OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of enhanced rehabilitation on the prognosis of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: A single-center retrospective historical controlled study was conducted, patients admitted to the ICU of Peking University First Hospital from May 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, and from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022 were enrolled. According to the different rehabilitation treatment strategies during different periods, patients were divided into the conventional rehabilitation group (patients receiving conventional rehabilitation treatment from May 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021) and the enhanced rehabilitation group (patients receiving the therapy of multidisciplinary team, ie medical care-rehabilitation-nursing care from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022). General data, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II), and study endpoints were collected. Primary endpoints included rehabilitation-therapy rate, intervention time for rehabilitation, rehabilitation-related adverse events, and prognostic indicators such as (length of stay in hospital, length of stay in the ICU, and duration of mechanical ventilation). Secondary endpoints included incidence of deep vein thrombosis and hospital mortality. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze cumulative discharge rates within 50 days. RESULTS: A total of 539 ICU patients were enrolled, with 245 in the conventional rehabilitation group and 294 in the enhanced rehabilitation group; 322 patients had an APACHE II score ≤ 15, while 217 patients had an APACHE II score > 15. Compared to the conventional rehabilitation group, the enhanced rehabilitation group demonstrated significantly higher rehabilitation-therapy rate [51.70% (152/294) vs. 11.43% (28/245)], earlier intervention time for rehabilitation [days: 2.00 (1.00, 3.00) vs. 4.00 (3.00, 7.00)]; shorter length of stay in hospital [days: 18.00 (12.00, 30.00) vs. 21.00 (13.00, 36.00)] and lower incidence of DVT [17.01% (50/294) vs. 24.08% (59/245)]. The differences were all statistically significant (all P < 0.05). There were no rehabilitation-related adverse events occurred in either group. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a significantly higher cumulative discharge rate within 50 days in the enhanced rehabilitation group compared to the conventional rehabilitation group [86.7% (255/294) vs. 82.9% (203/245); Log-Rank test: χ² = 4.262, P = 0.039]. Subgroup analysis showed that for patients with APACHE II score ≤ 15, the enhanced rehabilitation subgroup had higher rehabilitation-therapy rate [44.32% (78/176) vs. 6.16% (9/146), P < 0.05]. For patients with APACHE II score > 15, compared to the conventional rehabilitation group, the enhanced subgroup demonstrated higher rehabilitation-therapy rate [62.71% (74/118) vs. 19.19% (19/99), P < 0.05] and shorter length of stay in hospital [days: 20.50 (12.00, 31.25) vs. 26.00 (16.00, 43.00), P < 0.05]. CONCLUSIONS Enhanced rehabilitation therapy with medical care, rehabilitation and nursing care, improved rehabilitation-therapy rate, advanced time of rehabilitation treatment, reduced length of stay in hospital and incidence of deep vein thrombosis in critically ill patients, particularly benefited those with APACHE II score > 15. The enhanced rehabilitation was beneficial to the patient in the intensive care unit with safety and worth more investigation.
Humans ; Retrospective Studies ; Critical Illness/rehabilitation* ; Intensive Care Units ; Prognosis ; Length of Stay ; APACHE ; Historically Controlled Study ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Aged

Intra-abdominal candidiasis (IAC) is the most common invasive candidiasis, with a high incidence among critically ill patients, which can significantly increase medical costs and affect prognosis. In order to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of IAC in critically ill patients, experts in related fields were organized by the Peking University Critical Care Medicine (PKUCCM), Committee of Critical Care Medicine and Organ Support, China Association for Promotion of Health Science and Technology organized experts in related fields to initiate and form a working group. Expert writers drafted the consensus based on evidence-based medical evidence. A committee composed of critical care physicians, infectious disease physicians, surgeons, dermatologists specializing in antifungal fields, and clinical pharmacists discussed and revised the consensus draft through a standardized process, and finally formulated this consensus. This consensus contains a total of 20 core recommendations, mainly focusing on the epidemiology, high-risk factors, diagnostic techniques and methods (including traditional microbiological culture techniques, clinical risk prediction tools, serological tests, molecular biological tests, and histopathological examinations) of IAC, diagnostic criteria, stratified treatment strategies, antifungal drug selection, control the sources of infection, combined treatment, de-escalation strategies, drug treatment courses, prognosis, and special types of IAC. The aim is to provide expert guidance for the standardized clinical diagnosis and treatment of IAC in critically ill patients, with a view to improving prognosis of patients.
Humans ; Critical Illness ; Intraabdominal Infections/therapy* ; Antifungal Agents/therapeutic use* ; Consensus ; Candidiasis/drug therapy* ; Critical Care ; Candidiasis, Invasive/diagnosis*

Peripheral perfusion index(PPI)is an objective and reliable parameter reflecting the peripheral micro-circulation through the ratio of local pulsatile to non-pulsatile blood flow.PPI is widely used in the early identifica-tion of hypotension,guiding volume management,assessing vascular tone,assisting mechanical ventilation settings,early identification of postoperative complications and poor prognosis of critically ill patients.

