High Dependency Care Research Articles

Benchmarking nanopore sequencing and rapid genomics feasibility: validation at a quaternary hospital in New Zealand

Approximately 200 critically ill infants and children in New Zealand are in high-dependency care, many suspected of having genetic conditions, requiring scalable genomic testing. We adopted an acute care genomics protocol from an accredited laboratory and established a clinical pipeline using Oxford Nanopore Technologies PromethION 2 solo system and Fabric GEM™ software. Benchmarking of the pipeline was performed using Global Alliance for Genomics and Health benchmarking tools and Genome in a Bottle samples (HG002-HG007). Evaluation of single nucleotide variants resulted in a precision and recall of 0.997 and 0.992, respectively. Small indel identification approached a precision of 0.922 and recall of 0.838. Large genomic variations from Coriell Copy Number Variation Reference Panel 1 were reliably detected with ~2 M long reads. Finally, we present results obtained from fourteen trio samples, ten of which were processed in parallel with a clinically accredited short-read rapid genomic testing pipeline (Newborn Genomics Programme; NCT06081075; 2023-10-12).

An Examination of EOL Trajectories and Audit of EOL Documentation In Patients Admitted Under the Department for Older Persons Services

Abstract Background End of Life Care is a core element of care provided in acute hospitals, with 44% of Irish deaths taking place in the hospital setting. Our audit looks at the quality of documentation around end of life for older patients and looks to characterize these hospitalized patients’ terminal life stages. Methods Inclusion criteria were patients over the age of 65 who died under the care of the Department for Older Persons Services in 2023 utilizing a retrospective chart review. The Oxford Audit Assessment Tool for Care of the Dying was used to evaluate end of life documentation for patients recognized as dying in the acute hospital setting using a 1–5-point scale. The hospital courses of patients who died were characterized along one of six in-hospital courses: (1) acutely unwell, (2) end stage organ failure, (3) dwindling trajectory, (4) unexpected cardiac arrest, (5) admission with known specialist palliative care needs, and (6) combination of medical complexity and high dependency. Data points included Clinical Frailty Score and NecPal Score, as well as length of hospital stay, length of dying and specialist palliative care input. Results Greater than 90% of patients under the Department for Older Persons service had satisfactory, good or excellent documentation around end-of-life care. One-third of patients who died under the service were acutely unwell, one-fifth of the patients who died in hospital followed a dwindling trajectory, and 15% of patients were admitted with known indication and need for specialist palliative care. Approximately 10% of patients who died suffered an unexpected cardiac arrest. Conclusion Overall, documentation at end of life was quite good and specialist palliative care services were frequently involved. Older patients frequently experience a complex interplay of high dependency, medical complexity and palliative care needs at end of life, highlighting the need for skilled serious illness communication.

Is postoperative high dependency care really needed for children undergoing supratentorial brain tumour surgery?

Purpose We present our analysis of the existing Paediatric High Dependency Unit (HDU) admission policy at our institution and discuss our thoughts for its revision in the context of paediatric supratentorial tumour surgery. Materials and methods We screened our prospectively maintained database of all children undergoing supratentorial craniotomy for resection of paediatric brain tumours over a fifteen-year period. The post-operative course of each patient was reviewed, assessing the number of patients who had true HDU needs in the immediate post-operative period, and the relative depth of input from paediatric HDU specialists that each patient received. Results Forty-three patients underwent craniotomy for supratentorial tumour resections during the study period. The median age of the children was 8 years old. Forty-two patients in the study cohort did not require any HDU-level monitoring or treatment post-operatively; all these patients were able to be discharged from HDU to a standard ward bed very rapidly post-operatively. Only one patient (2%) from the study cohort had any tangible HDU needs in the acute post-operative period, comprising of invasive cardiovascular monitoring and repeated blood transfusions. This child’s tumour was known to be large, highly vascular, and invasive pre-operatively. Conclusions We would advocate a rational and nuanced approach with regards to predicting which children are most likely need paediatric HDU care following supratentorial craniotomy for resection of a brain tumour. This rationalisation could improve resource availability and reduce financial burdens upon paediatric neurosurgical units.

