Pulmonary electrical impedance tomography (EIT), a noninvasive, continuous, dynamic, and radiation-free bedside imaging technique for monitoring pulmonary ventilation, is now widely utilized in the diagnosis and management of critically ill patients. Beyond ventilation monitoring, hypertonic saline contrast-enhanced EIT for bedside pulmonary perfusion assessment has recently garnered significant attention. This article describes the application of hypertonic saline contrast-enhanced EIT to evaluate pulmonary perfusion in two patients following pulmonary endarterectomy, providing a reference for its perioperative application in such patients.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) represents a prominent research focus in medicine, with medical education being a key application area. GAI demonstrates potential to enhance residency training efficacy through personalized instruction, automated assessment item generation, question bank updating, and intelligent scoring systems. However, current limitations exist regarding output accuracy and content consistency. To address these constraints, strategic measures are required: continuous GAI model refinement, development of standardized usage guidelines, enhanced data quality control, and implementation of human verification protocols for generated content. Concurrently, residents should proactively acquire GAI utilization skills to strengthen the practical application of theoretical knowledge. With these advancements, GAI is anticipated to evolve into a valuable asset for improving the efficiency and quality of residency training programs.

To review the clinical characteristics, short-term outcomes, and risk factors of patients with infective endocarditis(IE) who underwent surgical treatment at a single center, and to summarize treatment experience.

To explore the application effectiveness of generative artificial intelligence(GAI) in the standardized training assessment of critical care medicine residents.

To apply electrical impedance tomography (EIT) technology to assess the lung regional ventilation distribution in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after a cardiac surgery, and to analyze its value of predicting patients' short-term prognosis.

This study aimed to explore key quality control factors that affected the prognosis of intensive care unit (ICU) patients in Chinese mainland over six years (2015-2020). The data for this study were from 31 provincial and municipal hospitals (3425 hospital ICUs) and included 2 110 685 ICU patients, for a total of 27 607 376 ICU hospitalization days. We found that 15 initially established quality control indicators were good predictors of patient prognosis, including percentage of ICU patients out of all inpatients (%), percentage of ICU bed occupancy of total inpatient bed occupancy (%), percentage of all ICU inpatients with an APACHE II score ⩾15 (%), three-hour (surviving sepsis campaign) SSC bundle compliance (%), six-hour SSC bundle compliance (%), rate of microbe detection before antibiotics (%), percentage of drug deep venous thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis (%), percentage of unplanned endotracheal extubations (%), percentage of patients reintubated within 48 hours (%), unplanned transfers to the ICU (%), 48-h ICU readmission rate (%), ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) (per 1000 ventilator days), catheter related blood stream infection (CRBSI) (per 1000 catheter days), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) (per 1000 catheter days), in-hospital mortality (%). When exploratory factor analysis was applied, the 15 indicators were divided into 6 core elements that varied in weight regarding quality evaluation: nosocomial infection management (21.35%), compliance with the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines (17.97%), ICU resources (17.46%), airway management (15.53%), prevention of deep-vein thrombosis (14.07%), and severity of patient condition (13.61%). Based on the different weights of the core elements associated with the 15 indicators, we developed an integrated quality scoring system defined as F score=21.35%xnosocomial infection management + 17.97%xcompliance with SSC guidelines + 17.46%×ICU resources + 15.53%×airway management + 14.07%×DVT prevention + 13.61%×severity of patient condition. This evidence-based quality scoring system will help in assessing the key elements of quality management and establish a foundation for further optimization of the quality control indicator system.
Humans ; China/epidemiology* ; Cross Infection/epidemiology* ; Intensive Care Units/statistics & numerical data* ; Quality Control ; Quality Indicators, Health Care/statistics & numerical data* ; Sepsis/therapy* ; East Asian People/statistics & numerical data*

The gut microbiota of intensive care unit (ICU) patients displays extreme dysbiosis asso-ciated with increased susceptibility to organ failure, sepsis, and septic shock. However, such dysbio-sis is difficult to characterize owing to the high dimensional complexity of the gut microbiota. We tested whether the concept of enterotype can be applied to the gut microbiota of ICU patients to describe the dysbiosis. We collected 131 fecal samples from 64 ICU patients diagnosed with sepsis or septic shock and performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing to dissect their gut microbiota compo-sitions. During the development of sepsis or septic shock and during various medical treatments, the ICU patients always exhibited two dysbiotic microbiota patterns, or ICU-enterotypes, which could not be explained by host properties such as age, sex, and body mass index, or external stressors such as infection site and antibiotic use. ICU-enterotype I (ICU E1) comprised predominantly Bac-teroides and an unclassified genus of Enterobacteriaceae, while ICU-enterotype Ⅱ(ICU E2) com-prised predominantly Enterococcus. Among more critically ill patients with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Ⅱ(APACHE Ⅱ) scores > 18, septic shock was more likely to occur with ICU E1 (P = 0.041). Additionally, ICU E1 was correlated with high serum lactate levels (P = 0.007). Therefore, different patterns of dysbiosis were correlated with different clinicaloutcomes, suggesting that ICU-enterotypes should be diagnosed as independent clinical indices. Thus, the microbial-based human index classifier we propose is precise and effective for timely mon-itoring of ICU-enterotypes of individual patients. This work is a first step toward precision medicine for septic patients based on their gut microbiota profiles.

