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Nasal swabs identified only two-thirds of MRSA carriers.
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In a large cohort of patients admitted to New York hospitals with diabetic ketoacidosis, about half were admitted to the ICU, with a range of 2% to 88% among individual hospitals. This large practice variation was unassociated with mortality or length of stay, and more than half of it remained unaccounted for after extensive adjustments for patient and institutional characteristics.
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This clinical study evaluated patients with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome to determine the kind of seizures they experienced, abnormalities on EEG, and to correlate this with findings on neuroimaging (MRI).
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28 surgical specimens from patients with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) were examined using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect gastrointestinal pathogens. Infectious enteritis pathogens were not detected in any specimens.
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Wider use of noninvasive ventilation in managing severe COPD exacerbations has improved overall outcomes, but this study of a large nationwide database shows that increasing numbers of patients fail NIV and require intubation. This subset of patients has substantially higher mortality and hospital costs.
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Shah et al used an administrative database, the California State Inpatient Database from the Healthcare Utilization Project, to analyze the short and intermediate success and complication rates associated with catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF).
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Newer, more sensitive troponin assays have the potential to identify acute myocardial infarction (AMI) earlier, but some detect troponin in 50% of normal populations, which renders them clinically useless.
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This retrospective study of all non-psychiatric patients admitted to an academic medical center found that although those placed in contact isolation from the time of admission had no increased risk for delirium, patients moved into isolation after admission were twice as likely to develop delirium during the hospital stay.
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A post-stroke analysis of more than 20,000 patients in 35 countries showed that the lowest risk systolic blood pressure (BP) range is 130-139 mmHg. There is a J-shaped curve of risk with an increase in recurrent stroke among patients with a systolic BP below 120 mmHg and above 140 mmHg.