Antonio Artigas

Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí · critical care center, sabadell hospital, Corporació Sanitaria Universitaria Parc Tauli

Background Recent multicenter studies identified COVID-19 as a risk factor for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). However, no large multicenter study has compared the incidence of IPA between COVID-19 and influenza patients. Objectives To determine the incidence of putative IPA in critically ill SARS-CoV-2 patients, compared with influenza pa...

Background Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is a promising alternative to invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) with a particular importance amidst the shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the use of NIV in Europe and factors associated with outcomes of patients treated with NIV. Methods This i...

Purpose Although epidemiological studies have enhanced our understanding of acute kidney injury, defining the biologic processes corresponding to the clinical phenotype remains challenging. We have examined biomarkers associated with renal stress plus markers of glomerular function to assess whether this approach may aid prediction of AKI or other...

In this chapter the reader will learn the basics of age-related changes in respiratory physiology and in inflammatory response and immune function pertaining to acute respiratory failure. The different clinical manifestation, susceptibility to acute lung injury, response to treatments of acute respiratory failure (ARF), and physiology of weaning th...

In this chapter the reader will learn the physiological effects and the commonly accepted indications for noninvasive respiratory support (high flow nasal cannulae [HFNC], noninvasive mechanical ventilation [NIMV]) and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), with special consideration to the elderly patient, whenever there is specific information in...

Background Ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infections (VA-LRTI) are common in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. The aim of this ancillary analysis of the coVAPid multicenter observational retrospective study is to assess the relationship between corticosteroid adjuvant administration and the incidence of VA-LRTI. Methods Plan...

Nearly four million yearly deaths can be attributed to respiratory diseases, prompting a huge worldwide health emergency. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic’s death toll has surpassed six million, significantly increasing respiratory disease morbidity and mortality rates. Despite recent advances, it is still challenging for many drugs to be homoge...

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is associated with high morbidity and health care costs, yet diagnosis remains a challenge. Analysis of airway microbiota by amplicon sequencing provides a possible solution, as pneumonia is characterised by a disruption of the microbiome. However, studies evaluating the diagnostic capabilities of...

Purpose We determined the incidence of hypercapnia and associations with outcome in invasively ventilated COVID–19 patients. Methods Posthoc analysis of a national, multicenter, observational study in 22 ICUs. Patients were classified as ‘hypercapnic’ or ‘normocapnic’ in the first three days of invasive ventilation. Primary endpoint was prevalence...

Patients with COVID-19 may complicate their evolution with thromboembolic events. Incidence of thromboembolic complications are high and also, patients with the critically-ill disease showed evidence of microthrombi and microangiopathy in the lung probably due to endothelial damage by directly and indirectly injured endothelial and epithelial cells...

One of the main limitations of in vitro studies on lung diseases is the difficulty of maintaining the type II phenotype of alveolar epithelial cells in culture. This fact has previously been related to the translocation of the mechanosensing Yes-associated protein (YAP) to the nuclei and Rho signaling pathway. In this work, we aimed to culture and...

Background: Previous studies reported regional differences in end-of-life care (EoLC) for critically ill patients in Europe. Objectives: The purpose of this post-hoc analysis of the prospective multi-centre COVIP study was to investigate variations in EoLC practices among older patients in intensive care units during the coronavirus disease 2019...

Background Limited evidence suggests variation in mortality of older critically ill adults across Europe. We aimed to investigate regional differences in mortality among very old ICU patients. Methods Multilevel analysis of two international prospective cohort studies. We included patients ≥80 yr old from 322 ICUs located in 16 European countries....

The INHALE-HEP meta-trial is a prospective collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and early phase studies, to evaluate whether inhaled nebulised UFH in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 who do not require immediate invasive mechanical ventilation, significantly reduces intubation (or death, for pat...

Aims: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a major risk factor for mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This prospective international multicentre study investigates the role of pre-existing CHF on clinical outcomes of critically ill old (≥70 years) intensive care patients with COVID-19. Methods and results: Patients with pre-existing CHF...

Purpose: Critically ill old intensive care unit (ICU) patients suffering from Sars-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) are at increased risk for adverse outcomes. This post hoc analysis investigates the association of the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) with the outcome in this vulnerable patient group. Methods: The COVIP study is a prospective internatio...

Purpose: The number of patients ≥ 80 years admitted into critical care is increasing. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) added another challenge for clinical decisions for both admission and limitation of life-sustaining treatments (LLST). We aimed to compare the characteristics and mortality of very old critically ill patients with or without CO...

