OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Background: Delirium is a well described form of acute brain organ dysfunction characterized by decreased or increased movement, changes in attention and concentration as well as perceptual disturbances (i.e., hallucinations) and delusions. Catatonia, a neuropsychiatric syndrome traditionally described in patients with severe psychiatric illness, can present as phenotypically similar to delirium and is characterized by increased, decreased and/or abnormal movements, staring, rigidity, and mutism. Delirium and catatonia can co-occur in the setting of medical illness, but no studies have explored this relationship by age. Our objective was to assess whether advancing age and the presence of catatonia are associated with delirium. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Methods: We prospectively enrolled critically ill patients at a single institution who were on a ventilator or in shock and evaluated them daily for delirium using the Confusion Assessment for the ICU and for catatonia using the Bush Francis Catatonia Rating Scale. Measures of association (OR) were assessed with a simple logistic regression model with catatonia as the independent variable and delirium as the dependent variable. Effect measure modification by age was assessed using a Likelihood ratio test. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Results: We enrolled 136 medical and surgical critically ill patients with 452 matched (concomitant) delirium and catatonia assessments. Median age was 59 years (IQR: 52–68). In our cohort of 136 patients, 58 patients (43%) had delirium only, 4 (3%) had catatonia only, 42 (31%) had both delirium and catatonia, and 32 (24%) had neither. Age was significantly associated with prevalent delirium (i.e., increasing age associated with decreased risk for delirium) (p=0.04) after adjusting for catatonia severity. Catatonia was significantly associated with prevalent delirium (p<0.0001) after adjusting for age. Peak delirium risk was for patients aged 55 years with 3 or more catatonic signs, who had 53.4 times the odds of delirium (95% CI: 16.06, 176.75) than those with no catatonic signs. Patients 70 years and older with 3 or more catatonia features had half this risk. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Conclusions: Catatonia is significantly associated with prevalent delirium even after controlling for age. These data support an inverted U-shape risk of delirium after adjusting for catatonia. This relationship and its clinical ramifications need to be examined in a larger sample, including patients with dementia. Additionally, we need to assess which acute brain syndrome (delirium or catatonia) develops first.

Background: Delirium occurs frequently in the intensive care unit (ICU), but its pathophysiology is still unclear. Low levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), a hormone with neuroprotective properties, have been associated with delirium in some non-ICU studies, but this relationship has not been examined in the ICU. We sought to test the hypothesis that low IGF-1 concentrations are associated with delirium during critical illness.

Methods: Mechanically ventilated medical ICU patients were prospectively enrolled, and blood was collected after enrollment for measurement of IGF-1 using radioimmunometric assay. Delirium and coma were identified daily using the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU and the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale, respectively. The association between IGF-1 and delirium was evaluated with logistic regression. In addition, the association between IGF-1 and duration of normal mental state, measured as days alive without delirium or coma, was assessed using multiple linear regression.

Results: Among 110 patients, the median age was 65 years (IQR, 52–75) and APACHE II was 27 (IQR, 22 –32). IGF-1 levels were not a risk factor for delirium on the day after IGF-1 measurement (p = 0.97), at which time 65% of the assessable patients were delirious. No significant association was found between IGF-1 levels and duration of normal mental state (p = 0.23).

Conclusions: This pilot study, the first to investigate IGF-1 and delirium in critically ill patients, found no association between IGF-1 and delirium. Future studies including serial measurements of IGF-1 and IGF-1 binding proteins are needed to determine whether this hormone has a role in delirium during critical illness.

While society would benefit from a reduced incidence of nosocomial infections, there is currently no direct reimbursement to hospitals for the purpose of infection control, which forces healthcare institutions to make economic decisions about funding infection control activities. Demonstrating value to administrators is an increasingly important function of the hospital epidemiologist because healthcare executives are faced with many demands and shrinking budgets. Aware of the difficulties that face local infection control programs, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Board of Directors appointed a task force to draft this evidence-based guideline to assist hospital epidemiologists in justifying and expanding their programs. In Part 1, we describe the basic steps needed to complete a business-case analysis for an individual institution. A case study based on a representative infection control intervention is provided. In Part 2, we review important basic economic concepts and describe approaches that can be used to assess the financial impact of infection prevention, surveillance, and control interventions, as well as the attributable costs of specific healthcare-associated infections. Both parts of the guideline aim to provide the hospital epidemiologist, infection control professional, administrator, and researcher with the tools necessary to complete a thorough business-case analysis and to undertake an outcome study of a nosocomial infection or an infection control intervention.

Thirty-three strains of Fusarium species from clinical sources including F. solani, F. oxysporum, F. moniliforme, F. proliferatum, F. subglutinans and F. chlamydosporum were examined for their physiological characteristics and mycotoxin production. Of this collection 29 exhibited growth at 37 °C and 21 were resistant to cycloheximide. Two strains of F. moniliforme and two strains of F. proliferatum produced fumonisins. No strains in this collection produced detectable amounts of trichothecenes. All 18 strains of F. solani tested produced the immunosuppressive agent cyclosporin A. The cyclosporin A-producing ability of clinical isolates of F. solani may influence their pathogenic potential.

There are many reports which suggest that patients with affective illness (mania and/or depression) have abnormalities in the functioning of one or more neurobiological systems. At a conference convened by the Clinical Research Branch, Division of Extramural Research Programs, National Institute of Mental Health, these findings were reviewed and some of the factors impeding movement towards a more complete and integrated view of the functioning of neurobiological systems in patients with mania or depression were identified. As a result, a multi-research centre, collaborative approach to the study of the psychobiology of affective disorders was developed. In this collaborative programme, which has now been underway for several years, the focus has been upon: (a) the assessment of the functioning of several different types of biological systems in the same patient, both before and during treatment; (b) obtaining a reasonably large number of patients and comparison subjects; and (c) the use within and across centres of standardized diagnostic categories and behavioural rating methodologies. In this paper the history, background, and rationale for this collaborative effort are reviewed. Those biological systems chosen for study are noted, and issues such as reliability and validity of diagnoses, measurement of state variables, assessment of change with treatment, and logistical and coordinating problems are discussed.