Objective: To evaluate the effect of adding concurrent computerized documentation of comorbid conditions to standard medical record review on the severity of illness index and risk of mortality index. • Design: Cross-sectional study. • Setting and participants: 377 surgical patients at 2 academic centers undergoing inpatient surgery from September 2004 to January 2005. Standard medical record r...

Background: The effects of indoor exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including formaldehyde, on respiratory health are not clearly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the independent effects of VOCs and other common environmental exposures in the home on the risk and severity of persistent wheezing illness in children. Methods: Total volatile organic compounds, formal...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in critically ill children, and to study its association with parathyroid response, severity of illness and clinical outcomes. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Medical Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary care centre of Northern India. PARTICIPANTS 154 children in-patients: August 2011-January 2013. MAIN...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Elderly patients (> 65 years old) are a rapidly growing demographic in the ESRD and intensive care unit (ICU) populations, yet the effect of ESRD status on critical illness in elderly patients remains unknown. Reliable estimates of prognosis would help to inform care and management of this frail and vulnerable population. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS...

BACKGROUND The clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI) is commonly used as a primary outcome measure in studies evaluating the efficacy of treatments for anxiety disorders. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties and predictors of clinicians' ratings on an adapted version of the CGI among individuals with social anxiety disorders. METHOD An independent assessor administered the...

INTRODUCTION The association between severity of illness of children with osteomyelitis caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and genomic variation of the causative organism has not been previously investigated. The purpose of this study is to assess genomic heterogeneity among MRSA isolates from children with osteomyelitis who have diverse severity of illness. MATERIAL...

AIM To determine physiological and hormonal stress responses in ventilated preterm infants. METHODS Physiological and hormonal stress responses were studied in 47 ventilated preterm infants who were judged clinically to require sedation. The correlation between the stress response and severity of illness was examined, and responses were compared between infants with different clinical outcome...

Three critical issues in determining the usefulness of a patient classification in hospital and physician payment, hospital management, and utilization monitoring include: 1) the clinical relevance of the categorization, 2) the extent to which severity of illness distinctions are incorporated, and 3) the identification of comorbidity. Each of these issues has been addressed in the design of pat...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to assess the role of psychological stress in the expression of illness among infected subjects and to test the plausibility of local proinflammatory cytokine production as a pathway linking stress to illness. METHODS After completing a measure of psychological stress, 55 subjects were experimentally infected with an influenza A virus. Subjects were moni...