Background: health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important patient-centred outcome in patients surviving ICU admission for COVID-19. It is currently not clear which domains of the HRQoL are most affected. Objective: to quantify HRQoL in order to identify areas of interventions. Design: prospective observation study. Setting: admissio...

There is significant interest in the potential for nebulised unfractionated heparin (UFH), as a novel therapy for patients with COVID-19 induced acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure requiring invasive ventilation. The scientific and biological rationale for nebulised heparin stems from the evidence for extensive activation of coagulation resulting...

Advancements in methods, technology, and our understanding of the pathobiology of lung injury have created the need to update the definition of experimental acute lung injury (ALI). We queried 50 participants with expertise in ALI and acute respiratory distress syndrome using a Delphi method composed of a series of electronic surveys and a virtual...

Background It is uncertain whether awake prone positioning can prevent intubation for invasive ventilation in spontaneous breathing critically ill patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. Awake prone positioning could benefit these patients for various reasons, including a reduction in direct harm to lung tissue, and prevention of trachea...

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy-potential of inhaled nebulised unfractionated heparin (UFH) in the treatment of hospitalised patients with COVID-19. Methods: Retrospective, uncontrolled multicentre single-arm case series of hospitalised patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, treated with inhaled nebulised UFH (5000IU 8-hour...

Background: health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important patient-centred outcome in patients surviving ICU admission for COVID-19. It is currently not clear which domains of the HRQoL are most affected. Objective: to quantify HRQoL in order to identify areas of interventions. Design: prospective observation study. Setting: admissions to E...

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging health care systems globally. The disease disproportionately affects the elderly population, both in terms of disease severity and mortality risk. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate machine-learning based prognostication models for critically ill elderly COVID...

Purpose Frailty is a valuable predictor for outcome in elderly ICU patients, and has been suggested to be used in various decision-making processes prior to and during an ICU admission. There are many instruments developed to assess frailty, but few of them can be used in emergency situations. In this setting the clinical frailty scale (CFS) is fre...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led highly developed healthcare systems to the brink of collapse due to the large numbers of patients being admitted into hospitals. One of the potential prognostic indicators in patients with COVID-19 is frailty. The degree of frailty could be used to assist both the triage into intensive care, and decisions re...

Background: Estimates for dead space ventilation have been shown to be independently associated with an increased risk of mortality in the acute respiratory distress syndrome and small case series of COVID-19-related ARDS. Methods: Secondary analysis from the PRoVENT-COVID study. The PRoVENT-COVID is a national, multicenter, retrospective observ...

Background Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are at higher risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). No study has evaluated the relationship between VAP and mortality in this population, or compared this relationship between SARS-CoV-2 patients and other populations. The main objective of our study was to determine the relationship between V...

Background Intensive care unit (ICU) patients age 90 years or older represent a growing subgroup and place a huge financial burden on health care resources despite the benefit being unclear. This leads to ethical problems. The present investigation assessed the differences in outcome between nonagenarian and octogenarian ICU patients. Methods We i...

Severe viral pneumonia is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality globally, whether due to outbreaks of endemic viruses, periodic viral epidemics, or the rarer but devastating global viral pandemics. While limited anti-viral therapies exist, there is a paucity of direct therapies to directly attenuate viral pneumonia-induced lung injury, and...

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the most common microbial cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Currently, there are no available models of severe pneumococcal pneumonia in mechanically ventilated animals to mimic clinical conditions of critically ill patients. We studied endogenous pulmonary flora in 4 healthy pigs and in an additional 10 pigs in whi...

Background Tracheostomy is performed in patients expected to require prolonged mechanical ventilation, but to date optimal timing of tracheostomy has not been established. The evidence concerning tracheostomy in COVID-19 patients is particularly scarce. We aimed to describe the relationship between early tracheostomy (≤10 days since intubation) and...

Background: The primary aim of this study was to assess the outcome of elderly intensive care unit (ICU) patients treated during the spring and autumn COVID-19 surges in Europe. Methods: This was a prospective European observational study (the COVIP study) in ICU patients aged 70 years and older admitted with COVID-19 disease from March to Decem...

Background It is uncertain whether awake prone positioning can prevent intubation for invasive ventilation in spontaneous breathing critically ill patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. Awake prone positioning could benefit these patients for various reasons, including a reduction in direct harm to lung tissue, and prevention of trachea...

Background: Sepsis is a serious, heterogeneous clinical entity produced by a severe and systemic host inflammatory response to infection. Methotrexate (MTX) is a folate-antagonist that induces the generation of adenosine and also inhibits JAK/STAT pathway; MTX it is widely used as an anti-inflammatory drug to control the immune system. Objective:...