Sepsis is a life-threatening acute organ dysfunction syndrome caused by a dys-regulated host response to infection.As a regenerative medicine therapy with broad clinical prospects,stem cells have attracted significant at-tention due to their multifaceted biological capabilities,including anti-inflammatory,antioxidant,and anti-apoptotic effects,as well as immunomodulatory properties and tissue/organ repair potential.Mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)function through mechanisms such as modulating macrophage polarization and suppressing excessive inflammation responses,thereby promoting tissue regeneration.Pre-clinical studies demonstrate that MSCs significantly reduce sepsis mortality and decrease sepsis-associated complications including acute kidney injury(AKI),acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS)and sepsis associated myopathy.Furthermore,perinatal-derived stem cells and genetically modified stem cells have shown therapeutic promise in sepsis management.Current challenges in stem cell-based sepsis therapy cover optimizing delivery strategies,standardizing cell preparation protocols and de-veloping biomarker-guided personalized therapeutic regimens.

Objective To investigate the association between early peripheral perfusion index (PPI) and acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) following major noncardiac surgery. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single center. Adult patients consecutively enrolled were those admitted to the ICU after major noncardiac surgery. PPI measurements were collected within the first 6 hours post-surgery. The primary outcome assessed was the occurrence of AKI within 7 days after surgery. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to adjust for confounding factors,while receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined the most predictive cutoff PPI. Results The study included a total of 444 patients who underwent noncardiac surgery. The incidences of postoperative AKI and severe AKI were 9.23％ and 1.13％,respectively. Early postoperative PPI levels exhibited a skewed distribution,with a median value of 3.02 (2.02,4.24). After adjusting for various perioperative variables,PPI was found to be indepen-dently correlated with the occurrence of postoperative AKI (OR=0.734,95％ CI:0.580～0.930,P=0.010),as indicated by an area under the ROC curve of 0.6802 (95％ CI:0.6022～0.7582,P<0.001). Using a cutoff value of ≤ 2 .04 for PPI,the sensitivity and specificity for predicting postoperative AKI were determined to be approximately at 53.7％ and 77.2％ respectively. Further analysis revealed that patients with PPI ≤ 2.04 had a higher incidence of severe postoperative complications as well as prolonged mechanical ventilation duration and hospital stay. Conclusions A prompt reduction in postoperative PPI usage was found to be linked with the inci-dence of AKI occurring within 7 days following major noncardiac surgery.

Objective To investigate the association between early peripheral perfusion index (PPI) and acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) following major noncardiac surgery. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single center. Adult patients consecutively enrolled were those admitted to the ICU after major noncardiac surgery. PPI measurements were collected within the first 6 hours post-surgery. The primary outcome assessed was the occurrence of AKI within 7 days after surgery. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to adjust for confounding factors,while receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined the most predictive cutoff PPI. Results The study included a total of 444 patients who underwent noncardiac surgery. The incidences of postoperative AKI and severe AKI were 9.23％ and 1.13％,respectively. Early postoperative PPI levels exhibited a skewed distribution,with a median value of 3.02 (2.02,4.24). After adjusting for various perioperative variables,PPI was found to be indepen-dently correlated with the occurrence of postoperative AKI (OR=0.734,95％ CI:0.580～0.930,P=0.010),as indicated by an area under the ROC curve of 0.6802 (95％ CI:0.6022～0.7582,P<0.001). Using a cutoff value of ≤ 2 .04 for PPI,the sensitivity and specificity for predicting postoperative AKI were determined to be approximately at 53.7％ and 77.2％ respectively. Further analysis revealed that patients with PPI ≤ 2.04 had a higher incidence of severe postoperative complications as well as prolonged mechanical ventilation duration and hospital stay. Conclusions A prompt reduction in postoperative PPI usage was found to be linked with the inci-dence of AKI occurring within 7 days following major noncardiac surgery.

