Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Feb 2000
Cerebral blood flow and metabolism in severe brain injury: the role of pressure autoregulation during cerebral perfusion pressure management.
To ascertain if norepinephrine can be used as part of the cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) management to increase arterial blood pressure (MAP) without causing cerebral hyperemia after severe head injury (HI). ⋯ During CPP management norepinephrine can be used to increase MAP without potentiating hyperemia if pressure autoregulation is preserved. The assessment of pressure autoregulation should be considered as a guide for arterial pressure-oriented therapy after HI.
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Intensive care medicine · Feb 2000
Incidence and mortality of severe sepsis in surgical intensive care patients: the influence of patient gender on disease process and outcome.
Laboratory studies demonstrated significant detrimental effects of male sex-steroids (testosterone) on immune functions following hemorrhagic shock and soft-tissue trauma. Moreover, better survival of female mice subjected to severe sepsis was observed when compared to male animals. The aims of the present study were to evaluate whether or not gender differences regarding incidence and mortality of severe sepsis do exist in surgical intensive care patients and to elucidate the influence of patient age on incidence and mortality of severe sepsis/septic shock. ⋯ Our results indicate a significantly smaller number of female patients requiring intensive care as well as a significantly lower incidence of severe sepsis/septic shock in female intensive care patients. Mortality from severe sepsis/ septic shock, however, is not affected by gender.
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Intensive care medicine · Feb 2000
Effect of inhaled nitric oxide in combination with almitrine on ventilation-perfusion distributions in experimental lung injury.
To investigate a possible additive effect of combined nitric oxide (NO) and almitrine bismesylate (ALM) on pulmonary ventilation-perfusion (V(A)/Q) ratio. ⋯ We conclude that NO + ALM results in an additive improvement of pulmonary gas exchange in an experimental model of ALI by diverting additional blood flow from non-ventilated lung regions towards those with normal V(A)/Q relationships.