OBJECTIVES The purpose of this randomized study was to determine whether a strategically chosen standardized set of programmable settings is at least as effective as physician-tailored choices, as measured by the shock-related morbidity of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy. BACKGROUND Programming of ventricular tachyarrhythmia (ventricular tachycardia [VT] or ventricular fi...

Nosocomial pneumonia is the leading cause of death in patients with hospital-acquired infections. The development of nosocomial pneumonia prolongs hospitalization, which may cause additional days in the intensive care unit, thereby increasing overall health care costs. Empiric treatment of nosocomial pneumonia with therapies that are subsequently shown to be inappropriate therapy (defined as an...

background: drug utilization evaluation (due) studies are designed to evaluate and improve the rational use of medications. dues have focused on drugs used in high risk patients such as critically ill cases in this study. carbapenems are beta-lactam type antibiotics with broad-spectrum of activity which cover gram-positive, gram-negative and anaerobic bacteria. the heavy use of carbapenems (imi...

The effect of empiric antiarrhythmic therapy with quinidine and procainamide on long-term mortality was examined in 209 patients with coronary artery disease resuscitated after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The antiarrhythmic agent used was determined by the patient's private physician without knowledge of the study ambulatory electrocardiogram. Of the 209 patients, procainamide was prescribe...

Meningoencephalitis is inflammation of the central nervous system (CNS) including brain parenchyma, lining and brainstem.Inflammation in meningoencephalitis can be caused by infectious or non-infectious processes (autoimmune diseases, neoplastic processes, drug reactions).In cases suspected encephalitis children, empirical therapy that given within first 6 hours after admission to hospital with...

OBJECTIVE To estimate whether magnesium therapy is the optimal management for women with mild preeclampsia. METHODS A decision analytic model was designed for women with mild preeclampsia to estimate whether empiric magnesium therapy or no magnesium therapy is the optimal management strategy. The model considered relevant clinical events: seizure, placental abruption, and magnesium toxicity. ...

BACKGROUND The effectiveness of the clinical strategy of empiric potassium supplementation in reducing the frequency of adverse clinical outcomes in patients receiving loop diuretics is unknown. We sought to examine the association between empiric potassium supplementation and 1) all-cause death and 2) outpatient-originating sudden cardiac death (SD) and ventricular arrhythmia (VA) among new st...