By Jadwiga A. Wedzicha, MD, editor, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Follow Dr. Wedzicha on Twitter @ATSBlueEditor

The Timing of Early Antibiotics and Hospital Mortality in Sepsis

Just how life-saving is the early administration of antibiotics in sepsis? In their Oct. 1 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine article, Vincent X. Liu and colleagues attempt to answer that question by analyzing the records of 35,000 patients whose care was guided by a multicenter quality improvement program that had all sepsis patients on antibiotics within six hours of emergency department registration. The study found each hour’s delay in antibiotic treatment increased absolute mortality by 0.3 percent for sepsis, 0.4 percent for severe sepsis, and 1.8 percent for shock. The authors said the findings “support currently held beliefs that administering early antibiotics to infected patients with systemic inflammation is beneficial for reducing mortality” and demonstrate the value of analyzing electronic medical records to clarify medical issues that would not be ethical to study through randomized, controlled clinical trials.

AJRCCM Highlights

Oct. 1

Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction Does Not Explain All Regional Perfusion Redistribution in Asthma

Impaired Mitochondrial Microbicidal Responses in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Macrophages

Associations of Nasopharyngeal Metabolome and Microbiome with Severity among Infants with Bronchiolitis: A Multi-omic Analysis

Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Retinopathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Longitudinal Study

Oct. 15

Effects of Omalizumab on Rhinovirus Infections, Illnesses, and Exacerbations of Asthma

CONTENT PENDING: Health Disparities in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: A Blueprint for Action. An Official American Thoracic Society Statement: Executive Summary

Spirometry Reference Equations from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

A Two-Biomarker Model Predicts Mortality in the Critically Ill with Sepsis

Combined Impact of Smoking and Early Life Exposures on Adult Lung Function Trajectories

Occupational Exposures and Subclinical Interstitial Lung Disease: The Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Air-Lung Study

AJRCCM Launches Blue Briefing Video Series
The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has launched the first installment of Blue Briefing, a video series that will provide quick, informative summaries of some of the most groundbreaking and important articles published in the Journal. In this Blue Briefing, we highlight the comparison of outcomes in patients 65-74 years old from SEER-Medicare and NLST datasets in stage I lung cancer. Take a look.