Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Comparative StudyBactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) in sepsis correlates with the severity of sepsis and the outcome.
To compare the prognostic significance of bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), group II phospholipase A2 (PLA2-II), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and interferon-gamma (IFN) in terms of predicting severity of sepsis and outcome. ⋯ The BPI and BPI/neutrophil ratios may serve as adjunctive tools to illustrate the severity of sepsis. However, their predictive power for sepsis-related death was not comparable to that of SAPS II scores and IL-8.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Comparative StudyQuality of life before intensive care admission: agreement between patient and relative assessment.
To assess the agreement between patients and relatives concerning the formers' quality of life (QOL) before intensive care unit (ICU) admission. ⋯ The relatives give global scores for both instruments which can be regarded as acceptable substitutes for those given by patients. However, the wide limits of agreement should make investigators cautious in analysing together scores generated by patients and by relatives. The emotional dimension seems to be assessed less accurately by relatives than the physical one.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialEffects of dental plaque antiseptic decontamination on bacterial colonization and nosocomial infections in critically ill patients.
To document in intensive care unit (ICU) patients the effect of dental plaque antiseptic decontamination on the occurrence of plaque colonization by aerobic nosocomial pathogens and nosocomial infections. ⋯ An antiseptic decontamination of dental plaque with a 0.2% chlorhexidine gel decreases dental bacterial colonization, and may reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections in ICU patients submitted to mechanical ventilation.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Pulmonary function and health-related quality of life in a sample of long-term survivors of the acute respiratory distress syndrome.
We performed a follow-up cohort analysis in order to delineate the correlation between pulmonary function (PF) and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients after ARDS. ⋯ Long-term survivors of ARDS have a significant reduction in HRQL and the presence of multiple PF impairments is associated with maximal decrements in HRQL.