Simone Piva

Università degli Studi di Brescia | UNIBS · Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia

Purpose: This work aimed to compare physical impairment in survivors of classic ARDS compared with COVID-19-associated ARDS (CARDS) survivors. Material and methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study on 248 patients with CARDS and compared them with a historical cohort of 48 patients with classic ARDS. Physical performance was eval...

Purpose of review: Sepsis, defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, is a leading cause of hospital and ICU admission. The central and peripheral nervous system may be the first organ system to show signs of dysfunction, leading to clinical manifestations such as sepsis-associated encephalop...

Introduction: The purpose was to compare the resting energy expenditure (REE) measured with the Q-NRGTM+ metabolic-cart (MREE) with REE predicted by equations (the Harris-Benedict formula and an equation developed in ward, REE-HB and REE-W, respectively). We also aimed to assess the agreement of the measurements of oxygen consumption (V̇O2) and ca...

Excessive sedation is associated with poor outcome in critically ill acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. Whether this prognostic effect varies among ARDS patients with and without COVID-19 has yet to be determined. We compared the prognostic value of excessive sedation—in terms of delirium, length of stay in intensive care unit (IC...

Background Alternative noninvasive methods capable of excluding intracranial hypertension through use of transcranial Doppler (ICP tcd ) in situations where invasive methods cannot be used or are not available would be useful during the management of acutely brain-injured patients. The objective of this study was to determine whether ICP tcd can be...

Background Long-term weakness is common in survivors of COVID-19–associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (CARDS). We assessed the predictors of muscle weakness in patients evaluated at 3, 6, and 12 months after intensive care unit discharge with in-person visits. Methods Muscle strength was measured by isometric maximal voluntary contractio...

The development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has revolutionized the treatment of hematological diseases. However, approximately 60% of patients relapse after CAR-T cell therapy, and no clear cause for this failure has been identified. The objective of the Bio-CAR-T BS study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05366569) is to improve our un...

Importance: Data on the association of COVID-19 vaccination with intensive care unit (ICU) admission and outcomes of patients with SARS-CoV-2-related pneumonia are scarce. Objective: To evaluate whether COVID-19 vaccination is associated with preventing ICU admission for COVID-19 pneumonia and to compare baseline characteristics and outcomes of...

Background: The evaluation of COVID-19 systemic consequences is a wide research field in which respiratory function assessment has a pivotal role. However, the available data in the literature are still sparse and need further strengthening. Aim: To assess the respiratory function 4-6 months after hospital discharge according to lung disease sev...

Purpose Limb intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness (ICUAW) and ICU acquired diaphragm weakness (DW) occur frequently in mechanically ventilated (MV) patients; their coexistence in cooperative and uncooperative patients is unknown. This study was designed to (1) describe the co-occurrence of the two conditions (2) evaluate the impact of ICUAW...

The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 dataset is one of the largest international databases of prospectively collected clinical data on people hospitalized with COVID-19. This dataset was compiled during the COVID-19 pandemic by a network of hospitals that collect data using the ISARIC-World...

The clinical approach to sedation in critically ill patients has changed dramatically over the last two decades, moving to a regimen of light or non-sedation associated with adequate analgesia to guarantee the patient’s comfort, active interaction with the environment and family, and early mobilization and assessment of delirium. Although deep seda...

We carried out a prospective and retrospective case series study to compare physical outcome performance with an in-person evaluation of 248 COVID-related ARDS (CARDS) patients and 48 classic ARDS patients. At 6 months, patients with classic ARDS compared to CARDS had lower MRCss, handgrip dynamometry, and 6 Minutes Walk Test. Fatigue was more freq...

The post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) is a major health problem which impairs the quality of life of patients surviving an acute illness and that of their families and has a huge impact on the whole society. With decreasing ICU mortality observed in the last decades, the number of surviving patients is anticipated to increase, as is the number of...

Background: Tocilizumab blocks pro-inflammatory activity of interleukin-6 (IL-6), involved in pathogenesis of pneumonia the most frequent cause of death in COVID-19 patients. Methods: A multicenter, single-arm, hypothesis-driven trial was planned, according to a phase 2 design, to study the effect of tocilizumab on lethality rates at 14 and 30 days...

Background We leveraged the data of the international CREACTIVE consortium to investigate whether the outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU) in hospitals without on-site neurosurgical capabilities (no-NSH) would differ had the same patients been admitted to ICUs in hospitals with neurosurgical capabi...

The exact incidence of neurological and cognitive sequelae of COVID-19 in the long term is yet unknown. The aim of this research is to investigate the type of neurological and cognitive impairment in COVID-19 cases of different severity. Two hundred fifteen patients, who had developed COVID-19, were examined 4 months after the diagnosis by means of...

Background The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruit...

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused more than 175 million persons infected and 3.8 million deaths so far and is having a devastating impact on both low and high-income countries, in particular on hospitals and intensive care units (ICU). The ICU mortality during the first pandemic wave ranged from 40% to 85% during the busiest ICU period...

