Intensive care medicine
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To evaluate the effectiveness of single proton emission tomography (SPECT) with 99mTc-HMPAO in the diagnosis of brain death (BD). ⋯ Our results confirm the reliability of SPECT in the diagnosis of BD. A problem arises about its effectiveness in brain-dead children, but this seems to be a matter of definition of BD and cerebral viability, rather than a limit of SPECT.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 1998
Case ReportsA re-appraisal of the tri-axial chart for monitoring arterial acid-base values.
To demonstrate the practicability of a tri-axial chart for the graphical and quantitative monitoring of arterial pH, arterial carbon dioxide partial pressure (PaCO2) and actual arterial bicarbonate-ion concentration (a[HCO3-]) in intensive care patients. ⋯ With the tri-axial acid-base chart, the complete acid-base status can be faithfully monitored. Moreover, the proposed monitoring parameters provide extra information about the arterial acid-base status that, otherwise, would remain hidden.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 1998
Thiopental inhibits migration of human leukocytes through human endothelial cell monolayers in vitro.
The interactions between blood and vascular wall cells are essential for the understanding of pathophysiologic processes, e.g. inflammation. The influence of the anesthetic drug thiopental on leukocyte function is well documented. Recently, an inhibitory effect of thiopental on leukocyte chemotaxis in a Boyden chamber assay (i.e. endothelial cells were not included) was demonstrated. In vivo, leukocytes have to interact with endothelial cell monolayers to invade the tissue. The influence of thiopental on a monolayer of endothelial cells has not yet been investigated. The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of thiopental on the migration of leukocytes through endothelial cell monolayers (ECM). ⋯ In conclusion, we could show that thiopental is able to reduce the migration of PMNL through ECM significantly.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 1998
Letter Case ReportsThe use of enoximone in peripartum cardiomyopathy.