The current standard of care for a fungal central venous catheter infection in a pediatric patient usually requires removal without any other feasible options. Although removal may reduce the rate of Candida-associated complications, literature reviews question whether the outcomes of removal substantiate this being the standard of care. We report 6 cases of central venous catheter fungal infections treated with liposomal amphotericin-B lock therapy. These cases consisted of 4 patients, 2 of whom received recurrent therapy. In 4 of these cases, there was successful eradication of the infectious fungal agent, allowing continued use of the catheter. A controlled study of antifungal lock therapy should be considered as a potential alternative to removal.
» Anterior interosseous nerve syndrome (AINS) represents a form of neuralgic amyotrophy (Parsonage-Turner syndrome).» AINS does not originate from external compression of the AIN in the forearm.» Fascicular constrictions (FCs) of the median nerve are identified within the anterior interosseous fascicular group at or above the medial epicondyle.» Spontaneous recovery is not ensured, leaving up to 30% of patients with permanent weakness or palsy.» Fascicular microneurolysis of the median nerve, performed at or above the elbow, is a treatment option for patients who do not recover spontaneously.
Purpose
To develop and externally validate a multivariate prediction model for the prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) in COVID-19, based on baseline renal perfusion from contrast-enhanced CT together with clinical and laboratory parameters.
Methods
In this retrospective IRB-approved study, we identified COVID-19 patients who had a standard-of-care contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scan within 5 days of their COVID-19 diagnosis at our institution (training set;
n
= 45, mean age 65 years, M/F 23/22) and at a second institution (validation set;
n
= 41, mean age 61 years, M/F 22/19). The CT renal perfusion parameter, cortex-to-aorta enhancement index (CAEI), was measured in both sets. A multivariate logistic regression model for predicting AKI was constructed from the training set with stepwise feature selection with CAEI together with demographical and baseline laboratory/clinical data used as input variables. Model performance in the training and validation set was evaluated with ROC analysis.
Results
AKI developed in 16 patients (35.6%) of the training set and in 6 patients (14.6%) of the validation set. Baseline CAEI was significantly lower in the patients that ultimately developed AKI (
P
= 0.003). Logistic regression identified a model combining baseline CAEI, blood urea nitrogen, and gender as most significant predictor of AKI. This model showed excellent diagnostic performance for prediction of AKI in the training set (AUC = 0.89,
P
< 0.001) and good performance in the validation set (AUC 0.78,
P
= 0.030).
Conclusion
Our results show diminished renal perfusion preceding AKI and a promising role of CAEI, combined with laboratory and demographic markers, for prediction of AKI in COVID-19.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.