Development and validation of early prediction models for new-onset functional impairment of patients with trauma at hospital discharge.

Early identification of individuals at risk of functional impairment after trauma is crucial for the timely clinical decision-making and intervention to improve reintegration into the society. This study aimed to develop and validate models for predicting new-onset functional impairment after trauma using predictors that are routinely collected within 2 days of hospital admission. In this multicenter retrospective cohort study of acute care hospitals in Japan, we identified adult patients with trauma with independence in carrying out activities of daily living before hospitalization, treated in the intensive or high-dependency care unit, and survived for at least 2 days between April 2008 and September 2023. The primary outcome was functional impairment defined as Barthel Index ≤60 at hospital discharge. In the internal validation data set (between April 2008 and August 2022), using the routinely collected 129 candidate predictors within 2 days of admission, we trained and tuned the four conventional and machine learning models with repeated random subsampling cross-validation. We measured the performance of these models in the temporal validation data set (between September 2022 and September 2023). We also computed the importance of each predictor variable in our model. We identified 8,529 eligible patients. Functional impairment at discharge was observed in 41% of the patients (n = 3,506/8,529). In the temporal validation data set, all four models showed moderate discrimination ability, with areas under the curve above 0.79, and extreme gradient boosting showing the best performance (0.83). In the variable importance analyses, age was the most important predictor, followed by consciousness, severity score, cervical spinal cord injury, mild dementia, and serum albumin level at admission. We successfully developed early prediction models for patients with trauma with new-onset functional impairment at discharge that achieved high predictive performance using routinely collected data within 2 days of hospital admission. Prognostic/Epidemiological; Level II.

Pancreatic Stone Protein in the Diagnosis of Sepsis in Children Admitted to High-Dependency Care: A Single-Center Prospective Cohort Study.

Blood level of pancreatic stone protein (PSP) is a promising biomarker of sepsis both in adults and children. The aim of our study was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of PSP in children with suspected sepsis and to compare diagnostic performance with other sepsis biomarkers approved for clinical use, that is, procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP). Prospective study. PICU and pediatric emergency department. Blood levels of PSP were measured using a nanofluidic point-of-care immunoassay (abioSCOPE, Abionic SA, Switzerland) within 24 hours of admission. We studied 99 children aged between older than 1 month and younger than 18 years with signs and symptoms of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (irrespective of associated organ dysfunction). The prevalence of sepsis was 35 of 99 (35.4%). Patients with sepsis had higher PSP levels ( p < 0.001) than patients with systemic inflammation of noninfectious cause. In this analysis, the optimal cutoff for the diagnosis of sepsis using PSP was 123 ng/mL, which resulted in a sensitivity of 0.63 (95% CI, 0.43-0.80), specificity of 0.89 (95% CI, 0.77-0.95). The PSP test area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.73-0.91) and, by comparison, procalcitonin and CRP AUROC were 0.70 (95% CI, 0.58-0.82) and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.60-0.84), respectively. Overall, the pretest to posttest probability of sepsis with a positive test changed from 0.35 to 0.73. In this single-center prospective pediatric cohort, admitted to the high intensive care and to the PICU, our findings suggested the potential use of PSP as a sepsis biomarker. However, because of the clinical diagnostic uncertainty with a positive result, further investigation is needed particularly in combination with other biomarkers.

