Critical care medicine:

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Health disparities continue to plague racial and ethnic underserved patients in the United States. Disparities extend to the most critically ill patients, including those experiencing neurologic injury and patients at the end of life. Achieving health equity in palliative care in the neurointensive care unit requires clinicians to acknowledge and address structural racism and the social determinants of health. This article highlights racial and ethnic disparities in neurocritical care and palliative care and offers recommendations for an anti-racist approach to palliative care in the neurointensive care unit for clinicians.

This review explores the current landscape and evolving understanding of sepsis, highlighting both challenges and future directions. Sepsis remains a major global health burden, with diverse clinical presentations complicating timely diagnosis and management. Existing definitions, including the Sepsis-3 criteria, emphasize the importance of organ dysfunction, yet early sepsis detection remains limited by available tools. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, though widely used, may not fully capture early stages of infection or account for complex presentations like noncatecholamine-resistant shock. Additionally, the review underscores the pressing need for standardized terminology across sepsis and shock characterization to ensure consistency in diagnosis and treatment strategies. Accessible, resource-adapted solutions are particularly crucial in low- and middle-income countries where sepsis-related mortality rates are higher due to limited resources. Future research should focus on developing and validating integrated, multi-parameter tools that combine clinical, biochemical, and microbiological data to improve sepsis outcomes globally. Advancing sepsis care will require both technological innovation and collaborative, globally consistent guidelines to bridge disparities in healthcare delivery.

CONCLUSIONS: In this scoping review of CGM accuracy in the ICU, we found great diversity in accuracy reporting. Accuracy varied depending on CGM and comparator, and may be better for intravascular CGM and potentially lower during hypoglycemia.

Infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) benefit from comprehensive multidisciplinary teams that have experience in caring for the unique and complex issues associated with CDH. Despite prenatal referral to specialized high-volume centers, advanced ventilation strategies and pulmonary hypertension management, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, mortality and morbidity remain high. These infants have unique and complex issues that begin in fetal and infant life, but persist through adulthood. Here we will review the literature and share our clinical care pathway for neonatal care and follow up. While many advances have occurred in the past few decades, our work is just beginning to continue to improve the mortality, but also importantly the morbidity of CDH.

Cardiogenic shock (CS) is a highly complex clinical condition that requires a management strategy focused on early resolution of the underlying cause and the provision of circulatory support. In cases of refractory CS, mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is employed to replace the failed cardiocirculatory system, thereby preventing the development of multiorgan failure. There are various types of MCS, and patients with CS typically require devices that are either short-term (< 15 days) or intermediate-term (15-30 days). When choosing the device the underlying cause of CS, as well as the presence or absence of concomitant conditions such as failed ventricle, respiratory failure, and the intended purpose of the support should be taken into consideration. Patients with MCS require the comprehensive care indicated in complex critically ill patients with multiorgan dysfunction, with an emphasis on device monitoring and control. Different complications may arise during support management, and its withdrawal must be protocolized.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To provide an overview of the current diagnostic criteria for acute kidney injury (AKI) including their limitations and to discuss prevention and treatment approaches in the perioperative setting.

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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review discusses novel concepts of acute kidney injury (AKI), including subphenotyping, which may facilitate the development of target treatment strategies for specific subgroups of patients to achieve precision medicine.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review explores the transformative advancement, potential application, and impact of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly machine learning (ML) and large language models (LLMs), on critical care nephrology.

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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is commonly encountered in critical care medicine as is intravenous fluid therapy. It is accepted that there is interplay between fluid use and AKI, both potentially positive and negative. An understanding of the physiological rationale for fluid is important to help clinicians when considering fluid therapy in patients with, or at risk for AKI; this includes understanding choice of fluid, method of monitoring, administration and clinical sequelae.

