Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1993
Case ReportsMultiple organ failure and coma as initial presentation of pheochromocytoma in a patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type II A.
The unusual case of a 65-year-old woman with intermittent hypotension, fever, pulmonary edema and coma as initial presentation of pheochromocytoma is reported. The patient developed respiratory, cardiac and renal failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation and liver dysfunction. ⋯ After successful surgical removal of a pheochromocytoma a thyroid medullary carcinoma was detected. Several members of the patients family had presented with multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN II).
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1993
Brain resuscitation by extracorporeal circulation after prolonged cardiac arrest in cats.
Brain reanimation after prolonged ischemia is limited by post-ischemic reperfusion deficits (no-reflow phenomenon). The present study was undertaken to establish whether after 30 min cardiac arrest extracorporeal circulation is able to restore brain reperfusion and to promote functional and metabolic recovery. ⋯ This study demonstrates for the first time that ECC is able to restore electrophysiological and metabolic brain function after cardiac arrest of as long as 30 min, but recovery is heavily restricted by delayed post-ischemic disturbances of recirculation. Progress in cardiac resuscitation by ECC requires substantial improvement in the efficiency of cerebrovascular reperfusion.
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1992
Tidal volume, breathing frequency, and oxygen consumption at different pressure support levels in the early stage of weaning in patients without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different PSV levels on VT, F, VO2 in the early weaning phase of patients without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These parameters were tested for the predictive power for the success of the weaning. Patients on SIMV were studied during the first weaning attempt with PSV. ⋯ Responders and nonresponders could be separated by the response of VO2, VT and F to a change in PS 10 to PS 20 cmH2O. Patients who significantly increased VT and significantly decreased F did not fulfil our weaning criteria. Our responders did not show a significant change in these two parameters, but a significant increase in VO2 at PS 20 cmH2O could be observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Intensive care medicine · Jan 1992
Comparative StudyMonitoring of central venous oxygen saturation versus mixed venous oxygen saturation in critically ill patients.
Continuous monitoring of mixed venous (SvO2) and central venous (ScO2) oxygen saturation was compared in 7 critically-ill patients (Apache II score: 19 +/- 2.1) to determine whether or not information derived from ScO2 were reliable in clinical practice. Patients were catheterized with both a pulmonary artery (PA) and a central venous (CV) catheter, each of them mounted with fiberoptic sensors (Opticath PA Catheter P7110 and Opticath CV Catheter U440, Abbott). A total of 580 comparative measurements were obtained during periods without and with therapeutic interventions (drug-titration, bronchial suction, use of PEEP, changes in FiO2 ...). ⋯ There were poor correlations between the values during periods without (r = 0.48) and with therapeutic interventions (r = 0.62). Better, but still less than ideal, correlations were obtained with changes in SvO2 and ScO2 during periods without (r = 0.70) and with therapeutic interventions (r = 0.77). Although there is a need to develop a simple technique to monitor mixed venous oxygen saturation, the present study indicates that ScO2 monitoring was not reliable in the study patients.