Objective To evaluate the value of microcirculation and oxygen metabolism evaluation (MicrOME)in acute kidney injury(AKI) evaluation in patients with septic shock after resuscitation. Methods Consecutive patients with septic shock after resuscitation and mechanical ventilation were enrolled from October 2016 to February 2017 in ICU at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Patients were divided into 3 groups based on 10 min transcutaneous oxygen challenge test transcutaneous partial pressure of oxygen(PtcO2)and venoarterial pressure of carbon dioxide difference(Pv-aCO2)/arteriovenous O2 content difference(Ca-vO2)by blood gas analysis, i.e. group A [ΔPtcO2>66 mmHg(1 mmHg=0.133 kPa) and Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2≤1.23], group B (ΔPtcO2≤66 mmHg), group C (ΔPtcO2>66 mmHg and Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2>1.23). Heart rate,mean arterial pressure,central venous pressure,noradrenaline dose,lactate,Pv-aCO2,Ca-vO2, lactate clearance, central venous oxygen saturation(ScvO2) and liquid equilibrium were assessed after resuscitation.AKI staging based on Kidney Disease Global Improving Outcomes (KDIGO) clinical practice guideline was analyzed. The predictive value of lactate,ScvO2,Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2 to progression of AKI after resuscitation was determined using receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis.Results A total of 49 septic shock patients were enrolled including 30 males and 19 females with mean age of (61.10±17.10) years old.There were 19 patients in group A,21 patients in group B, and 9 patients in group C. Acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ score was 20.92±7.19 and sequential organ failure assessment score 12.02±3.28. There were 4 patients with AKI and 1 progressed in group A,11 patients with AKI and 2 progressed in group B, 6 patients with AKI and 4 progressed in group C. The cutoff value of Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2 was equal or more than 2.20 for predicting progression of AKI,resulting in a sensitivity of 85.7％ and a specificity of 73.8％.Conclusion MicrOME is a significant parameter to predict the progression of AKI in patients with septic shock after resuscitation. Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2 is also a good predictive factor.

Objective To evaluate the prognostic value of arterial blood lactate clearance based on central venous oxygen saturation and perfusion index in patients with septic shock related myocardial injury after early goal-directed therapy.Methods One hundred and fifty-seven patients with septic shock after early resuscitation were enrolled from August 2013 to July 2016 in ICU at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Parameters indicating early resuscitation included central venous pressure (CVP) 8-12 mmHg (1 mmHg=0.133 kPa),mean arterial pressure (MAP)＞65 mmHg,central venous oxygen saturation(ScvO2)＞70％ and urine volume (UO) ＞0.Sml · kg-1 · h-1 and arterial blood lactatc (Lac) ＞2 mmoL/L.Patients were divided into group A [ScvO2＞80％ and perfusion index (PI)＞1.4],group B(ScvO2＞80％ and PI＜1.4),group C (ScvO2＜80％ and PI＞1.4),group D(ScvO2＜80％ and Pl＜l.4).Hemodynamic parameters and tissue perfusion indexes at 2 hours(T2),4 hours(T4) and 6 hours(T6) after early resuscitation and troponin Ⅰ which indicated myocardial damage,on day 1 2 3 in ICU were recorded.Results (1)Lac clearance in group C was the quickest,which was 34.57％ (21.44％,44.20％),58.33％ (30.19％,70.79％),71.43％ (53.75％,82.79％) at T2,T4,T6 respectively.(2)The maximal incidence of myocardial damage was in group B(85.0％) and the lowest in group A (45.7％) on day 1 in ICU.Whereas on day 2,group C showed the lowest incidence of myocardial damage (29.3％) and group B the highest(70.0％).On day 3,the proportion of elevated troponin Ⅰ in group B was 70.0％,which was significantly higher than that of group B (29.3％,P＜0.008).(3)Logistic regression analysis suggested that the rate of Lac clearance at T4 in group B was related to the incidence of myocardial damage on day 2 and 3 in ICU.Conclusions The combination of PI and ScvO2 as a resuscitation target in patients with septic shock facilitates Lac clearance as the goal of resuscitation.The rate of arterial Lac clearance based on ScvO2 and PI is correlated with myocardial injury in patients with septic shock after early goal-directed therapy.

Objective The relationship of venous-to-arterial CO2difference(Pv-aCO2)/ arterial-central venous O2difference (Ca-vO2) ratio, peripheral perfusion index(PI) and lactate clearance(LC) were investigated during resuscitation in septic patients. And, the meaning of the combination PI and Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio to interpret incoherence of lactate clear was explored. Methods The patients with sepsis were prospectively observed, who admitted to critically care medicine department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The hemodynamic parameters, simultaneous arterial and central venous blood gas analysis and PI were obtained at the enrollment (T0) and 8 hours (T8) during resuscitation. The lactate clearance was defined as 8h-LC≥10% and non-lactate clearance was defined as 8h-LC≤10%. Additionally, the patients were divided as three sub-groups according to the PI value at T8: the normalized PI group with PI≥1.4,the mild impaired PI with 1.4＜PI＜0.6 and severe impaired PI with PI≤0.6. Results A total of 84 patients were enrolled in this study. There was no significant difference in Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio in the three groups. However, the PI≤0.6 group had a significantly higher Pv-aCO2than other groups. Moreover, the patients with non-lactate clearance (13/32) had a higher Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio than the patients with lactate clearance in PI≥1.4 group (1.9±0.7 vs. 1.3±1.0, P=0.01). Multivariate analysis showed both Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio [Exp(B) 2.235,95% CI 1.232-4.055,P=0.008] and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ(APACHEⅡ) [Exp(B)1.087,95%CI 1.022-1.156,P=0.008] were independent risk factor of non-lactate clearance. 8h-PI was significantly negative correlated with the 8 h Pv-aCO2gap (r=-0.311, P=0.004), but not significantly with Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio (r=-0.094, P=0.385). Conclusions Both high Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2 ratio and low PI were related to non-lactate clearance after resuscitation in sepsis. Combined PI and Pv-aCO2/Ca-vO2ratio could interpret incoherence of latacte clearance after resuscitation.