Normal saline versus Ringer’s solution and critical-illness mortality in acute pancreatitis: a nationwide inpatient database study

BackgroundFluid resuscitation is fundamental in acute pancreatitis (AP) treatment. However, the optimal choice between normal saline (NS) and Ringer's solution (RS), and its impact on mortality in critically ill patients, remains controversial. This retrospective cohort study, utilizing a national Japanese inpatient database, investigates this question.MethodsUsing the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination database between July 2010 and March 2021, we identified adult patients hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU) or high-dependency care units (HDU) for AP who survived at least three days and received sufficient fluid resuscitation (≥ [10 ml/kg/hr*1 h + 1 ml/kg/hr*71 h] ml) within three days of admission including emergency room infusions. Patients were classified into groups based on the predominant fluid type received: the NS group (> 80% normal saline) and the RS group (> 80% Ringer's solution). Propensity score matching was employed to reduce potential confounding factors and facilitate a balanced comparison of in-hospital mortality between the two groups.ResultsOur analysis included 8710 patients with AP. Of these, 657 (7.5%) received predominantly NS, and 8053 (92.5%) received predominantly RS. Propensity score matching yielded 578 well-balanced pairs for comparison.The NS group demonstrated significantly higher in-hospital mortality than the RS group (12.8% [474/578] vs. 8.5% [49/578]; risk difference, 4.3%; 95% confidence interval, 0.3% to 8.3%).ConclusionsIn patients admitted to ICU or HDU with AP receiving adequate fluid resuscitation, RS can be a preferred infusion treatment compared to NS.

Trends in Childhood Anaphylaxis in Singapore: 2015-2022.

There has been limited data regarding the incidence of anaphylaxis in Asia. We aim to describe patterns in patient characteristics, triggers and clinical presentation of childhood anaphylaxis in Singapore. This was a retrospective review of emergency electronic medical records of children with anaphylaxis. Patients with the allergy-related diagnoses of anaphylaxis, angioedema, allergy and urticaria based on ICD-9 codes were screened. Cases fulfilling the World Allergy Organization criteria for anaphylaxis were included. A total of 1188 cases of anaphylaxis were identified with a median age of 6.3 years. Extrapolating data from the study sites, from 2015 to 2022, the incidence rate of childhood anaphylaxis emergency visits in Singapore doubled from 18.9 to 38.8 per 100,000 person-years, with an incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 2.06 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.70-2.49). In 2022, the incidence rate of food anaphylaxis was 30.1 per 100,000 person-years, IRR 2.39 (95% CI 1.90-3.01) and drug anaphylaxis was 4.6 per 100,000 person-years, IRR 1.89 (95% CI 1.11-3.25). The incidence rate in children aged 0-4 years quadrupled during the study period. Common triggers were egg (10.4%), peanut (9.3%), tree nut (8.8%), milk (8%), shellfish (7.8%) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (4.4%). The majority (88.6%) of patients were treated with intramuscular adrenaline. Total number of allergy-related visits did not increase over time between 2015 and 2019. Rates of severe anaphylaxis, namely anaphylactic shock and admission to high-dependency and intensive care, did not increase over time, with a mean incidence of 1.6, IRR 0.85 (95% CI 0.40-1.83) and 0.7, IRR 1.77 (95% CI 0.54-5.76) per 100,000 person-years, respectively. While the number of emergency visits due to childhood anaphylaxis has increased, the number of cases of allergy-related visits, anaphylactic shock and anaphylaxis requiring high-dependency and intensive care did not rise.

Admission indications, initial diagnoses, Interventions, and patient outcomes within the sole obstetric high-dependency unit in Ethiopia

