospitalization was analyzed using group-based trajectory modeling; the five main trajectories were grouped as follows: ( 1 ) stable normonatremia, ( 2 ) uncorrected hyponatremia, ( 3 ) borderline high serum sodium, ( 4 ) corrected hyponatremia, and ( 5 ) fluctuating serum sodium. The outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality and 1-year mortality. Stable normonatremia was used as the reference group for outcome comparison. Results A total of 43,539 patients were analyzed. Of these, 47% had stable normonatremia, 15% had uncorrected hyponatremia, 31% had borderline high serum sodium, 3% had corrected hyponatremia, and 5% had fluctuating serum sodium trajectory. In adjusted analysis, there was a higher in-hospital mortality among those with uncorrected hyponatremia (odds ratio [OR], 1.33; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.67), borderline high serum sodium (OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.38 to 2.00), corrected hyponatremia (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.20), and fluctuating serum sodium (OR, 4.61; 95% CI, 3.61 to 5.88), compared with those with the normonatremia trajectory. One-year mortality was higher among those with uncorrected hyponatremia (hazard ratio [HR], 1.28; 95% CI, 1.19 to 1.38), borderline high serum sodium (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.26), corrected hyponatremia (HR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.08 to 1.42), and fluctuating serum sodium (HR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.89 to 2.33) compared with those with the normonatremia trajectory. Conclusions More than half of patients who had been hospitalized had an abnormal serum sodium trajectory during hospitalization. This study demonstrated that not only the absolute serum sodium levels but also their in-hospital trajectories were significantly associated with in-hospital and 1-year mortality. The highest in-hospital and 1-year mortality risk was associated with the fluctuating serum sodium trajectory. Podcast This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2020_03_25_CJN.12281019.mp3

Objectives The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk of acute respiratory failure in all hospitalised patients based on admission serum ionised calcium. Design A retrospective cohort study. Setting A tertiary referral hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. Participants All hospitalised patients who had serum ionised calcium measurement within 24 hours of hospital admission from January 2009 to December 2013. Patients who were mechanically ventilated at admission were excluded. Predictors Admission serum ionised calcium levels was stratified into six groups: ≤4.39, 4.40–4.59, 4.60–4.79, 4.80–4.99, 5.00–5.19 and ≥5.20 mg/dL. Primary outcome measure The primary outcome was the development of acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation during hospitalisation. Logistic regression analysis was fit to assess the independent risk of acute respiratory failure based on various admission serum ionised calcium, using serum ionised calcium of 5.00–5.19 mg/dL as the reference group. Results Of 25 709 eligible patients, with the mean serum ionised calcium of 4.8±0.4 mg/dL, acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation occurred in 2563 patients (10%). The incidence of acute respiratory failure was lowest when admission serum ionised calcium was 5.00–5.19 mg/dL, with the progressively increased risk of acute respiratory failure with decreased serum ionised calcium. In multivariate analysis with adjustment for potential confounders, the increased risk of acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation was significantly associated with admission serum ionised calcium of ≤4.39 (OR 2.52; 95% CI 2.12 to 3.00), 4.40–4.59 (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.49 to 2.07) and 4.60–4.79 mg/dL (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.27 to 1.72), compared with serum ionised calcium of 5.00–5.19 mg/dL. The risk of acute respiratory failure was not significantly increased when serum ionised calcium was at least 4.80 mg/dL. Conclusion The increased risk of acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation was observed when admission serum ionised calcium was lower than 4.80 mg/dL in hospitalised patients.

