Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2014
Critically ill elderly patients in a developing world-mortality and functional outcome at 1 year: A prospective single-center study.
To study the mortality and outcome of critically ill elderly patients in a developing country with focus on nutritional and socioeconomic status. ⋯ Malnutrition, delirium, and APACHEII were risk factors for long-term mortality. Survivors had a good functional outcome. Appropriate quality of life tools for this population need to be developed.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2014
Relation of impaired interorgan communication and parasympathetic activity in chronic heart failure and multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome.
We investigated the relationship of impaired autonomic function and severity of illness in chronic heart failure (CHF) and multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) as an end stage of CHF. Furthermore, we assessed the link of parasympathetic modulation of the heart rate and inflammatory activation in CHF and MODS. ⋯ Our results allow for speculation that autonomic dysfunction in CHF indicates a beginning of uncoupled interorgan communication potentially leading to MODS as characterized by disruption of communication between the organs.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2014
Cytomegalovirus colitis in intensive care unit patients: Difficulties in clinical diagnosis.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection occurs increasingly in critically ill patients in intensive care units (ICUs). We reported CMV colitis which has rarely been recognized in the ICU patients. ⋯ Diagnosis of CMV colitis seems difficult in clinical practice and need persistent communication between clinicians. The positive stool CMV-PCR result was a useful hint for adding immunohistochemical stain in mucosal biopsies to make a definite diagnosis of CMV colitis.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2014
Observational StudySafety of physical therapy interventions in critically ill patients: A single-center prospective evaluation of 1110 intensive care unit admissions.
Critical illness survivors commonly have impaired physical functioning. Physical therapy interventions delivered in the intensive care unit can reduce these impairments, but the safety of such interventions within routine clinical practice requires greater investigation. ⋯ In this large, single-center study, routine care physical therapy interventions were safe for critically ill patients.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2014
An analysis of medicine costs of adult patients on a critical care unit.
To evaluate the costs of medicines used to treat critically ill patients in an intensive care environment and to correlate this with severity of illness and mortality. ⋯ Although the median daily drug cost for an adult critically ill patient was low, this cost significantly escalated with patient acuity and hematologic malignancy. A reference method has been designed for an in-depth evaluation of daily drug cost that could be used to compare expenditure in other units.