Simple Summary – C-Reactive Protein Testing to Guide Antibiotic Prescribing for COPD Exacerbations

ByThe Short Paper

Link to the article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1803185

This study revolves around the usage of a point of care test to guide antibiotic usage in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They tested C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with COPD. CRP is a inflammatory marker and increased levels are associated with worsening COPD. The study had two groups of COPD patients. One group had normal care and the second group had care guided by CRP point of care testing. There over 600 patients included in the study. They found that patients who had CRP testing had less antibiotics prescribed overall with no evidence of harm indicating CRP testing could be useful in this setting.

Similar Posts

Summary – A Prospective, Randomized Clinical Trial of Efficacy in Coagulopathic Cardiac Surgery Patients

ByThe Short Paper

Link to the paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22914710 Introduction It’s been found that the usage of allogenic blood products are independently associated with increased mortality and adverse events. In literature, it states that an accurate diagnosis of underlying hemostatic pathology is important and so having an algorithm driven hemostatic therapy is important and found to be better than clinical…

Global Increase in Wildfire-Driven Air Pollution and Its Impact on Human Health

ByThe Short Paper

Global population exposure to landscape fire air pollution from 2000 to 2019 Wildfires, worsened by climate change, are becoming more severe and frequent. The smoke they produce, which can harm human health, hasn’t been well understood globally. Using advanced models and machine learning, scientists estimated that from 2000 to 2019, people around the world were…

Cardiopulmonary fitness but not muscular fitness associated with visceral adipose tissue mass

ByThe Short Paper

Article They took 99 overweight/obese participants were assessed for cardio and muscular fitness.  Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue were measured with a CT scan and measured cardio and muscular fitness. They found that cardio fitness and not muscular fitness was associated with visceral adipose tissue decreased. However, age, cardio fitness, and muscular fitness were associated…

Simple Summary – Transfusion Volume for Children with Severe Anemia in Africa

ByThe Short Paper

Link to the article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1900100?query=featured_home Similar to the last article, it’s been known that the WHO has specific transfusion guidelines which parts of Africa follows. In patients with severe anemia, red blood cells are transfused at a flat rate of 20 ml per kilogram of body weight. Although this transfusion rate is not in line with…

DNA-based programmable gate arrays for general-purpose DNA computing

ByThe Short Paper

In recent years, electronic and photonic circuits have become more versatile, going from specialized to programmable. Now, researchers have developed a system called DNA Integrated Circuits (DICs) using DNA molecules. These DICs can be programmed for various computing tasks and have the potential for massive parallel processing. The researchers used specific DNA strands as a…

Navigating Global Rules: Balancing Business Interests and Our Well-Being

ByThe Short Paper

The Political Economy of International Regulatory Cooperation This study looks at international rules that countries agree upon, especially when businesses push for these rules. It’s important to understand that the impact of these rules on our well-being depends on whether companies in different countries have similar or different interests. When companies in different countries want…