Page 330 of 373
Our aim was to assess the contribution of training in data definitions and data extraction guidelines to improving quality of data for use in intensive care scoring systems such as the Acute Physiology and Chr...
Inorganic mercury poisoning is uncommon, but when it occurs it can result in severe, life-threatening features and acute renal failure. Previous reports on the use of extracorporeal procedures such as haemodia...
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the haemodynamic effects of passive leg elevation on the right ventricular function in two groups of patients, one with a normal right ventricular ejection fraction...
Recent studies have shown that application of the ARDSNet low tidal volume strategy (i.e. allowing an increase in respiratory rate in order to minimize hypercapnia in those with low tidal volume) may generate ...
In the present issue of Critical Care, Frank and Matthay review the physiologic mechanisms that lead to ventilator-induced lung injury. Our greater understanding of basic physiologic principles has already had a ...
Although many studies have shown beneficial effects of SDD on the incidence of respiratory tract infections, SDD did not become routine practice because mortality reduction was not demonstrated in individual t...
Several emotional responses may be invoked in critical care physicians when confronted with selective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD). Although recent meta-analyses have shown that the use of SDD ...
Prokinetic agents are commonly used in intensive care, mainly to aid in early enteral feeding. The present commentary reviews some of the recently published papers and highlights the lack of a sizable evidence...
In an autobiographical manner, I describe the pathophysiology of auto-PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure) and its role as a factor that increases the work of breathing in mechanically ventilated patients.
Although cardiac output is a primary determinant of global O2 transport there are no absolute values that reflect circulatory adequacy, though very low values are of negative prognostic use. There is no agreement...
In the present commentary I review some current therapeutic debates. Is noninvasive ventilation going to become the gold standard for acute hypercapnic respiratory failure, and if we have to intubate and venti...
As the principal cellular component of the inflammatory host defense and contributor to host injury after severe physiologic insult, the neutrophil is inherently coupled to patient outcome in both health and d...
Sepsis affects 18 million people worldwide every year, and on average each case costs more than US$22 000 to treat. Despite this there is no consensus on the clinical definition of sepsis, and successful diagn...
During the past decade a unifying hypothesis has been developed to explain the vascular changes that occur in septic shock on the basis of the effect of inflammatory mediators on the vascular endothelium. The ...
The 15th Annual European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Meeting opened in Barcelona, Spain on September 30, 2002. This report focuses on some highlights of this congress. Preliminary data from the Sepsis Occu...
One of the highlights of the intensive care unit when I was a resident was the opportunity to place a pulmonary artery catheter and then spend the rest of the day calculating parameters such as oxygen delivery...
Vancomycin can cause two types of hypersensitivity reactions, the red man syndrome and anaphylaxis. Red man syndrome has often been associated with rapid infusion of the first dose of the drug and was initiall...
Bedside cardiac output determination is a common preoccupation in the critically ill. All available methods have drawbacks. We wished to re-examine the agreement between cardiac output determined using the the...
Splanchnic perfusion following hypovolemic shock is an important marker of adequate resuscitation. We tested whether the gap between esophageal partial carbon dioxide tension (PeCO2) and arterial partial carbon d...
The innate immune response system is designed to alert the host rapidly to the presence of an invasive microbial pathogen that has breached the integument of multicellular eukaryotic organisms. Microbial invas...
Although it has never been prospectively validated, the base excess (BE) is regarded as the standard end-point of resuscitation in trauma patients. In a rat hemorrhage model, in this edition of Critical Care, Tot...
The present study was performed in order to document costs of intensive care in a Norwegian university hospital and to perform an average cost-effectiveness study using the expected remaining life-years in sur...
Consensus guidelines on providing optimal end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU) are important tools. However, despite 30 years of ethical discourse and consensus on many of the principles that guid...
Both a reduction in tidal volume and alveolar recruitment may be necessary to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury in the management of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. The lung collapse as...
The original article was published in Critical Care 2002 6:222
The original article was published in Critical Care 2002 6:143
Intravenous injection of contrast material is routinely performed in order to differentiate nonaerated lung parenchyma from pleural effusion in critically ill patients undergoing thoracic computed tomography (...
Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and dopamine are commonly used first-line vasopressor agents in the treatment of patients with septic shock. Recently increasing interest has focused on whether one or other of t...
Considerable progress has been made in the past few years in the development of therapeutic interventions that can reduce mortality in sepsis. However, encouraging physicians to put the results of new studies ...
This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 6 Supplement 3
The relationship between blood coagulation factors and the promotion or inhibition of the anti-inflammatory response continues to be defined through basic research. The potential key role of blood coagulation ...
Intramucosal-to-arterial carbon dioxide difference (the so-called PCO2 [partial carbon dioxide tension] gap) remains largely unaltered during decreased oxygen delivery, if the latter is reduced as flow is maintai...
Vasopressor agents are often used in patients with septic shock when aggressive fluid resuscitation fails to correct hypotension. Dopamine and norepinephrine are two such vasopressor agents. In the past, fear ...
Lung collapse is a contributory factor in the hypoxaemia that is observed after open endotracheal suctioning (ETS) in patients with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Lung recruitment (...
The diagnosis of sepsis in critically ill patients is challenging because traditional markers of infection are often misleading. The present study was conducted to determine the procalcitonin level at early di...
Observational studies usually agree with randomised, controlled trials. It is a logical fallacy, however, to suggest that agreement in one direction implies prediction in the other direction. Observational stu...
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and acute lung injury are among the most frequent reasons for intensive care unit admission, accounting for approximately one-third of admissions. Mortality from ARDS...
The primary role of pulmonary airways is to conduct air to the alveolar epithelium, where gas exchange can efficiently occur. Injuries to airways resulting from inhalation of airborne pollutants and parenteral...
A progressive rise of oxidative stress due to altered reduction–oxidation (redox) homeostasis appears to be one of the hallmarks of the processes that regulate gene transcription in physiology and pathophysiol...
The Internet is an invaluable resource for critical care clinicians. However, the search for useful Internet resources can be frustrating and time-consuming. In this issue, Critical Care launches a new section en...
The explosion in biomedical research and the use of computers to access and disseminate ideas has increased our knowledge but has also strikingly shortened the time for new concepts to move from initial basic ...
Critical Care