Abstract Importance: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections outbreak in China is now a global issue. There is only a limited understanding of the clinical characteristics of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections is available.Objective:To describe the characteristics, management strategies, and outcomes of critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.Design, Setting, and Patients: This is aretrospective, multi-center case series of 50 critically ill patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital in Wuhan, China, from January 8 to February 9, 2020.Exposures:Documented Corona Virus Disease, 2019 (COVID-19).Main Outcome Measures: Demographic, clinical, laboratory, imaging data were collected along with management strategies, complications and outcomes of enrolled individuals. Results Fifty critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections were enrolled. Their median age was 62 (range, 29-92) [IQR,49.5-69.0] years, 68% were male, and 28 (56%) patients had comorbidities, the most common being hypertension. In this cohort, 20(40%) patients survived ,16(32%) patients died, and the rest remained hospitalized. The invasive mechanical ventilator was used in 36(72%) patients with 15(30%) of them requiring prone positioning, and 17(34%) switched to ECMO. The compliance scores of lungs (Cstat)on the day of ICU admission among survivors were higher than those in non-survivors [42.0(18.0-47.0), vs. 19.5(14.0-24.2), p=0.038].The blood IL-6 levels and neutrophils counts at the first day of ICU admission were significantly higher in non-survivors compared to survivors [123.7(85.3-228.8), vs. 20.2(6.8-67.2) ng/ml, p=0.025 for IL-6, and 20.2(6.8-67.2) vs. 4.01(1.99-7.05) × 10⁹/L, p=0.02 for neutrophils counts].The heart rates, PaCO2, lung injury scale (LIS), and positive end-expiratory pressure levels were constantly higher for 10 days in non-survivors than those who survived (p<0.05). The frequency of vasopressor uses and neuromuscular blockers was higher in non-survivors from day 1 to day 10 compared to survivors (p<0.05). In the whole cohort, the most common complications were ARDS (97%), shock (44%), arrhythmia (38%), acute cardiac injury (26%), and acute kidney injury (22%). A secondary bacterial infection was noted in 17(34%) patients. Univariate analysis indicated that lower lung complianceand higher neutrophil counts at the day of ICU admission were related to higher mortality (p-0.03, and 0.04, respectively)ConclusionWe demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection-related critical illness predominantly affected old individuals with comorbidities and characterized by severe hypoxemic respiratory failure, often requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation and rescue therapies. Low lung compliance and persistently elevated PaCO2 indicated poor outcomes.

Abstract Serum albumin is a marker of nutritional and frailty status. This study aimed to assess the association between serum albumin at the time of admission and the risk of acute respiratory failure (ARF) in hospitalized patients This cohort study, performed at a tertiary referral hospital, included all hospitalized adult patients from January 2009 to December 2013 who had serum albumin measurement and were not on mechanical ventilation within 24 hours of hospital admission. Serum albumin was stratified into 2.4, 2.5 to 2.9, 3.0 to 3.4, 3.5 to 3.9, 4.0 to 4.4, and ≥4.5 g/dL. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to obtain adjusted odds ratio (OR) of risk of ARF requiring mechanical ventilation based on various admission serum albumin levels. Of 12,719 patients, ARF requiring mechanical ventilation occurred in 1128 (8.9%) during hospitalization. Hypoalbuminemia was associated with increased risk of ARF, in particular when serum albumin was ≤2.4 g/dL. Compared with serum albumin of 4.0–4.4 g/dL, serum albumin ≤2.4 g/dL at admission was associated with 2.38-time higher odds of ARF during hospitalization (OR 2.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.84–3.07). In contrast, elevated serum albumin ≥4.5 g/dL was associated with lower odds of ARF (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48–0.97). Admission serum albumin level lower than 3.5 g/dL was associated with a higher risk of ARF requiring mechanical ventilation, whereas elevated serum albumin level at least 4.5 g/dL was associated with a lower risk of ARF. Therefore, admission albumin level at admission might be useful in the prediction of ARF during hospitalization.

AbstractBackgroundWhile acute kidney injury (AKI) is commonly reported following hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT), the incidence and impact of AKI on mortality among patients undergoing HCT are not well described. We conducted this systematic review to assess the incidence and impact of AKI on mortality risk among patients undergoing HCT.MethodsOvid MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Databases were searched from database inceptions through August 2019 to identify studies assessing the incidence of AKI and mortality risk among adult patients who developed AKI following HCT. Random-effects and generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian–Laird were used to combine the effect estimates obtained from individual studies.ResultsWe included 36 cohort studies with a total of 5144 patients undergoing HCT. Overall, the pooled estimated incidence of AKI and severe AKI (AKI Stage III) were 55.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 46.6–63.3%) and 8.3% (95% CI 6.0–11.4%), respectively. The pooled estimated incidence of AKI using contemporary AKI definitions (RIFLE, AKIN and KDIGO criteria) was 49.8% (95% CI 41.6–58.1%). There was no significant correlation between study year and the incidence of AKI (P = 0.12) or severe AKI (P = 0.97). The pooled odds ratios of 3-month mortality and 3-year mortality among patients undergoing HCT with AKI were 3.05 (95% CI 2.07–4.49) and 2.23 (95% CI 1.06–4.73), respectively.ConclusionThe incidence of AKI among patients who undergo HCT remains high, and it has not changed over the years despite advances in medicine. AKI after HCT is associated with increased short- and long-term mortality.