Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Nov 1996
Evaluation by polymerase chain reaction of cytomegalovirus reactivation in intensive care patients under mechanical ventilation.
The study was undertaken to determine if critically ill patients under mechanical ventilation could reactivate latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) in either lung or blood. ⋯ In a series of 23 critically ill patients under mechanical ventilation who were seropositive for CMV, no reactivation of CMV in blood or lung was demonstrated.
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We studied blood MIP-1 alpha and IL-8 in 38 septic patients and 5 healthy volunteers. Both chemokines were undetectable in the healthy volunteers. In sepsis, serum MIP-1 alpha was detected in 45% of the patients and Il-8 in 84%. The levels of MIP-1 alpha, but not of IL-8, correlated with CRP, IL-6 and TNF alpha levels. Complications, including various organ failures and mortality, showed no correlation with serum MIP-1 alpha levels. In contrast, we found increased levels of serum IL-8 in septic patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation, central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction or renal failure, and the mortality rate was higher in the IL-8 detectable group than in the IL-8 undetectable group (50% vs 0%, p < 0.05). In conclusion, the production of both MIP-1 alpha and IL-8 was increased and initially detectable levels of circulating IL-8 predicted high mortality in sepsis. ⋯ The production of MIP-1 alpha and IL-8 was increased in sepsis. Furthermore, an initially detectable level of circulating IL-8, but not MIP-1 alpha, predicted a high mortality in sepsis diagnosed according to the ACCP/SCCM criteria.
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Intensive care medicine · Nov 1996
Nutritional status, ICU duration and ICU mortality in lung transplant recipients.
To determine the relation of malnutrition and underlying diagnosis to the length of stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and to mortality after lung transplantation (LTX). ⋯ We conclude that the type of transplant procedure and the underlying diagnosis are important predictive indicators of ICU duration. A poor nutritional status (BMI below the 25th percentile) is a risk factor for ICU mortality in cases of patients who stay for 5 days or longer in the ICU.
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Intensive care medicine · Nov 1996
International participation in major intensive care journals. "The smaller the better".
This study seeks to assess the scientific contributions in the field of intensive care medicine from each of the major countries (per million inhabitants) and discusses the possible factors which may contribute to any differences. ⋯ The present study reveals that the smaller European nations have a greater participation than the larger European nations in the major intensive care journals. This phenomenon could be due to different submission practices in these countries compared with the larger European countries, where a considerable number of papers are submitted to local renowned journals. There was no absolute correlation between a nation's gross national product and the total number of publications.