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Recent clinical studies have shown a relationship between abnormalities in peripheral perfusion and unfavorable outcome in patients with circulatory shock. Nitroglycerin is effective in restoring alterations i...
The pathophysiological mechanism of the serious and frequently occurring disorder delirium is poorly understood. Inflammation and sepsis are known risk factors for ICU delirium and therefore these patients are...
Delirium is associated with impaired outcome, but it is unclear whether this relationship is limited to in-hospital outcomes and whether this relationship is independent of the severity of underlying condition...
The original article was published in Critical Care 2014 18:R8
While non-invasive ventilation aimed at avoiding intubation has become the modality of choice to treat mild to moderate acute respiratory acidosis, many severely acidotic patients (pH <7.20) still need intubat...
Adrenomedullin is a vasodilatory polypeptide with pleiotropic effects secreted by various organs. Adrenomedullin is produced first as a prepropeptide, and then cleaved into mature adrenomedullin and mid-region...
Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) is present soon after injury and is associated with increased transfusion requirements and worse outcomes. The pathophysiological mechanisms, which result in the widespread de...
The prognoses of critically ill patients with a requirement for emergency laparotomy and severe respiratory and/or hemodynamic instability precluding transport to the operating room (OR) are often fatal withou...
Midazolam and propofol used alone for long-term sedation are associated with adverse effects. Sequential use may reduce the adverse effects, and lead to faster recovery, earlier extubation and lower costs. Thi...
Achieving adequate glucose control in critically ill patients is a complex but important part of optimal patient management. Until relatively recently, intermittent measurements of blood glucose have been the ...
Mechanical ventilation with high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) has been used in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH), but the role of PEEP i...
Acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs in 7% of hospitalized and 66% of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients. It increases mortality, hospital length of stay, and costs. The aim of this study was to investigate, wheth...
The choice of disease-specific versus generic scales is common to many fields of medicine. In the area of traumatic brain injury, evidence is coming forward that disease-specific prognostic models and disease-...
Elevated brain potassium levels ([K+]) are associated with neuronal damage in experimental models. The role of brain extracellular [K+] in patients with poor-grade aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and it...
It is well established that prolonged, controlled mechanical ventilation is associated with contractile dysfunction of the diaphragm due to impaired function of the mitochondrial respiratory chain as a result ...
Controversy exists regarding optimal treatment for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The primary objective of this study was to compare clinical succ...
Direct hemoperfusion therapy with polymyxin B immobilized fiber cartridge (PMX-DHP) is an established strategy in the treatment of septic shock in Japan and parts of Western Europe. PMX-DHP is currently the su...
Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 (SAPS 3) was the first critical care prognostic model developed from worldwide data. We aimed to systematically review studies that assessed the prognostic performance of SA...
Encephalopathy and altered higher mental functions are common clinical complications of acute kidney injury. Although sepsis is a major triggering factor, acute kidney injury predisposes to confusion by causin...
In ICU settings, the diagnosis and treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are challenging, partly because cardiac troponin increase occurs frequently. In the previous issue of Critical Care, Ostermann and...
The aims of this study were to assess the reliability of circulating cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) concentrations, compared with C-reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and eosinophil count, in the diagnosis of...
ICU admission is required in more than 25% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at some time during the course of the disease. However, only limited information is available on how phy...
The recent study by Bloos and colleagues demonstrates that early initiation of antimicrobial therapy is not associated with improved survival in sepsis. We contend that these findings should not be surprising....
Altered peripheral perfusion is strongly associated with poor outcome in critically ill patients. We wanted to determine whether repeated assessments of peripheral perfusion during the days following surgery c...
The chemokine CXCL10 is produced during infection and inflammation to activate the chemokine receptor CXCR3, an important regulator of lymphocyte trafficking and activation. The goal of this study was to asses...
Empiric antimicrobial selection for critical care infections must balance the need for timely adequate coverage with the resistance pressure exerted by broadspectrum agents. We estimated the potential of weigh...
Comprehensively evaluating the efficacy and safety of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) is important to allow clinicians who are using or considering this intervention to make appropriate decisions.
Serum cystatin C can improve glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation over creatinine alone, but whether this translates into clinically relevant improvements in drug dosing is unclear.
Rhabdomyolysis, a clinical syndrome caused by damage to skeletal muscle and release of its breakdown products into the circulation, can be followed by acute kidney injury (AKI) as a severe complication. The be...
Prone positioning (PP) has been reported to improve the survival of patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, it is uncertain whether the beneficial effects of PP are associated...
Management of the critically ill pregnant woman is complicated by potential adverse effects of both maternal illness and ICU interventions on the fetus. This paper reviews the p...
A competing risk is an event (for example, death in the ICU) that hinders the occurrence of an event of interest (for example, nosocomial infection in the ICU) and it is a common issue in many critical care st...
Tetanus is still a scourge among the under-privileged populations of the world, and unfortunately remains an important cause of death although a cheap, safe and highly efficacious vaccine is available. The rar...
The accurate assessment of intravascular volume status for the therapy of severe hypovolemia and shock is difficult and critical to critically ill patients. Non-invasive evaluation of fluid responsiveness by t...
The proportion of elderly Americans admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in the last month of life is rising. Hence, challenging decisions regarding the appropriate use of life support are increasingly co...
The increased use of anticoagulants for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases has led to a rising incidence of anticoagulant-related intracranial hemorrhage (AICH) in the aging western popula...
Delirium is a common occurrence in critically ill patients and is associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality. Septic patients with delirium may differ from a general critically ill population. The ...
The use of standard doses of β-lactam antibiotics during continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) may result in inadequate serum concentrations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of unadjus...
Blood safety with respect to infectious complications has reached very high standards. Nevertheless, reports on transfusion-associated morbidity and mortality gain momentum. Multidisciplinary patient blood man...
Severe acute pancreatitis (AP) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Early prediction of severe AP is needed to improve patient outcomes. The aim of the present study was to find novel cytokines or ...
Seizures refractory to third-line therapy are also labeled super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE). These seizures are extremely difficult to control and associated with poor outcome. We aimed to characteri...
Critical Care