Assessment of candidemia-attributable mortality in critically ill patients using propensity score matching analysis

[EN] Introduction: Candidemia in critically ill patients is usually a severe and life-threatening condition with a high crude mortality. Very few studies have focused on the impact of candidemia on ICU patient outcome and attributable mortality still remains controversial. This study was carried out to determine the attributable mortality of ICU-acquired candidemia in critically ill patients using propensity score matching analysis. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted of all consecutive non-neutropenic adult patients admitted for at least seven days to 36 ICUs in Spain, France, and Argentina between April 2006 and June 2007. The probability of developing candidemia was estimated using a multivariate logistic regression model. Each patient with ICU-acquired candidemia was matched with two control patients with the nearest available Mahalanobis metric matching within the calipers defined by the propensity score. Standardized differences tests (SDT) for each variable before and after matching were calculated. Attributable mortality was determined by a modified Poisson regression model adjusted by those variables that still presented certain misalignments defined as a SDT > 10%. Results: Thirty-eight candidemias were diagnosed in 1,107 patients (34.3 episodes/1,000 ICU patients). Patients with and without candidemia had an ICU crude mortality of 52.6% versus 20.6% (P < 0.001) and a crude hospital mortality of 55.3% versus 29.6% (P = 0.01), respectively. In the propensity matched analysis, the corresponding figures were 51.4% versus 37.1% (P = 0.222) and 54.3% versus 50% (P = 0.680). After controlling residual confusion by the Poisson regression model, the relative risk (RR) of ICU- and hospital-attributable mortality from candidemia was RR 1.298 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88 to 1.98) and RR 1.096 (95% CI 0.68 to 1.69), respectively. Conclusions: ICU-acquired candidemia in critically ill patients is not associated with an increase in either ICU or hospital mortality.

Estudio y desarrollo de una solución web para un diccionario de lengua de signos basado en un modelo colaborativo wiki

[ES]WikiSigns es un diccionario online de lenguas de signos multilingue y gratuito, cuyo contenido es creado y editado de forma colaborativa por sus usuarios. Está montado sobre una plataforma de software libre y alojado en servidores de coste mínimo. Los vídeos son almacenados en sistemas de almacenaje y distribución gratuitos de terceros. WikiSigns utiliza un sistema basado en la opinión de los usuarios para vincular términos con vídeosignos, de forma que los más valorados sean los más visibles. El contenido textual de WikiSigns así como los vídeos de los signos están liberados bajo licencias GNU y Creative Commons. Todo el contenido de WikiSigns puede ser utilizado libremente siempre que se cite la fuente original. Si bien WikiSigns puede utilizarse para aprender una lengua de signos, sus principales objetivos son : 1. Disponer de una herramienta que permita el registro de lenguas de signos minimizando sus costes. 2. Proveer a las personas sordas de un diccionario online rápido, sencillo y gratuito que les permita visualizar un signo en su lengua sinónimo de una palabra escrita en cualquier idioma. 3. Proveer a las personas sordas de una herramienta para compartir nuevos signos.