The term "urban-rural divide" encompasses several dimensions and has remained an important concern for any country. The economic disparity; lack of infrastructure; dearth of medical specialists; limited opportunities to education, training, and health care; lower level of sanitation; and isolating effect of geographical location deepens this gap, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). This article gives an overview of the rural-urban differences in terms of facilities related to neurocritical care (NCC) in LMICs. Issues related to common clinical conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, myasthenia gravis, epilepsy, tubercular meningitis, and tracheostomy are also discussed. To facilitate delivery of NCC in resource-limited settings, proposed strategies include strengthening preventive measures, focusing on basics, having a multidisciplinary approach, promoting training and education, and conducting cost-effective research and collaborative efforts. The rural areas of LMICs bear the maximum impact because of their limited access to preventive health services, high incidence of acquired brain injury, inability to have timely management of neurological emergencies, and scarcity of specialist services in a resource-deprived health center. An increase in the health budget allocation for rural areas, NCC education and training of the workforce, and provision of telemedicine services for rapid diagnosis, management, and neurorehabilitation are some of the steps that can be quite helpful.

Pediatric neurocritical care teams care for patients and families facing the potential for significant neurologic impairment and high mortality. Such admissions are often marked by significant prognostic uncertainty, high levels of parental emotional overload, and multiple potentially life-altering decision points. In addition to clinical acumen, families desire clear and consistent communication, supported decision-making, a multidisciplinary approach to psychosocial supports throughout an admission, and comprehensive bereavement support after a death. Distinct from their adult counterparts, pediatric providers care for a broader set of rare diagnoses with limited prognostic information. Decision-making requires its own ethical framework, with substitutive judgment giving way to the best interest standard as well as "good parent" narratives. When a child dies, bereavement support is often needed for the broader community. There will always be a role for specialist palliative care consultation in the pediatric neurocritical care unit, but the care of every patient and family will be well served by improving these primary palliative care skills.

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PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To discuss the role of hemodynamic management in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury.

Abstract: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) in systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a common complication that has a varied progression rate and prognosis. Different progression definitions are available, including minimal clinically important worsening of FVC, EUSTAR (European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group) progression, OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials) progression, and Erice ILD working group progression. Pulmonary function and symptom changes may act as specific confounding factors when applying these definitions in SSc. To assess the concordance and prognostic value of four different definitions in patients with SSc-ILD overall and in specific clinical groups. Progression status in consecutive patients with SSc-ILD was assessed over 24 months, and 60-month disease-related mortality risk was compared between progressors and nonprogressors using four definitions. Among 245 patients, 26 SSc-related deaths were reported. Mortality was linked to progression for minimal clinically important worsening of FVC (hazard ratio [HR], 2.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-4.97), OMERACT (HR, 2.90; 95% CI, 1.28-6.57), and Erice definitions (HR, 2.69; 95% CI, 1.23-5.89). The association between progression and mortality was poor in patients with disease duration ≥3 years, mild functional impairment, and pulmonary artery systolic pressure ≥40 mm Hg. Erice criteria appeared superior in patients with duration ≥3 years, limited cutaneous variant, and pulmonary artery systolic pressure <40 mm Hg. OMERACT criteria performed better in diffuse cutaneous variant patients with severe functional impairment. The four evaluated definitions of progression in SSc-ILD are not interchangeable, resulting in up to one-third of cases being classified differently on the basis of adopted criteria and presenting different prognostic values, particularly within specific clinical groups.

Hantaviruses, members of the Bunyaviridae family, can cause two patterns of disease in humans, hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS), being the latter hegemonic on the American continent. Andesvirus is one of the strains that can cause HCPS and is endemic in Chile. Its transmission occurs through direct or indirect contact with infected rodents' urine, saliva, or feces and inhalation of aerosol particles containing the virus. HCPS rapidly evolves into acute but reversible multiorgan dysfunction. The hemodynamic pattern of HCPS is not identical to that of cardiogenic or septic shock, being characterized by hypovolemia, systolic dysfunction, and pulmonary edema secondary to increased permeability. Given the lack of specific effective therapies to treat this viral infection, the focus of treatment lies in the timely provision of intensive care, specifically hemodynamic and respiratory support, which often requires veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO). This narrative review aims to provide insights into specific ICU management of HCPS based on the available evidence and gathered experience in Chile and South America including perspectives of pathophysiology, organ dysfunction kinetics, timely life support provision, safe patient transportation, and key challenges for the future.