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Anemia is one of the most common medical complications to be encountered in critically ill patients. Based on the results of clinical trials, transfusion practices across the world have generally become more r...
Severe tissue trauma results in a general inflammatory immune response (SIRS) representing an overall inflammatory reaction of the immune system. However, there is little known about the functional alterations...
Appropriate antibiotic therapy in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock should mean prompt achievement and maintenance of optimal exposure at the infection site with broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents ...
Many studies on the most 'adequate' dose of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury have obtained contradictory results. The previous issue of Critical Care reports a m...
Increasing evidence links advanced glycation end products (AGE) including Nε-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) to the development of heart failure. Accumulation of AGE leads to myocardial inflammation, which is conside...
Loss of intestinal integrity has been implicated as an important contributor to the development of excessive inflammation following severe trauma. Thus far, clinical data concerning the occurrence and signific...
Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) with a helmet device is often associated with poor patient-ventilator synchrony and impaired carbon dioxide (CO2) removal, which might lead to failure. A possible solution is to use...
Caring for the critically ill is a 24-hour-a-day responsibility, but not all resources and staff are available during off hours. We evaluated whether intensive care unit (ICU) admission during off hours affect...
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a gas with the characteristic odor of rotten eggs, is known for its toxicity and as an environmental hazard, inhibition of mitochondrial respiration resulting from blockade of cytochrome c...
The development of resistance by bacterial species is a compelling issue to reconsider indications and administration of antibiotic treatment. Adequate indications and duration of therapy are particularly impo...
Biomedical scientists are aggressively investigating biomarkers of disease and injury. The rationale for identifying biomarkers during pathological states, such as severe sepsis, is to improve clinical prognos...
Sterile or non-infectious inflammation and severe infection are accompanied by very similar events. Damage (or danger)-associated molecular patterns and pathogen-associated molecular patterns trigger the relea...
This report describes the case mix and outcomes of patients with oesophageal cancer admitted to adult critical care units following elective oesophageal surgery in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 13 Supplement 2
Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous mediator of vascular tone and host defence. Inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) results in preferential pulmonary vasodilatation and lowers pulmonary vascular resistance. The route of...
The review article by Xie and colleagues examines the impact of noise and noise reduction strategies on sleep quality for critically ill patients. Evaluating the impact of noise on sleep quality is challenging...
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT), which can assess regional lung ventilation at the bedside, has never been compared with positron-emission tomography (PET), a gold-standard to quantify regional ventilati...
Temperature measurement is important during routine neurocritical care especially as differences between brain and systemic temperatures have been observed. The purpose of the study was to determine if infra-r...
Patients undergoing major heart surgery (MHS) represent a special subpopulation at risk for nosocomial infections. Postoperative infection is the main non-cardiac complication after MHS and has been clearly re...
Development of acute kidney injury (AKI) during the perioperative period is associated with increases in morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence and determinants of postoperative AKI aft...
Acute lung injury (ALI) is characterized by the presence of dysregulated coagulation and inflammation. Therefore, Waerhaug and colleagues hypothesized that administration of activated protein C (APC) via the i...
For over a decade there has been intense interest given to the role of procalcitonin in the diagnosis and management of sepsis in critically ill patients. Early opinions strongly supported the diagnostic role ...
Catheter-related bloodstream infection is one of the most serious complications of central venous access devices. Antimicrobial-coated catheters represent one novel strategy to prevent catheter-related bloodst...
Early multimodal treatment of severe sepsis, including the use of drotrecogin alfa (activated) (DrotAA) when indicated, is considered essential for optimum outcome. However, predicting which infected patients ...
Delirium is a common complication in the intensive care unit. The attention of researchers has shifted from the treatment to the prevention of the syndrome necessitating the study of associated risk factors.
Serum B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is frequently elevated after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), but whether this high BNP level is related to transient elevation of left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) ...
Agitated delirium is common in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation, and is often treated with haloperidol despite concerns about safety and efficacy. Use of conventional sedatives to control agitation c...
The protective effect of glutamine, as a pharmacological agent against lung injury, has been reported in experimental sepsis; however, its efficacy at improving oxygenation and lung mechanics, attenuating diap...
This study was designed to compare the clinical acceptability of two cardiac output (CO) monitoring systems: a pulse wave contour-based system (FloTrac-Vigileo) and a bioreactance-based system (NICOM), using c...
To establish a prognostic model for predicting 14-day mortality in ICU patients with severe sepsis overall and according to place of infection acquisition and to sepsis episode number.
The need to achieve adequate tissue oxygen delivery early in patients with septic shock is well established. However, it is less well recognized that tissue hypoperfusion can exist despite normalization of sys...
In a group of postoperative patients, Taniguchi and coworkers compared the effect of a computerized system for weaning against 'manual care'. The computerized system involved automatic adjustments to the level...
The demographic shift in the age of most industrialized countries' populations is profoundly impacting all areas of healthcare, perhaps nowhere more so than critical care. As the proportion of elderly patients...
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease is characterised by narrowing of the airways resulting in increased airway resistance, air-trapping and respiratory acidosis. These problems mi...
Limited data are available regarding the diagnostic and prognostic utility of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting.
Since the 1970s, N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has shown proven efficacy as an antidote for acetaminophen (APAP) poisoning and APAP-induced liver failure for early presenters. The current evidence of benefits of NAC for...
The results of the NICE-SUGAR (Normoglycaemia in Intensive Care Evaluation Survival Using Glucose Algorithm Regulation) trial were released last March. The primary outcome variable, 90-day mortality, was actua...
Acute pancreatitis (AP) is usually a mild and self-limiting disease, but some patients develop a severe form that is associated with high mortality. In AP, local inflammation is followed first by the systemic ...
The precise role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in contributing to outcomes in critically ill immunocompetent patients has not been fully defined.
Hyperglycaemia occurs frequently in the critically ill, affects outcome adversely, and is exacerbated by enteral feeding. Furthermore, treatment with insulin in this group is frequently complicated by hypoglyc...
Automated mapping of lung sound distribution is a novel area of interest currently investigated in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients. The objective of the present study was to assess changes in ...
High-throughput techniques, such as genome-wide scans, will allow genotyping of a large number of single-nucleotide polymorphisms throughout the human genome. There is intense interest to apply this technology...
The optimal level of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) in acute respiratory distress syndrome patients is still controversial and has gained renewed interest in the era of 'lung protective ventilation st...
This study aimed to examine the long-term outcome for patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) who survived multiple-organ failure.
Endothelial activation leading to vascular barrier breakdown denotes a devastating event in sepsis. Angiopoietin (Ang)-2, a circulating antagonistic ligand of the endothelial specific Tie2 receptor, is rapidly...
Central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) has emerged as an important resuscitation goal for critically ill patients. Nevertheless, growing concerns about its limitations as a perfusion parameter have been express...
Critical Care