BackgroundObstetric high-dependency care offers holistic care to critically ill obstetric patients while maintaining the potential for early mother-child bonding. Little is known about the obstetric high-dependency unit (HDU) in Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of the study was to review the admission indications, initial diagnoses, interventions, and patient outcomes in the obstetric high-dependency unit at St.Paul’s Hospital.MethodsA retrospective observational study was carried out at St. Paul’s Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between September 2021 and September 2022, targeting patients in the obstetric high-dependency unit during pregnancy or with in 42 days of termination or delivery. A checklist was used to compile sociodemographic and clinical data. Epidata-4.2 for data entry and SPSS-26 for data analysis were employed. Chi-square tests yielded significant results at p < 0.05.ResultRecords of 370 obstetric patients were reviewed and analyzed. The study enlisted participants aged 18 to 40, with a mean age of 27.6 ± 5.9. The obstetric high-dependency unit received 3.5% (95% CI, 3.01-4.30) of all obstetric admissions. With the HDU in place, only 0.42% of obstetric patients necessitated adult intensive care unit (ICU) admission. The predominant motive behind HDU admissions (63.2%) was purely for observation. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (48.6%) and obstetric hemorrhage (18.9%) were the two top admission diagnoses. Ten pregnant mothers (2.7%) were admitted to HDU: 2 with antepartum hemorrhages, and 8 with cardiac diseases. Maternal mortality and transfer to the ICU were both 1.4 per 100 HDU patients.ConclusionOur study found that the most frequent indication for admission to the HDU was just for observational monitoring. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and obstetric hemorrhage were the two leading admission diagnoses. Expanding HDUs nationwide is key for mitigating the ICU burden from obstetric admissions. Strategies for early prenatal screening, predicting preeclampsia, and addressing postpartum hemorrhage should be reinforced. Future studies should focus on a broader array of factors affecting fetomaternal outcomes in such a unit.

The Fenice project to evaluate and improve the quality of healthcare in high-dependency care units: results after the first year.

High-Dependency care Units (HDUs) have been introduced worldwide as intermediate wards between Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and general wards. Performing a comparative assessment of the quality of care in HDU is challenging because there are no uniform standards and heterogeneity among centers is wide. The Fenice network promoted a prospective cohort study to assess the quality of care provided by HDUs in Italy. This work aims at describing the structural characteristics and admitted patients of Italian HDUs. All Italian HDUs affiliated to emergency departments were eligible to participate in the study. Participating centers reported detailed structural information and prospectively collected data on all admitted adult patients. Patients' data are presented overall and analyzed to evaluate the heterogeneity across the participating centers. A total of 12 HDUs participated in the study and enrolled 3670 patients. Patients were aged 68years on average, had multiple comorbidities and were on major chronic therapies. Several admitted patients had at least one organ failure (39%). Mortality in HDU was 8.4%, raising to 16.6% in hospital. While most patients were transferred to general wards, a small proportion required ICU transfer (3.9%) and a large group was discharged directly home from the HDU (31%). The expertise of HDUs in managing complex and fragile patients is supported by both the available equipment and the characteristics of admitted patients. The limited proportion of patients transferred to ICUs supports the hypothesis of preventing of ICU admissions. The heterogeneity of HDU admissions requires further research to define meaningful patients' outcomes to be used by quality-of-care assessment programs.

Intensive care unit versus high-dependency care unit for COVID-19 patients with invasive mechanical ventilation

Intensive care unit versus high-dependency care unit for COVID-19 patients with invasive mechanical ventilation

Improved Clinical Outcome with Cyclosporine in Patients with Moderate to Severe COVID-19 Infection

Objective: To investigate the potential benefits of adding cyclosporine to the presently recommended conventional treatment for COVID-19 disease. Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional research was carried out on COVID-19 patients with moderate-to-severe severity who were admitted to Lahore General Hospital's ICU (intensive care unit) or HDU (high dependency care unit from 2020 to 2021. Patients aged 18 to 70 with moderate to severe illness were included, while those with specific conditions were excluded. Data on symptoms, oxygen saturation levels, and medication usage were collected and analyzed using statistical tests. The assessment of outcome decreased dependence on oxygen in ICU/HDU was assessed through a combination of different drugs (treatment), especially the inclusion of Cyclosporine, which was done with Chi-square and Binomial tests. Results: In the study 46% are male and 54%are females. 71% of patients suffer fever while 69% observed shortness of breath out of which 44% had cough. On presentation 30.8% were mild cases (out of which27% converted to moderate on second day), 17.3% fall in moderate cases while 51.9% are severe COVID cases while on treatment day 7 results shows 30.6% patients are oxygen free, 10% cases are moderate cases while 19% were severe cases.53.8% remain alive while deaths are 46.2% which is a good number in ICU/HDU cases. Conclusion: Cyclosporine use should be considered in SARS-CoV-2 moderate and severe disease because it not only improves the disease severity, reduces oxygen demand and improves mortality.

