Intensive care medicine
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Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is one of the most frequently used plasma substitutes. A variety of different HES solutions exist worldwide, which differ greatly in their pharmacological properties. HES is classified according to its manufactured or in vitro molecular weight (MW) into high MW (450-480 kDa), medium MW (200 kDa), and low MW (70 kDa) starch preparations. ⋯ For historical and marketing reasons, only slowly degradable, high MW HES (480/0.7) is available in the United States. In Europe, a large variety of HES solutions are available, dominated by medium MW, easily degradable HES (200/0.5). Because of increasing international competition and the availability of newly developed starches, it is important to be aware of the pharmacological properties of HES and the advantages and disadvantages of the individual preparations.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 1999
Clinical TrialInfluence of alveolar ventilation changes on calculated gastric intramucosal pH and gastric-arterial PCO2 difference.
To evaluate the influence of changes in alveolar ventilation on the following tonometry-derived variables: gastric intramucosal CO2 tension (PtCO2), gastric arterial CO2 tension difference (PgapCO2), gastric intramucosal pH (pHi) and arterial pH-pHi difference (pHgap). ⋯ PaCO2 and PtCO2 are similarly influenced by the changes in alveolar ventilation. Unlike pHi, the PgapCO2 is not affected by ventilation variations unless CO changes are associated.
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Intensive care medicine · Mar 1999
Detection of histamine-induced capillary protein leakage and hypovolaemia by determination of indocyanine green and glucose dilution method in dogs.
The plasma volume of histamine-induced protein capillary leakage may be overestimated when this is determined using the indocyanine green (ICG) dilution method (Vd-ICG), since this dye binds to plasma proteins. The initial distribution volume of glucose (IDVG) has been shown to indicate the central extracellular fluid volume including plasma. Accordingly, the overestimation would be detected by a higher Vd-ICG/IDVG ratio. Our study was intended to examine whether the simultaneous measurement of these two variables can evaluate histamine-induced protein leakage and associated hypovolaemia. ⋯ The results suggest that the Vd-ICG/IDVG ratio and the IDVG are useful in evaluating the magnitude of the leakage and hypovolaemia.