Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialBudesonide facilitates weaning from mechanical ventilation in difficult-to-wean very severe COPD patients: Association with inflammatory mediators and cells.
Mechanical ventilatory support is life-saving therapy for patients with respiratory failure in intensive care units (ICU) but is linked to ventilator-associated pneumonia and other nosocomial infections. Interventions that improve the efficiency of weaning from mechanical ventilation may improve patient outcomes. ⋯ In COPD patients on MV, nebulized budesonide was associated with reduced BAL CXCL8 and IL-6 levels and neutrophil numbers as well as an improvement in ventilatory mechanics and facilitated weaning.
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Knowledge of families' perspective of quality of intensive care unit (ICU) care is important, especially with regard to end-of-life (EOL) care. Adaptation of the US-developed "Quality of dying and death questionnaire" (QODD) to a European setting is lacking. The primary aim of this study is to examine the euroQODD's usability and its assessments of EOL care in a cohort of Danish and Dutch family members. ⋯ The majority of family members were satisfied with the quality of EOL care and quality of dying and death. They agreed with decisions made to limit treatment and most felt they had participated to some extent in decision-making, although some would have preferred greater participation. Addition of items that can be accurately treated as effect indicators will improve the instrument's usefulness in measuring the overall quality of dying and death.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Multicenter StudyMeasurement of respiratory rate by multiple raters in a clinical setting is unreliable: A cross-sectional simulation study.
To evaluate the inter-observer reliability of nurses assessing respiratory rate. ⋯ We found a wide variation in measurements of RR with both few and many observers assessing exactly the same patients.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Phase angle assessment in critically ill cancer patients: Relationship with the nutritional status, prognostic factors and death.
To evaluate the relationship between phase angle (PA) and nutritional status and the prognostic significance of PA in critically ill cancer patients. ⋯ PA was a prognostic marker in this population, independently of previously established prognostic factors. PA can represent a clinically feasible approach for the initial identification of critically ill cancer patients who require an early and specialized nutritional intervention.
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Journal of critical care · Apr 2018
Quantitative relationships among plasma lactate, inorganic phosphorus, albumin, unmeasured anions and the anion gap in lactic acidosis.
Quantitative relationships among plasma [Lactate], [Pi], [Albumin], unmeasured anions ([UA]) and the anion gap (AGK) in lactic acidosis (LA) are not well defined. ⋯ In LA, cAGK is more sensitive than AGK in predicting [Lactate]>4.0mEq/L.