Journal of critical care
-
Journal of critical care · Dec 2013
Red blood cell transfusion is associated with decreased in-hospital muscle strength among critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation.
Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is linked to poor functional recovery after surgery and trauma. To investigate one potential mechanism, we examined the association between RBC transfusion and muscle strength in a cohort of critically ill patients. ⋯ Red blood cell transfusion was associated with decreased muscle strength in this cohort of critically ill patients after adjusting for illness severity and organ dysfunction. Further studies are needed to validate these results and probe mechanisms.
-
Journal of critical care · Dec 2013
Multicenter StudyCommunity-acquired pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requiring admission to the intensive care unit: Risk factors for mortality.
The aims of this study are to identify factors predicting mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission and to examine whether noninvasive ventilation treatment reduces mortality. ⋯ Noninvasive ventilation, hypertension, systemic corticosteroid treatment, and shorter ICU stay are associated with reduced mortality, whereas bilateral infiltration and longer duration of invasive mechanical ventilation are associated with increased risk of mortality in patients with COPD and CAP requiring ICU admission.
-
Journal of critical care · Dec 2013
Multicenter StudyThe association between primary language spoken and all-cause mortality in critically ill patients.
The study objective was to investigate the association between primary language spoken and all-cause mortality in critically ill patients. ⋯ In a regional cohort, not speaking English as a primary language is associated with improved outcomes after critical care. Our observations may have clinical relevance and illustrate the intersection of several factors in critical illness outcome including severity of illness, comorbidity, and social and economic factors.
-
Journal of critical care · Dec 2013
The microcirculation image quality score: Development and preliminary evaluation of a proposed approach to grading quality of image acquisition for bedside videomicroscopy.
Side-stream dark-field microscopy is currently used to directly visualize sublingual microcirculation at the bedside. Our experience has found inherent technical challenges in the image acquisition process. This article presents and assesses a quality assurance method to rate image acquisition quality before analysis. ⋯ Our Microcirculation Image Quality Score addresses many of the common areas where video quality can degrade. The criteria introduced are an objective way to assess the quality of image acquisition, with the goal of selecting videos of adequate quality for analysis. The interrater reliability results in our preliminary study suggest that the Microcirculation Image Quality Score is reasonably repeatable between reviewers. Further assessment is warranted.
-
Journal of critical care · Dec 2013
Complement C3 depletion links to the expansion of regulatory T cells and compromises T-cell immunity in human abdominal sepsis: A prospective pilot study.
Complement depletion commonly occurred in septic patients, but this problem was often underestimated during the treatment process. This study was designed to determine the association between complement depletion and T-cell immunosuppression. ⋯ Complement C3 depletion was found to be linked to the expansion of Tregs during abdominal sepsis. Such depletion and associated immunosuppression should be paid close attention in the critical care.