This study reports the diagnosis and treatment of a 26-year-old pregnant woman with severe malnutrition combined with acute pyelonephritis causing sepsis,refractory septic shock and multiple organ failure.A female patient,26 years old,was admitted to hospital mainly due to"menelipsis for more than 19 weeks,nausea and vomiting for 20 days,fever with fatigue for 3 days".At the end of 19 weeks of in-trauterine pregnancy,the patient presented with fever accompanied by urinary tract irritation.Laboratory tests showed elevated inflammatory indicators,and ultrasonography showed bilateral pelvicalyceal dila-tion.She was diagnosed with acute pyelonephritis,sepsis,acute kidney injury(AKI)and severe malnu-trition.After a whole-hospital consultation,the patient was treated with meropenem and vancomycin as antimicrobial therapy,and bilateral nephrostomy drainage was performed simultaneously.After that,the patient suffered a sudden decrease in blood pressure,blood oxygen saturation,and rapid heart rate.Sep-tic shock with multiple organ dysfunction was considered,and she was transferred to intensive care unit(ICU)immediately.After the patient was transferred to ICU,emergency tracheal intubation and ventila-tor-assisted ventilation were performed.Rapid fluid resuscitation was administered for the patient.While pulse indicator continuous cardiac output(PICCO)monitoring was performed,norepinephrine,terlipres-sin,and methylene blue were administered to maintain peripheral vascular resistance.Since the patient developed septic cardiomyopathy and cardiogenic shock later,levosimendan and epinephrine were admi-nistered to improve cardiac function.While etiological specimens were delivered,meropenem,teicoplanin and caspofungin were given as initial empiric antimicrobial therapy.Unfortunately,the intrauterine fetal death occurred on the night of admission to ICU.On the 3rd day of ICU admission,a still-born child was delivered vaginally with 1/5 defect of the fetal membrane.On the 6th day of ICU admission,the patient had fever again with elevated inflammatory indicators.After excluding infection in other parts,intrau-terine infection caused by incomplete delivery of fetal membrane was considered.Then emergency uterine curettage was performed and the infection gradually improved.Later the laboratory results showed that the nephrostomy drainage was cultured for Escherichia coli and uterine,cervical and vaginal secretions were cultured for Candida albicans.Due to severe infection and intrauterine incomplete abortion,the patient developed disseminated intravascular coagulation(DIC).Active antimicrobial therapy and blood product supplement were given.However,the patient was critically ill with significant decrease in hemoglobin and platelets combined with multiple organ failure.Thrombotic microangiopathy(TMA)was not excluded yet,so plasma exchange was performed for the patient in order not to delay treatment.The patient under-went bedside continuous renal replacement therapy(CRRT)for AKI.The patient was complicated with acute liver injury,and the liver function gradually returned to normal after liver protection,antimicrobial therapy and other treatments.Due to the application of large doses of vasoactive drugs,the extremities of the patient gradually developed cyanosis and ischemic necrosis.Local dry gangrene of the bilateral toes remained at the time of discharge.In general,the patient suffered from septic shock,cardiogenic shock,combined with DIC and multiple organ dysfunction.After infection source control,antimicrobial therapy,uterine curettage,blood purification treatment,nutritional and metabolic support,the patient was dis-charged with a better health condition.

