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Objectives: Epidemiological differences can be found between Brazilian and European valvular heart disease patients. The prevalence of heart valve diseases due to rheumatic disease is significantly higher in the Brazilian compared with the European population. Therefore, they could have different risks during and after cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of the additive and logistic EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II in a cohort of high-risk patients with valvular heart disease of predominantly rheumatic aetiology submitted to surgery., Methods: Between 1 February and 30 December 2009, 540 consecutive patients scheduled for valvular heart surgery were included in this study. In this set of patients, we examined the performance of the additive, logistic, and EuroSCORE II models for predicting in-hospital mortality. Calibration of each model was assessed by comparing predicted and observed in-hospital mortality and by the goodness of fit of the Hosmer-Lemeshow chi-square test. Discrimination performance of the model was evaluated with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis., Results: The mean age was 56 ± 16 years, 50.6% were female, and the mortality rate was 16.0% (6.0% in elective surgery and 34.0% in emergency/urgency surgery). Mortality rates were estimated according to the additive and logistic EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II at 6.1%, 8.7%, and 4.3%, respectively. The AUC was 0.76 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.70-0.81) for the additive EuroSCORE, 0.76 (95% CI 0.70-0.81) for the logistic EuroSCORE and 0.81 (95% CI 0.76-0.86) for EuroSCORE II. Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistics were P = 0.52, P = 0.07, and P = 0.12 for additive, logistic EuroSCORE, and EuroSCORE II., Conclusions: In this cohort of Brazilian patients with valvular heart disease submitted to surgical procedure, the EuroSCORE models had a good discriminatory capacity; however, the calibration was compromised because of an underestimation of the mortality rate.

Objective: We investigated the epidemiology of ventilator-associated pneumonia in elderly ICU patients. More precisely, we assessed prevalence, risk factors, signs and symptoms, causative bacterial pathogens, and associated outcomes., Design: Secondary analysis of a multicenter prospective cohort (EU-VAP project)., Setting: Twenty-seven European ICUs., Patients: Patients who were mechanically ventilated for greater than or equal to 48 hours. We compared middle-aged (45-64 yr; n = 670), old (65-74 yr; n = 549), and very old patients (≥ 75 yr; n= 516)., Measurements and Main Results: Ventilator-associated pneumonia occurred in 103 middle-aged (14.6%), 104 old (17.0%), and 73 very old patients (12.8%). The prevalence (n ventilator-associated pneumonia/1,000 ventilation days) was 13.7 in middle-aged patients, 16.6 in old patients, and 13.0 in very old patients. Logistic regression analysis could not demonstrate older age as a risk factor for ventilator-associated pneumonia. Ventilator-associated pneumonia in elderly patients was more frequently caused by Enterobacteriaceae (24% in middle-aged, 32% in old, and 43% in very old patients; p = 0.042). Regarding clinical signs and symptoms at ventilator-associated pneumonia onset, new temperature rise was less frequent among very old patients (59% vs 76% and 74% for middle-aged and old patients, respectively; p = 0.035). Mortality among patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia was higher among elderly patients: 35% in middle-aged patients versus 51% in old and very old patients (p = 0.036). Logistic regression analysis confirmed the importance of older age in the risk of death (adjusted odds ratio for old age, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.2-3.9 and adjusted odds ratio for very old age, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2-4.4). Other risk factors for mortality in ventilator-associated pneumonia were diabetes mellitus, septic shock, and a high-risk pathogen as causative agent., Conclusions: In this multicenter cohort study, ventilator-associated pneumonia did not occur more frequently among elderly, but the associated mortality in these patients was higher. New temperature rise was less common in elderly patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia, whereas more episodes among elderly patients were caused by Enterobacteriaceae.