Acute Poisoning among Children Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Acute poisoning is one of the critical causes of hospital admission in children worldwide. Understanding the clinico-demographic profile of childhood poisoning will help in developing targeted prevention strategies. This study aimed to find the prevalence of acute poisoning cases among children admitted to a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done among 4972 children admitted in the pediatric ward, High Dependency Care Unit, and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary care hospital in Nepal. The data were collected from the hospital records from over three years between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2022 after receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee. A convenience sampling method was used. Data related to the clinical and demographic data were collected from the patients with acute poisoning and analyzed. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated.Results: Out of 4972 paediatric cases admitted to the hospital, acute poisoning was seen in 57 (1.14%) (0.81-1.39, 95% Confidence Interval) patients. Out of these acute poisoning cases, 31 (54.39%) were accidental. The mean age was 10.10±5.40 years with 35 (61.40%) patients from the adolescent age group. Conclusions: This study conducted in a Nepalese tertiary care hospital identifies acute poisoning as a notable concern among pediatric admissions.

EPidemiology, clinical characteristics and Outcomes of 4546 adult admissions to high-dependency and intensive care units in Kenya (EPOK): a multicentre registry-based observational study.

to describe clinical, management and outcome features of critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) and high dependency units (HDUs) in Kenya. prospective registry-based observational study. three HDUs and eight ICUs in Kenya. consecutive adult patients admitted between January 2021 and June 2022. none. data was entered in a cloud based platform using a common data model. Study endpoints included case mix variables, management features and patient centred outcomes. Patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were reported separately. Of the 3892/4546 patients without COVID-19, 2445 patients (62.8%) were from HDUs and 1447 (37.2%) from ICUs. Patients had a median age of 53 years (interquartile range [IQR] 38-68), with HDU patients being older but with a lower severity (APACHE II 6 [3-9] in HDUs vs 12 [7-17] in ICUs; p<0.001). One out of four patients were postoperative with 604 (63.4%) receiving emergency surgery. Readmission rate was 4.8%. Hypertension and diabetes were prevalent comorbidities, with a 4.0% HIV/AIDS rate. Invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) was applied in 3.4% in HDUs vs. 47.6% in ICUs (P<0.001), with a duration of 7 days (IQR 3-21). There was a similar use of renal replacement therapy (4.0% vs. 4.7%; P<0.001). Vasopressor use was infrequent while half of patients received antibiotics. Average length of stay was 2 days (IQR 1-5). Crude HDU mortality rate was 6.5% in HDUs versus 30.5% in the ICUs (P<0.001). Of the 654 COVID-19 admissions, most were admitted in ICUs (72.3%) with a 33.2% mortality. We provide the first multicenter observational cohort study from an African ICU national registry. Distinct management features and outcomes characterise HDU from ICU patients. Clinicaltrials.gov (reference number NCT05456217, date of registration 07 Nov 2022).

Acute Diabetes-Related Complications in Patients Receiving Chemoradiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer.

Consecutive patients with head and neck squamous cell or nasopharyngeal cancer who underwent definitive or adjuvant CCRT between 2010 and 2019 at two large cancer centers in Australia were included. Clinicopathological characteristics, treatment complications and outcomes were collected from medical records. Of 282 patients who received CCRT, 29 (10.3%) had pre-existing type 2 diabetes. None had type 1 diabetes. The majority (74.5%) required enteral feeding. A higher proportion of patients with diabetes required admission to a high-dependency or intensive care unit (17.2 versus 4.0%, p = 0.003). This difference was driven by the group who required insulin at baseline (n = 5), of which four (80.0%) were admitted to a high-dependency unit with diabetes-related complications, and three (60.0%) required omission of at least one cycle of chemotherapy. Patients with diabetes requiring insulin have a high risk of acute life-threatening diabetes-related complications while receiving CCRT. We recommend multidisciplinary management involving a diabetes specialist, educator, dietitian, and pharmacist, in collaboration with the cancer care team, to better avoid these complications.