We report on the outcome of 114 COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) survivors evaluated at 3, 6 and 12 months after intensive care unit discharge with assessment of physical, mental and cognitive impairments. Critical illness polyneuromyopathy was diagnosed in 23 patients (39%). Handgrip dynamometry was 70% predicted at 3...

A cytokine storm, autoimmune features and dysfunctions of myeloid cells significantly contribute to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Genetic background of the host seems to be partly responsible for severe phenotype and genes related to innate immune re...

OBJECTIVES:. To describe the epidemiology of superinfections (occurring > 48 hr after hospital admission) and their impact on the ICU and 28-day mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 with acute respiratory distress syndrome, requiring mechanical ventilation. DESIGN:. Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected observational data...

Background Ultrasound may be useful to assess the structure, activity, and function of the abdominal muscles in mechanically ventilated patients. Research Question Does measurement of abdominal muscle thickening on ultrasound in mechanically ventilated patients provide clinically relevant information about abdominal muscle function and weaning out...

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...

Link to download: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1d3l83kuropRla Introduction Neuromuscular impairment (NMI) affects almost half of critically ill patients. The purpose was to investigate the role of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) to gain more insight into the nature of the NMI associated with ICU admission. To this aim, we analyzed th...

Background: Pars Plana Vitrectomy (PPV), a surgical procedure used to treat different ophthalmic pathologies, could be associated with moderate to severe eye pain The aim of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of postoperative eye pain and its risk factors following Pars Plana Vitrectomy (PPV) in a selected population of patients with...

Background COVID-19 causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and depletes the lungs of surfactant, leading to prolonged mechanical ventilation and death. The feasibility and safety of surfactant delivery in COVID-19 ARDS patients have not been established. Methods We performed retrospective analyses of data from patients receiving off-lab...

Background A Covid-19 outbreak developed in Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna (Italy) at the end of February 2020. Fear of an imminent saturation of available ICU beds generated the notion that rationing of intensive care resources could have been necessary. Results In order to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on the ICU capacity to manage critic...

Background: Excessive sedation has been associated with poor outcome in critically-ill patients with acute respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). The on-going pandemic has seen many critically-ill COVID-19 with ARDS, yet the incidence of excessive sedation and its association to delirium in these patients has to date not been assessed. We aimed at c...

Background: The diagnosis of healthcare-associated ventriculitis and meningitis (HAVM) is challenging in the ICU setting. Traditional cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers and clinical signs of infection fail to diagnose HAVM in the critically ill setting. We sought to determine the diagnostic accuracy of measuring levels of high-mobility group box 1...

Background and Objective: Cerebral microdialysis (CMD) enables monitoring brain tissue metabolism and risk factors for secondary brain injury such as an imbalance of consumption, altered utilization, and delivery of oxygen and glucose, frequently present following spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (SICH). The aim of this study was to evaluate th...

Background. COVID-19 causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and depletes the lungs of surfactant, leading to prolonged mechanical ventilation and death. The feasibility and safety of surfactant delivery in COVID-19 ARDS patients have not been established. Methods. We performed retrospective analyses of data from patients receiving off-la...

Coronavirus disease 2019 emergency has created an enormous stress on providers that have been transformed into coronavirus disease hospitals. This article presents the experience of the clinical laboratory of Spedali Civili in Brescia (a teaching hospital in Lombardy with over 1500 beds) in managing the crisis, and to offer practical considerations...

Clinical research is necessary for an effective response to an emerging infectious disease outbreak. However, research efforts are often hastily organised and done using various research tools, with the result that pooling data across studies is challenging. In response to the needs of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 outbreak, the Clinical Characteri...

A hyperinflammatory syndrome (HIS) may cause a life-threatening acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. A prospective series of 100 consecutive patients admitted to the Spedali Civili University Hospital in Brescia (Italy) between March 9th and March 20th with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and ARDS requiring v...

The Brescia-COVID respiratory severity scale/algorithm is a stepwise management approach to COVID-19 patients based on clinical severity. The BCRSS was rapidly developed in Brescia, Italy, during that nation's COVID-19 crisis. The scale has not been validated or tested in other populations. The BCRSS uses patient examination features along with the...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a major pandemic challenging health care systems around the world. The optimal management of COVID-19 infected patients is still unclear, although the consensus is moving towards the need of a biphasic approach. During the first phase o...

Purpose An ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 that started in Hubei, China has resulted in massive strain on the healthcare infrastructure in Lombardy, Italy. The management of these patients is still evolving. Materials and methods This is a single-center observational cohort study of critically ill patients infected with COVID-19. Bedside clinicians a...

Intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICU-AW) is the most common neuromuscular impairment in critically ill patients. We discuss critical aspects of ICU-AW that have not been completely defined or that are still under discussion. Critical illness polyneuropathy, myopathy, and muscle atrophy contribute in various proportions to ICU-AW. Diagnosis of...

Background: Post-traumatic cerebral infarction (PTCI) is common after traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is unclear what the occurrence of a PTCI is, how it impacts the long-term outcome, and whether it adds incremental prognostic value to established outcome predictors. Methods: This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of moderate and seve...

