Practice Patterns in the Initiation of Secondary Vasopressors and Adjunctive Corticosteroids during Septic Shock in the United States
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Rationale A central component of septic shock treatment is the infusion of vasopressors, most commonly starting with norepinephrine. However, the optimal approach and practice patterns for initiating adjunctive vasopressors and corticosteroids are unknown. Objectives To characterize practice pattern variation in the norepinephrine dose at which secondary vasopressors and adjunctive corticosteroids are initiated and to identify factors associated with a treatment strategy favoring secondary vasopressors compared with factors associated with a treatment strategy favoring adjunctive corticosteroids among patients with septic shock on norepinephrine. Methods We used a multicenter intensive care unit (ICU) database to identify patients with septic shock who were started on norepinephrine followed by an additional vasopressor or corticosteroids. We used multilevel models to determine the hospital risk-adjusted norepinephrine dose at which additional vasopressors and corticosteroids were started, the percentage of variation in the norepinephrine dose at the time of adjunctive treatment associated with the hospital of admission, and the factors associated with choosing an “additional-vasopressor-first” strategy versus a “corticosteroid-first” strategy. Results Among 4,401 patients with septic shock on norepinephrine, 1,940 (44.0%) were started on adjuncts (1,357 received an additional-vasopressor-first strategy, and 583 received a corticosteroid-first strategy). The hospital risk-adjusted norepinephrine dose at which vasopressors were initiated ranged from 6.4 μg/min (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.9–7.0 μg/min) to 92.6 μg/min (95% CI, 72.8–113.0 μg/min). The hospital risk-adjusted norepinephrine dose at which corticosteroids were initiated ranged from 3.0 μg/min (95% CI, 2.4–3.8 μg/min) to 32.7 μg/min (95% CI, 24.9–43.0 μg/min). Of the variation in the norepinephrine dose at which additional vasopressors were initiated, 25.1% (intraclass correlation coefficient 95% CI, 24.8–25.5%) was explained by the hospital site after adjusting for all hospital- and patient-level covariates. The hospital of admission was strongly associated with receiving an additional-vasopressor-first strategy over a corticosteroid-first strategy (median odds ratio, 3.28 [95% CI, 2.81–3.83]). Conclusions Practice patterns for adjunctive therapies to norepinephrine during septic shock are variable and are determined in large part by the hospital of admission. These results inform several future studies seeking to improve septic shock management.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.008 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".