Critical care emphasizes critical thinking, focuses on the triggers that lead to disease progression, and attaches great importance to early diagnosis of diseases and assessment of the compensatory capacity of vital organs. Pregnancy-associated atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (P-aHUS) is relatively rare in the intensive care unit (ICU). Most cases occur within 10 weeks after delivery. Severe cases can be life-threatening. It characterized by microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, decreased platelet count (PLT), and acute kidney injury (AKI). Early clinical diagnosis is difficult due to its similarity to various disease manifestations. On January 28, 2024, a 26-year-old pregnant woman at 26⁺³ weeks gestation was transferred to the ICU 19 hours post-vaginal delivery due to abdominal pain, reduced urine output, decreased PLT, elevated D-dimer, tachycardia, increased respiratory rate and declined oxygenation. On the day of ICU admission, the critical care physician identified the causes that triggered the acute respiratory and circulatory events based on the "holistic and local" critical care thinking. The condition was stabilized rapidly by improving the capacity overload. In terms of etiological diagnosis, under the guidance of the "point and face" critical care thinking, starting from abnormality indicators including a decrease in hemoglobin (Hb) and PLT and elevated D-dimer and fibrin degradation product (FDP) without other abnormal coagulation indicators, the critical care physician ultimately determined the diagnosis direction of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) by delving deeply into the essence of the disease and formulating a laboratory examination plan in a reasonable and orderly manner. In terms of in-depth diagnosis, combining the disease development process, family history, and past history, applying the two-way falsification thinking of "forward and reverse" as well as "questioning and hypothesis", the diagnosis possibilities of preeclampsia, HELLP syndrome [including hemolysis (H), elevated liver function (EL) and low platelet count (LP)], thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), typical hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and autoimmune inflammatory diseases inducing the condition was ruled out. The diagnosis of complement activation-induced P-aHUS was finally established for the patient, according to the positive result of the complement factor H (CFH). Active decision was made in the initial treatment. The plasma exchange was initiated early. "Small goals" were formulated in stages. The "small endpoints" were dynamically controlled in a goal-oriented manner to achieve continuous realization of the overall treatment effect through phased "small goals". On the 5th day of ICU treatment, the trend of microthrombosis in the patient was controlled, organ function damage was improved, and the patient was transferred out of the ICU. It is possible to reach a favorable clinical outcome for critically ill patients by applying a critical care mindset to quickly integrate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, accurately identifying the triggers and causes that led to the progression of the disease, and using critical care medical techniques for early and effective intervention.
Humans ; Female ; Pregnancy ; Adult ; Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome/therapy* ; Intensive Care Units ; Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic/therapy* ; Critical Care

Objective To understand the situations of departments of intensive care units (ICUs) of different level hospitals in Guizhou Province, and to provide directions and evidences for improving quality control in critical care medicine.Methods A county-level hospital and a provincial-level hospital's comprehensive ICU in Guizhou Province were selected to record and analyze and compare the structural indicators, patient admission and transfer, disease distribution, ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP), intravascular catheter related blood stream infection (CRBSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) of the two hospitals' comprehensive ICU in 2017.Results The ICU of the People's Hospital of Suiyang County (county hospital) was found in 2012, and the ICU of the Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University (provincial hospital) was found in 1994. Until 2017, there were 10 and 46 beds, 6 (all of them hold bachelor's degree) and 18 physicians (6 of them hold PhD, 5 of them hold master's degree, 7 of them hold bachelor's degree), 17 (4 of them hold bachelor's degree, 13 of them hold college degree or graduated from secondary school) and 69 nurses (2 of them hold master's degree, 53 of them hold bachelor's degree, 14 of them hold college degree or graduated from secondary school) in the two ICUs respectively, there were significant differences in the education background of the physicians and nurses between the two ICUs (bothP < 0.01). During 2017, 471 cases were admitted to the ICU of the county hospital while 1633 cases were admitted to the ICU of the provincial hospital. Compared with the ICU of the provincial hospital, the ratio of the patients with acute physiology and chronic health evaluationⅡ(APACHE Ⅱ) ≥ 15 at admission was lower (74.8％ vs. 85.1％,P < 0.01), the ratio of direct admission was higher (30.8％ vs. 17.4％,P < 0.01), the ratio of the patients admitted to the ICU more than once was lower (0.8％ vs. 5.0％,P < 0.01), the ratio of the patients whose the length of ICU stay less than 24 hours was higher (51.6％ vs. 13.7％,P < 0.01), the ratio of the patients whose the length of ICU stay more than 28 days was lower (1.1％ vs. 2.9％, P < 0.05), the ratio of the patients discharged against-advice (25.5％ vs. 20.5％,P < 0.05) was higher, the ratio of the patients transferred to other hospitals was higher (5.1％ vs. 0.3％,P < 0.05), and the ICU mortality was lower (4.0％ vs. 13.9％,P < 0.01) in the ICU of the county hospital. The top three kinds of diseases treated in the ICU of the county hospital were brain injury (27.4％), trauma (19.1％) and toxication (6.8％); while in the ICU of the provincial hospital were brain injury (18.6％), sepsis (16.2％) and severe acute pancreatitis (4.8％). In addition, the incidences of VAP, CRBSI and CAUTI in the ICU of the county hospital were 10.0/1000 ventilator days, 1.4/1000 catheter days, 0.5/1000 catheter days; while in the ICU of the provincial hospital were 5.8/1000 ventilator days, 2.0/1000 catheter days, 3.7/1000 catheter days, respectively.Conclusions There are short of physicians and nurses in the ICU of the provincial and county hospitals in Guizhou Province, and the educational level of the medical staff in the ICU of the county hospital is relatively low. Moreover, there were significant differences in the admissions and treatments and the outcomes of the critically ill patients between the two ICUs. The characteristics of the ICUs of county hospitals should be fully considered when the quality control of critical care medicine and continuing medical education are done.