Immediate loading of maxillary denture prostheses in the context of severe bone atrophy is complicated by posterior implant placement, sometimes requiring a complex surgical approach as zygomatic or pterygoid implants. To overcome this complexity, the authors developed an extra-long (20–24 mm) 24-degree angulated platform. It was tested on 33 patie...

Intensive care unit–acquired weakness (ICU-AW) is the most common neuromuscular impairment in critically ill patients. We discuss critical aspects of ICU-AW that have not been completely defined or that are still under discussion. Critical illness polyneuropathy, myopathy, and muscle atrophy contribute in various proportions to ICU-AW. Diagnosis of...

Background: Post-traumatic cerebral infarction (PTCI) is common in patients dying after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is unclear what the occurrence of a PTCI is, how it impacts the long-term outcome, and whether it adds incremental prognostic value to established outcome predictors. Methods: This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of...

Background There are currently few data concerning the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) penetration of daptomycin in patients with healthcare-associated meningitis. This study aims (1) to better characterize the pharmacokinetics of daptomycin in humans during a 7-day intravenous (IV) therapy course, and (2) to study the penetration of daptomycin in the CS...

Background: Weaning protocols expedite extubation in mechanically ventilated patients, yet the literature investigating the application in tracheostomized patients remains scarce. The primary objective of this parallel randomized controlled pilot trial (RCT) was to assess the feasibility and safety of a nurse-led weaning protocol (protocol) compar...

Background Untimely diagnosis of intracranial hypertension may lead to delays in therapy and worsening of outcome. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) detects variations in cerebral blood flow velocity which may correlate with intracranial pressure (ICP). We investigated if intracranial hypertension can be accurately excluded through use of TCD. Method This...

Purpose: Gastrointestinal dysfunction and failure (GID and GIF) in critically ill patients are a common, relevant, and underestimated complications in ICU patients. The aims of this study were (1) to determine plasmatic levels of citrulline, glutamine, and arginine as markers of GID/GIF in critically ill patients with or without GID/GIF with or wi...

Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of the imminent brain death (IBD) diagnosis in predicting brain death (BD) by daily assessment of the Full Outline of Unresponsiveness (FOUR) score and the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) with the assessment of brain stem reflexes. Materials and methods: Prospective multicenter pilot study carried out in 5 adult Italia...

Objectives: To assess the knowledge and use of the Assessment, prevention, and management of pain; spontaneous awakening and breathing trials; Choice of analgesia and sedation; Delirium assessment; Early mobility and exercise; and Family engagement and empowerment (ABCDEF) bundle to implement the Pain, Agitation, Delirium guidelines. Design: Wor...

Background There are a range of opinions on the benefits and thresholds for the transfusion of red blood cells in critically ill patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and an urgent need to understand the neurophysiologic effects. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of red blood cell transfusions on cerebral tissue oxygenation (S...

Background: Supraglottic airway devices (SGDs) are of current use in anesthesia practice and in emergency conditions. It has been suggested that cerebral blood flow (CBF) can decrease after SGD insertion or cuff inflation; however, it is uncertain if this reduction is caused by the SGD or the anesthetic drugs utilized for the anesthetic procedure....

Background: Supraglottic airway devices (SGDs) are of current use in anesthesia practice and in emergency conditions. It has been suggested that cerebral blood flow (CBF) can decrease after SGD insertion or cuff inflation; however, it is uncertain if this reduction is caused by the SGD or the anesthetic drugs utilized for the anesthetic procedure....

We validated the Italian version of Surgical Optimal Mobility Score (SOMS) and evaluated its ability to predict intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay (LOS), and hospital mortality in a mixed population of ICU patients. We applied the Italian version of SOMS in a consecutive series of prospectively enrolled, adult ICU patients. Surgi...

Sepsis-associated delirium (SAD) is a clinical manifestation of the involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) during sepsis. The purpose of this review is to provide a concise overview of SAD including the epidemiology and current diagnostic criteria for SAD. We present in detail the pathophysiology with regards to blood-brain-barrier breakdo...

Introduction: The avoidance of secondary brain injury is a key objective during the acute care of traumatic brain injury (TBI) [1,2]. This is predominantly achieved by ensuring adequate cerebral blood flow and oxygen delivery. Because the concentration of hemoglobin is a major determinant of arterial oxygen content there is a strong therapeutic rat...

Introduction The major objective during the acute care of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the avoidance of secondary brain injury. This is achieved, in part, by ensuring adequate cerebral blood flow and oxygen delivery and so it seems physiologically rational to transfuse packed red blood cells (PRBCs) when TBI patients are anemic. However, there a...

Immobilisation in the intensive care unit (ICU) leads to muscle weakness and is associated with increased costs and long-term functional disability. Previous studies showed early mobilisation of medical ICU patients improves clinical outcomes. The Surgical ICU Optimal Mobilisation Score (SOMS) trial aims to test whether a budget-neutral interventio...

Purpose: To evaluate the methodological quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in Intensive Care Medicine from 2001 to 2010, and to compare it with a previous review of RCTs published from 1975 to 2000. Methods: We assessed the quality of reporting of randomization, blinding and participant flow, both individually and combined...