Intensive care medicine
-
Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Effect of sepsis and cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass on plasma level of nitric oxide metabolites, neopterin, and procalcitonin: correlation with mortality and postoperative complications.
To examine the hypothesis that nitrite/nitrate, neopterin, and procalcitonin (PCT) levels can be useful predictors of sepsis-associated mortality and predictors of the postoperative complications after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). ⋯ Our results confirm the value of PCT and neopterin measurement as diagnostic tools in monitoring the clinical course of patients in intensive care units.
-
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.
-
Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Validation of two quality of life questionnaires suitable for intensive care patients.
To validate two instruments measuring quality of life (QOL) suitable for patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU): QOL-IT and QOL-SP. ⋯ QOL-IT and QOL-SP are instruments able to discriminate between different health states.
-
Intensive care medicine · Sep 2000
Tracheal colonisation within 24 h of intubation in patients with head trauma: risk factor for developing early-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia.
To investigate if tracheal colonisation within 24 h of intubation is a risk factor for developing early-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia (EP) in patients with head trauma. ⋯ Colonisation of the trachea within 24 h of intubation by Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae or Streptococcus pneumoniae is a risk factor for developing EP in patients with head trauma.