Objective:To investigate the interactive effect of mismatch repair (MMR) protein status and adverse clinicopathological features on prognosis of stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ colon cancer.Methods:The retrospective cohort study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 1 650 patients with colon cancer of stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ who were admitted to 7 hospitals in China from January 2016 to December 2017 were collected. There were 963 males and 687 females, aged 62(53,71)years. Patients were classified as 230 cases of MMR deficiency (dMMR) and 1 420 cases of MMR proficiency (pMMR) based on their MMR protein status. Observation indicators: (1) comparison of clinicopathological characteristics between patients of different MMR protein status; (2) analysis of factors affecting the survival outcomes of patients of dMMR; (3) analysis of factors affecting the survival outcomes of patients of pMMR; (4) interaction analysis of MMR and adverse clinicopathological features on survival outcomes. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD, and comparison between groups was conducted using the independent t test. Measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M( Q1, Q3), and comparison between groups was conducted using the Mann-Whitney U test. Count data were described as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was conducted using the chi-square test or Fisher exact probability. Comparison of ordinal data was conducted using the Mann-Whitney U test. The random forest interpolation method was used for missing values in data interpolation. Univariate analysis was conducted using the COX proportional risk regression model, and multivariate analysis was conducted using the COX stepwise regression with forward method. The coefficient of multiplication interaction effect was obtained using the interaction term coefficient of COX proportional risk regression model. Evaluation of additive interaction effects was conducted using the relative excess risk due to interaction ( RERI). Results:(1) Comparison of clinicopathological characteristics between patients of different MMR protein status. There were significant differences in age, T staging, the number of lymph node harvest, the number of lymph node harvest <12, high grade tumor between patients of dMMR and pMMR ( P<0.05). (2) Analysis of factors affecting the survival outcomes of patients of dMMR. Results of multivariate analysis showed that T staging, N staging, the number of lymph node harvest <12 were independent factors affecting the disease-free survival (DFS) of colon cancer patients of dMMR ( hazard ratio=3.548, 2.589, 6.702, 95% confidence interval as 1.460-8.620, 1.064-6.301, 1.886-23.813, P<0.05). Age and N staging were independent factors affecting the overall survival (OS) of colon cancer patients of dMMR ( hazard ratio=1.073, 10.684, 95% confidence interval as 1.021-1.126, 2.311-49.404, P<0.05). (3) Analysis of factors affecting the survival outcomes of patients of pMMR. Results of multivariate analysis showed that age, T staging, N staging, vascular tumor thrombus were independent factors affecting the DFS of colon cancer patients of pMMR ( hazard ratio=1.018, 2.214, 2.598, 1.549, 95% confidence interval as 1.006-1.030, 1.618-3.030, 1.921-3.513, 1.118-2.147, P<0.05). Age, T staging, N staging, high grade tumor were independent factors affecting the OS of colon cancer patients of pMMR ( hazard ratio=1.036, 2.080, 2.591, 1.615, 95% confidence interval as 1.020-1.052, 1.407-3.075, 1.791-3.748, 1.114-2.341, P<0.05). (4) Interaction analysis of MMR and adverse clinicopathological features on survival outcomes. Results of interaction analysis showed that the multiplication interaction effect between the number of lymph node harvest <12 and MMR protein status was significant on DFS of colon cancer patients ( hazard ratio=3.923, 95% confidence interval as 1.057-14.555, P<0.05). The additive interaction effects between age and MMR protein status, between high grade tumor and MMR protein status were significant on OS of colon cancer patients ( RERI=-0.033, -1.304, 95% confidence interval as -0.049 to -0.018, -2.462 to -0.146). Conclusions:There is an interaction between the MMR protein status and the adverse clinicopathological features (the number of lymph node harvest <12, high grade tumor) on prognosis of colon cancer patients of stage Ⅰ-Ⅲ. In patients of dMMR, the number of lymph node harvest <12 has a stronger predictive effect on poor prognosis. In patients of pMMR, the high grade tumor has a stronger predictive effect on poor prognosis.

The incidence and mortality of venous thromboembolism (VTE) are high in critically ill patients, and there is still a risk of VTE and bleeding after the use of fixed-dose low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for prophylaxis. The level of anti-factor Ⅹa is not up to standard after LMWH prophylaxis in patients with surgery or trauma. The condition of critically ill patients is complicated, and the proportion of patients with low antithrombin Ⅲ is high, which can affect the prophylactic efficacy of LMWH and contribute to VTE occurrence. There is currently no consensus on whether adjusting LMWH dose according to anti-factor Ⅹa levels can reduce VTE occurrence in critically ill patients. High-quality multicenter randomized controlled studies are needed in the future to establish new approaches for precise prevention of VTE in critically ill patients.

Venous thromboembolism(VTE)includes deep venous thrombosis(DVT)and pulmonary embolism(PE).Patients in intensive care unit(ICU)are often at a high risk of VTE due to combining many risk factors.Prevention strategies of VTE in critically ill patients are crucial,including identification of risk factors,the risk as-sessment of thrombosis and bleeding,mechanical prophylaxis and drug prophylaxis,effect monitoring,and quality control.Since the risk of VTE in ICU patients is high,the risk of bleeding should not be ignored.It is a challenge for ICU physicians to comprehensively evaluate the risk of thrombosis and bleeding in critically ill patients and im-plement effective preventive and monitoring measures in time.This article reviews the relevant research progress on prevention strategies of VTE in critically ill patients in order to provide clinical evidence for the prophylaxis of VTE in critically ill patients.