Association between regional critical care capacity and the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation for coronavirus disease 2019: a population-based cohort study

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exposed critical care supply shortages worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the association between regional critical care capacity and the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation following novel COVID-19 during the pandemic in Japan, a country with a limited intensive care unit (ICU) bed capacity of a median of 5.1 ICU beds per 100,000 individuals.MethodsThis population-based cohort study used data from the CRoss Icu Searchable Information System database and publicly available databases provided by the Japanese government and Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine. We identified patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19, those who received invasive mechanical ventilation, and those who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) between February 2020 and March 2023. We analyzed the association between regional critical care capacity (ICU beds, high-dependency care unit (HDU) beds, resource-rich ICU beds, and intensivists) and the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation, ECMO, and risk-adjusted mortality across 47 Japanese prefectures.ResultsAmong the approximately 127 million individuals residing in Japan, 33,189,809 were recently diagnosed with COVID-19, with 12,203 and 1,426 COVID-19 patients on invasive mechanical ventilation and ECMO, respectively, during the study period. Prefecture-level linear regression analysis revealed that the addition of ICU beds, resource-rich ICU beds, and intensivists per 100,000 individuals increased the incidence of IMV by 5.37 (95% confidence interval, 1.99–8.76), 7.27 (1.61–12.9), and 13.12 (3.48–22.76), respectively. However, the number of HDU beds per 100,000 individuals was not statistically significantly associated with the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation. None of the four indicators of regional critical care capacity was statistically significantly associated with the incidence of ECMO and risk-adjusted mortality.ConclusionsThe results of prefecture-level analyses demonstrate that increased numbers of ICU beds, resource-rich ICU beds, and intensivists are associated with the incidence of invasive mechanical ventilation among patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19 during the pandemic. These findings have important implications for healthcare policymakers, aiding in efficiently allocating critical care resources during crises, particularly in regions with limited ICU bed capacities.Registry and the registration no. of the study/trial The approval date of the registry was August 20, 2020, and the registration no. of the study was lUMIN000041450.

The comparison of the Nursing Activities Score and TrendCare to accurately measure critical care nursing workload: A prospective observational design

IntroductionIntensive care units commonly use the Nursing Activities Score (NAS) to measure nursing workload, however, some settings use TrendCare. Historically 100 NAS points reflected one nurse, however research now suggests greater than 61 NAS points per nurse increases hospital mortality. ObjectivesTo determine if: 1) TrendCare accurately reflects critical care nursing workload as measured by the NAS and 2) the required nursing hours calculated by each of the scoring systems differed between indigenous and non-indigenous patients. MethodsUsing a prospective observational design, data were collected between 9 August – 25 November 2021. Nursing workload was assessed over three shifts using TrendCare and the NAS. ResultsAnalysis included 183 patients and 829 TrendCare and NAS scores. The mean NAS for intensive care patients was >61 on all three shifts (morning M = 67.1 ± 18.2, afternoon M = 66.1 ± 18.1, night M = 64.0 ± 18.1). The mean NAS for high dependency patients (morning M = 46.1 ± 11.1, afternoon M 45.9 ± 11.0, night Mdn 46.1 [40.5–54.1]) identified a nurse:patient ratio of 1:2 reflected a NAS >90. The NAS and TrendCare found no difference in nursing hours between indigenous and non-indigenous patients, however higher scores for respiratory (H = 7.3, p = <.01), cardiovascular (H = 12.7, p = <.001) and renal (H = 12.7, p = <.001) support, and care for relatives and patients (H = 13.8, p = <.001) on some shifts were identified in indigenous patients. ConclusionTrendCare nursing hours likely reflect a 1:1 nurse: patient ratio for intensive care patients but likely under-estimates high dependency care nursing workload. The NAS activities highlighted some activities required more time for indigenous patients on some shifts. Implications for clinical practiceTrendCare likely reflects intensive care nursing workload but not high dependency nursing workload. A NAS of no greater than 61 points per nurse better reflects nursing workload in both the intensive and high dependency care units. Indigenous patients may require more nursing hours for nursing activities related to severity of illness.

