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The article discusses a study which examined the use of electronic automated advisory vital signs to monitor general hospital wards. The study included 18,305 patients at 12 general wards in 10 hospitals in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Study authors concluded that the use of electronic automated advisory vital signs monitors can improve rapid response team-calls due to respiratory criteria.

The author focuses on the acute vital organ injuries with emphasis to kidney attacks that vary few clinicians, researchers and the public know about as compared to the brain attacks and heart attack in the U.S. Acute kidney injury leads to early mortality despite the availability of dialysis and hemofiltration and also the setting of diseases like sepsis result in the occurrence of acute kidney injury.

Modern near-infrared spectroscopy technology is increasingly adopted to measure cerebral tissue oxygen saturation. However, the normal range of cerebral tissue oxygen saturation in adults with such technology is unknown. We sought to measure cerebral tissue oxygen saturation in healthy volunteers using the novel O3 Regional Oximetry® device (Masimo Corporation, Irvine, CA, USA) and assess its relationship with key physical and haemodynamic characteristics. For ≥5 minutes, we continuously recorded cerebral tissue oxygen saturation, pulse oximetry, cardiac index and mean arterial pressure. We assessed for differences in cerebral tissue oxygen saturation between hemispheres, sex, skin type, comorbidity or smoking status, and for associations between cerebral tissue oxygen saturation and age, height, weight, SpO2and haemodynamic parameters. We recorded >32,000 observations in 98 volunteers aged 22 to 60 years, including 41 (42%) males. One-fifth had one or more co morbidities ( n=22, 22.5%), one-tenth were either current or former-smokers ( n=13, 13%), and most had a Fitzpatrick skin type of 3 or lower ( n=84, 86%). The mean combined average cerebral tissue oxygen saturation was 67.6% (95% confidence interval 66.8%-68.6%). We found statistically significant differences in cerebral tissue oxygen saturation according to hemisphere and an association between cerebral tissue oxygen saturation and mean arterial pressure and cardiac index. The combined average cerebral tissue oxygen saturation in 98 healthy volunteers was 67.6% with a narrow confidence interval and no combined average cerebral tissue oxygen saturation was below 56%. We also observed statistically significant yet quantitatively small cerebral tissue oxygen saturation differences between hemispheres, and an association between cerebral tissue oxygen saturation and mean arterial pressure and cardiac index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The study was developed to characterize short-term outcomes of deteriorating ward patients triggering a Rapid Response Team (RRT), and describe variability between hospitals or groups thereof.Methods: We performed an international prospective study of Rapid Response Team (RRT) activity over a 7-day period in February 2014. Investigators at 51 acute hospitals across Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, USA and United Kingdom collected data on all patients triggering RRT review concerning the nature, trigger and immediate outcome of RRT review. Further follow-up at 24h following RRT review focused on patient orientated outcomes including need for admission to critical care, change in limitations of therapy and all cause mortality.Results: We studied 1188 RRT activations. Derangement of vital signs as measured by the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) was more common in non-UK hospitals (p=0.03). Twenty four hour mortality after RRT review was 10.1% (120/1188). Urgent transfer to ICU or the operating theatre occurred in 24% (284/1188) and 3% (40/1188) of events, respectively. Patients in the UK were less likely to be admitted to ICU (31% vs. 22%; p=0.017) and their median (IQR) time to ICU admission was longer [4.4 (2.0-11.8) vs. 1.5 (0.8-4.4)h; p<0.001]. RRT involvement lead to new limitations in care in 28% of the patients not transferring to the ICU; in the UK such limitations were instituted in 21% of patients while this occurred in 40% of non-UK patients (p<0.001).Conclusion: Among patients triggering RRT review, 1 in 10 died within 24h; 1 in 4 required ICU admission, and 1 in 4 had new limitations in therapy implemented. We provide a template for an international comparison of outcomes at RRT level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]