PURPOSECritically ill elderly patients who suffer from Sars-CoV-2 disease are at high risk for organ failure. The modified MELD-XI score has not been evaluated for outcome prediction in these most vulnerable patients.METHODS The Corona Virus disease (COVID19) in Very Elderly Intensive Care Patients study (COVIP, NCT04321265) prospectively recruited...

Purpose: Lactate is an established prognosticator in critical care. However, there still is insufficient evidence about its role in predicting outcome in COVID-19. This is of particular concern in older patients who have been mostly affected during the initial surge in 2020. Methods: This prospective international observation study (The COVIP st...

Purpose: Lactate is an established prognosticator in critical care. However, there still is insufficient evidence about its role in predicting outcome in COVID-19. This is of particular concern in older patients who have been mostly affected during the initial surge in 2020. Methods: This prospective international observation study (The COVIP study...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is challenging health care systems globally. The disease disproportionately affects the elderly population, both in terms of disease severity and mortality risk. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate machine learning–based prognostication models for critically ill elderly COVID-19 pat...

Purpose: Lactate is an established prognosticator in critical care. However, there still is insufficient evidence about its role in predicting outcome in COVID-19. This is of particular concern in older patients who have been mostly affected during the initial surge in 2020. Methods: This prospective international observation study (The COVIP study...

Background: The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is frequently used to measure frailty in critically ill adults. There is wide variation in the approach to analysing the relationship between the CFS score and mortality after admission to the ICU. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of modelling approach on the association between the CFS score...

Patients suspected of ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infections (VA-LRTIs) commonly receive broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy unnecessarily. We tested whether exhaled breath analysis can discriminate between patients suspected of VA-LRTI with confirmed infection, from patients with negative cultures. Breath from 108 patients suspe...

Objectives In Europe, there is a distinction between two different healthcare organisation systems, the tax-based healthcare system (THS) and the social health insurance system (SHI). Our aim was to investigate whether the characteristics, treatment and mortality of older, critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) differed between TH...

Background: Persistent acute kidney injury (AKI) portends worse clinical outcomes and remains a therapeutic challenge for clinicians. A recent study found that urinary C-C motif chemokine ligand 14 (CCL14) can predict the development of persistent AKI. We aimed to externally validate urinary CCL14 for the prediction of persistent AKI in critically...

Rationale: Early empirical antimicrobial treatment is frequently prescribed to critically ill patients with COVID-19, based on Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines. Objective: We aimed to determine the prevalence of early bacterial identification in intubated patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, as compared to influenza pneumonia, and to characte...

Background Previous studies unveiled a relation between the severity of COVID‐19 pneumonia and obesity. The aims of this multicenter retrospective cohort study were to disentangle the association of BMI and associated metabolic risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, current smoking) in critically ill patients with COVID‐19. Methods...

Background To determine the frequency of, and factors associated with, death in hospital following ICU discharge to the ward. Methods The Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE study was an international, multicenter, prospective cohort study of patients with severe respiratory failure, conduc...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a devastating critical illness that can be triggered by a wide range of insults and remains associated with a high mortality of around 40%. The search for targeted treatment for ARDS has been disappointing, possibly due to the enormous heterogeneity within the syndrome. In this perspective from the Euro...

Non-intubated patients with acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19 could benefit from awake proning. Awake proning is an attractive intervention in settings with limited resources, as it comes with no additional costs. However, awake proning remains poorly used probably because of unfamiliarity and uncertainties regarding potential benefits and...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has led highly developed healthcare systems to the brink of collapse due to the large numbers of patients being admitted into hospitals. One of the potential prognostic indicators in patients with COVID-19 is frailty. The degree of frailty could be used to assist both the triage into intensive care, and decisions re...

Objectives: Although early recognition of sepsis is vital to improving outcomes, the diagnosis may be missed or delayed in many patients. Acute kidney injury is one of the most common organ failures in patients with sepsis but may not be apparent on presentation. Novel biomarkers for acute kidney injury might improve organ failure recognition and...

Background: Surrogates for impaired ventilation such as estimated dead-space fractions and the ventilatory ratio have been shown to be independently associated with an increased risk of mortality in the acute respiratory distress syndrome and small case series of COVID-19 related ARDS. Methods: Secondary analysis from the PRoVENT-COVID study. The P...

PurposeAlthough patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection have several risk factors for ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infections (VA-LRTI), the reported incidence of hospital-acquired infections is low. We aimed to determine the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia, as compared to influenza pneumonia or no viral infection, and the inc...