Portopulmonary hypertension represents a major risk factor for transplantation; therefore, preoperative detection is crucial. The aims of this study were to determine (1) whether Doppler echocardiography performed at evaluation is a reliable tool for detecting portopulmonary hypertension and (2) the incidence of acquired portopulmonary hypertension profile after evaluation. One hundred sixty-five patients had Doppler echocardiography and right heart catheterization at evaluation over a 9-year period. All patients had a prospective follow-up, and the results of catheterization at evaluation were compared with those obtained at the time of transplantation. Seventeen of 165 patients met the criteria for portopulmonary hypertension on Doppler echocardiography. Portopulmonary hypertension was confirmed by catheterization in 10 patients and ruled out in 7. There were no false negatives for echocardiography. Mean pulmonary artery pressure was significantly higher during the initial phase of transplantation than at evaluation (17.8 ؎ 4.3 vs. 20.3 ؎ 5.5 mm Hg, respectively, P < .0001), and there was no significant correlation between values obtained at these 2 time points. Three patients showed to have acquired portopulmonary hypertension profile while waiting for a graft within time intervals ranging from 2.5 to 5 months. In conclusion, Doppler echocardiography is a highly sensitive tool for detecting portopulmonary hypertension. However, because this technique has a poor positive predictive value, right heart catheterization is recommended for confirming portopulmonary hypertension. In addition, the absence of portopulmonary hypertension at evaluation does not exclude the occasional occurrence of acquired portopulmonary hypertension profile after listing. P ulmonary hypertension associated with portal hypertension, the so-called portopulmonary hypertension, is a rare complication of cirrhosis. When severe, this condition is a major risk factor for transplantation because, in most cases, patients are at best partially responsive to medical therapies. 1 If it is impossible to lower mean pulmonary artery pressure below 40 to 50 mm Hg during transplantation procedure, any significant hemodynamic changes, such as those observed at the time of caval clamping and reperfusion of the graft, may result in irreversible cardiac arrest, especially if right ventricular function is impaired. 2 As a consequence, many authors consider that severe portopulmonary hypertension (i.e., mean pulmonary artery pressure [MPAP] above 40 mm Hg) represents a contraindication for liver transplantation because it would carry an unacceptable mortality rate. 3 Because portopulmonary hypertension is frequently asymptomatic until mean pulmonary pressure exceeds 40 mm Hg, most authors recommend systematic screening at evaluation. Several studies have suggested that Doppler echocardiography, when performed during pretransplantation evaluation, is a useful noninvasive tool to document or exclude portopulmonary hypertension, 4-6 even though this technique ...

To date, no study has been specifically designed to identify determinants of death in neutropenic cancer patients presenting with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of this study was to identify early predictive factors of 28-day mortality in these patients. Factors associated with 28-day mortality during intensive care unit (ICU) stay were also described.70 consecutive cancer patients with ARDS and neutropenia were prospectively analysed over a 6-yr period.Mortality at 28 days was 63%. Factors independently associated with good prognosis were: lobar ARDS (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.02-0.48), use of initial antibiotic treatment active on difficult to treat bacteria (ticarcillin-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia or extended-spectrum b-lactamase-producing strains) (OR 0.08, 95% CI 0.02-0.33) and first-line chemotherapy (OR 0.08, 95% CI 0.02-0.37). During the ICU stay, mortality was associated with the markers of organ dysfunctions, the absence of neutropenia recovery and the use of vasopressors. During the first 3 weeks, the conditional probability of discharge alive from ICU did not decrease.At ICU admission, first-line chemotherapy, lobar ARDS and antibiotic treatment active on difficult-to-treat bacteria were associated with survival. During ICU stay, mortality was associated with organ dysfunctions and use of vasopressors. Most survivors have an ICU stay of .3 weeks.

Background:Postpancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) hemorrhage (PPH) is a life-threatening complication after PD. The main objective of this study was to evaluate incidence and factors associated with late PPH as well as the management strategy and outcomes. Methods: Between May 2017 and March 2020, clinical data from 192 patients undergoing PD were collected prospectively in the CHIRPAN Database (NCT02871336) and retrospectively analyzed. In our institution, all patients scheduled for a PD are routinely admitted for monitoring and management in intensive/intermediate care unit (ICU/IMC). Results: The incidence of late PPH was 17% (32 of 192), whereas the 90-day mortality rate of late PPH was 19% (6 of 32). Late PPH was associated with 90-day mortality (P = 0.001). Using multivariate analysis, independent risk factors for late PPH were postoperative sepsis (P = 0.036), and on day 3, creatinine (P = 0.025), drain fluid amylase concentration (P = 0.023), lipase concentration (P < 0.001), and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration (P < 0.001). We developed two predictive scores for PPH occurrence, the PANCRHEMO scores. Score 1 was associated with 68.8% sensitivity, 85.6% specificity, 48.8% predictive positive value, 93.2% negative predictive value, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.841. Score 2 was associated with 81.2% sensitivity, 76.9% specificity, 41.3% predictive positive value, 95.3% negative predictive value, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.859. Conclusions: Routine ICU/IMC monitoring might contribute to a better management of these complications. Some predicting factors such as postoperative sepsis and biological markers on day 3 should help physicians to determine patients requiring a prolonged ICU/IMC monitoring.

Background Mortality of critically ill hematology (HM) patients has improved over time. Thus, those patients require an extensive diagnostic workup and the optimal use of available treatments. There are no data regarding nutrition strategy for critically ill HM patients, while nutritional support is crucial for both HM and critically ill patients. We hypothesized that the implementation of a computer-assisted decision support system (CDSS), designed to supervise a nutritional intervention by a multidisciplinary team, would be able to increase guidelines adherence and outcomes. Results In this before/after study, 275 critically ill hematology patients admitted to the ICU over 5-year period were included. Energy and protein intakes were delivered using standard protocol in the 147 patients (53%) of the ‘before group’ and using a CDSS in order to reach every day predefined caloric and protein targets accordingly to the catabolic or anabolic status in the 128 patients (47%) of the ‘after group.’ Using a Poisson regression, we showed that the use of CDSS allowed to reach a relative increase in the rate of days in compliance with caloric (1.57; 95% confidence interval (CI), [1.17–2.10], p = 0.0025) and protein targets (3.86 [2.21–6.73], p < 0.0001) in the ‘after group’ by more than 50% as compared with the ‘before group.’ Interestingly, compliance rates were low and only reached 30% after intervention. Hospital mortality, ICU-acquired infection, and hospital, and ICU length of stay were similar in the two groups of patients. Importantly, exploratory analysis showed that hospital mortality was lower in the ‘after group’ for neutropenic and severely ill patients. Conclusion For critically ill hematology patients, the use of a nutritional CDSS allowed to increase the days in compliance with caloric and protein targets as compared with no CDSS use. In this context, overall hospital mortality was not affected. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13613-019-0527-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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