Unspecified questions earn central line study an expression of concern

The American Journal of Infection Control has issued an expression of concern for a paper looking at ways to reduce infections associated with central venous catheters, or central lines.

The catheters are placed directly into a large vein and end close to the heart, allowing long-term access for medication or fluid administration. According to the CDC, infections associated with central lines cause thousands of deaths and cost billions of dollars every year.

Here’s the abstract for “Comparison of central line-associated bloodstream infection rates when changing to a zero fluid displacement intravenous needleless connector in acute care settings“:

This was a multicenter, quasiexperimental, 140-month, acute care study comparing central line-associated bloodstream infection rates associated with positive or negative intravenous connectors to a zero fluid displacement connector. A decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections was found after changing from either negative or positive intravenous connectors to the zero fluid displacement connector (P = .004) with total cost savings of over $3 million.

And here’s the expression of concern:

In the February 2014 issue, The American Journal of Infection Control (“AJIC”) published the article “Comparison of central line-associated bloodstream infection rates when changing to a zero fluid displacement intravenous needleless connector in acute care settings” by Cynthia C. Chernecky, Denise Macklin, William R. Jarvis and Thomas V. Joshua. AJIC is publishing this Editorial Expression of Concern to alert our readers to the fact that questions have been raised about the methods and data presented in this article.

The paper, which was published online in August 2013, has yet to be cited, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

We’ve reached out to the journal and authors, and will update if we learn anything.