Transthoracic echocardiography and mortality in sepsis

The performance of TTE is associated with a 28-day mortality beneft in a general population of septic, critically ill patients. The mechanism of this beneft remains to be explored but may be related to the increased use of fuids and vasoactive agents as indicated and guided by TTE results. Given that for most of ICU practice, randomized controlled trial (RCT)-based data are lacking and no RCT will likely be performed to provide evidence in the future, the application of the real-world data that is captured in EHRs is necessary to assess the clinical efectiveness of interventions such as TTE. While these investigations must be performed with full awareness of and attention to the complexity, and possible confounding by indication, of such data applications, they are now quite feasible and, we feel, absolutely necessary in the future development and evolution of optimal clinical care.


Transthoracic echocardiographyand mortality in sepsis: analysis of the MIMIC-IIIdatabase

Mengling Feng1 , Jakob I. McSparron2*, Dang Trung Kien1 , David J. Stone3 , David H. Roberts4 , Richard M. Schwartzstein4 , Antoine Vieillard‑Baron5 and Leo Anthony Celi4,6 © 2018 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature and ESICM