Remdesivir therapy for severe pediatric COVID-19 in Singapore: A single-center retrospective observational cohort study.

There is a paucity of information on remdesivir (RDV)use in severe pediatric coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).We aimed to explore the effectiveness of RDV as the cumulative proportion of pediatric COVID-19patients deescalated from Day 5 of high dependency or intensive care unit (HD/ICU). All children ≤18 years admitted to Singapore's largest pediatric hospital from January1, 2020 to March 18, 2022 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were included if they were positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, required oxygen, and HD/ICU care. The characteristics and outcomes of those who received RDV or not (no-RDV)were compared. We reviewed 15 children with a median age of 2.5 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 0.8-11.0), of which 7 (46.7%) received RDV. There was no difference in cumulative proportion of children deescalated from Day 5 of HD/ICUcare in the RDV versus the no-RDVgroup (5/7, 70% vs. 7/8, 87.5%, p = 0.57). The RDV versus no-RDV group had higher disease severity, that is,WHO Ordinal Scale scores (median 6, IQR: 5-7 vs. 5, IQR: 4-5, p = 0.03), higher procalcitonin levels (ug/L) (median 4.31, IQR: 0.8-24.2 vs. 0.12, IQR: 0.09-0.26, p = 0.02), and longer HD/ICUcare days (median 5, IQR: 4-9, vs. 1, IQR: 1-4, p = 0.01). There was no significant difference in hospitalization days. There were no adverse events directly attributable to RDV. None died from COVID-19infection. Our observational analysis was unable to detect any clear benefit of RDV in terms of reducing duration in HD/ICU.RDV was well-tolerated in children with severe COVID-19.

1325. Neurodevelopmental outcomes in preschoolers following viral meningitis is Canterbury, New Zealand

Abstract Background Most childhood meningitis nowadays is caused by viruses in countries with widespread use of conjugate vaccines. There is limited knowledge about outcomes following childhood viral meningitis, necessary to inform clinical guidelines. Methods Children aged 19-42 months in Canterbury New Zealand, who had enterovirus (EV) or human parechovirus (HPEV) meningitis as infants were included. Clinical data was collected. Comprehensive neurodevelopmental assessments were completed using the Bayley Scale for Infant Development (BSID) Third Edition. Mean composite and scaled scores, and proportion below cutoff were assessed in each domain. Normative mean composite scores for any domain is 100. Expected scaled score range is 8-12. Mean scores between EV and HPEV meningitis were compared by t-tests, with P&amp;lt; 0.05 considered significant. Results BSID assessments were completed for 33 children (55% male) of mean age 31 months, from 2019-22, including 23 with EV and 10 with HPEV meningitis. There were 24 children of NZ European, 4 Māori, 4 Asian, and 1 Middle Eastern ethnicity. Mean age at diagnosis was 43 days, and mean length of admission was 2.79 days (CI 1.74-3.15). Of 33 children, 32 (97%) received intravenous or intramuscular antibiotics, 6 (18%) received a fluid bolus on arrival at hospital, and 9 (27%) required high dependency or intensive care. Following viral meningitis, parents reported developmental speech concerns in 6 children, and delayed motor milestones in 1 child. There was no reported sensorineural hearing loss. BSID mean composite scores were in expected range for cognition 102 (CI 98-106), language 96 (93-100) and motor 102 (98-106) domains. Mean scaled scores were in expected range for receptive language 9 (9-10), expressive language 9 (9-10), fine motor 11 (11-12) and gross motor 9 (9-10) domains. Overall, 12/33 (36%) children had below expected scores in one area of development including cognition (2/33; 6%), receptive language (6/33; 18%), expressive language (5/33; 15%), and gross motor (6/33; 18%). There were no significant differences between BSID scores in EV and HPEV meningitis. Conclusion Following viral meningitis, 36% percent of preschool children had findings below expected in at least one developmental domain, suggesting targeted follow-up should be considered. Disclosures Manish Sadarangani, BM BCh, FRCPC, DPhil, GlaxoSmithKline: Grant/Research Support|Merck: Grant/Research Support|Moderna: Grant/Research Support|Pfizer: Grant/Research Support|Sanofi Pasteur: Grant/Research Support|Seqirus: Grant/Research Support|Symvivo: Grant/Research Support|VBI Vaccines: Grant/Research Support

Accuracy of Pancreatic Stone Protein for diagnosis of sepsis in children admitted to pediatric intensive care or high-dependency care: a pilot study

BackgroundPancreatic Stone Protein (PSP) is one of the most promising diagnostic and prognostic markers. The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of PSP, compared to C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and Procalcitonin (PCT) for sepsis diagnosis in pediatric patients. Furthermore, we explored the correlation of PSP levels with sepsis severity and organ failure measured with PELOD-2 score.MethodsForty pediatric patients were enrolled following admission to pediatric intensive care, high dependency care or pediatric ward. PSP blood levels were measured in Emergency Department (nanofluidic point-of-care immunoassay; abioSCOPE, Abionic SA, Switzerland) on day 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 from the onset of the clinical signs and symptoms of sepsis or SIRS. Inclusion criteria were: 1) patient age (1 month to 18 years old), 2) signs and symptoms of SIRS, irrespective of association with organ dysfunction. Exclusion criteria were: 1) hemato-oncological diseases and/or immunodeficiencies, 2) pancreatic diseases.ResultsSeptic patients showed higher PSP levels than those with non-infectious systemic inflammation. The optimal cut-off in diagnosis of sepsis for PSP at day 1 was 167 ng/ml resulted in a sensitivity of 59% (95% IC 36%—79%) and a specificity of 83% (95% IC 58%-96%) with an AUC of 0.636 for PSP in comparison to AUC of 0.722 for PCT and 0.503 for C-RP. ROC analysis for outcome (survival versus no survival) has showed AUC 0.814 for PSP; AUC 0.814 for PCT; AUC of 0.657 for C-RP.ConclusionsPSP could distinguish sepsis from non-infectious systemic inflammation; however, our results need to be confirmed in larger pediatric population.

Assessment of Risk Variables in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Dhaka

Background: In a location apart from the regular intensive care unit (ICU), the postanaesthetic care unit (PACU) provides postoperative high-dependency or intense care for high-risk surgical patients. Therefore, it meets the population's well-documented need for better postoperative care. Objectives: The aim of the study was to Assess the risk variables in the post-anesthesia care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in the Department of anesthesiology, Uttara Adhunik Medical College Hospital, during October 2020 to September 2021. A total of 100 patients were participate in this study. Patients underwent tonsillectomy, hysterectomy, caesarean section, and laparoscopic cholecystectomy, both male and female were included in this study. Patients who have not given consent to participate in the study were excluded from the study. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS-26), where required. Results: About 40% patients were male and 60% were female. 80% of the patients were under ASA classification-1, 15% under ASA classification-2 and 5% were under ASA classification ≥3. Here, 22.22% patients had pre-exixting co-morbidity of respiratory, CVS neurological disease respectively. 30% had DM. Only 3.33% and more than 1 pre-exixting co-morbidity. 94.20% patients had no risk of surgery and only 5.80% patients were under risk of surgery. About 40% patients stayed 60-120 minutes in the post anesthesia care unit, 30% patients stayed 120-180 minutes in the post anesthesia care unit, 20% patients stayed 180-240 minutes in the post anesthesia care unit and 10% patients stayed ≥240 minutes in the post anesthesia care unit. 5% patients had develop complication in the post anesthesia care unit for 1-2 hours, 32% for 2-3 hours, 20% for 3-4 hours and 25% for more than 4 hours. Conclusion: The main reasons for a prolonged stay in the post-anesthesia care unit are perioperative cardiovascular and respiratory ....