Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Aug 2011
Early impact of medical emergency team implementation in a country with limited medical resources: a before-and-after study.
The purpose of the study was to determine whether earlier clinical intervention by a medical emergency team (MET) can improve patient outcomes in an Asian country. ⋯ Introduction of a MET reduced the number of cardiac arrests in the general ward during the first 3 months of the academic year. Introduction of MET also decreased the "derangement-to-ICU interval," which was an independent predictor of survival in patients with unplanned ICU admissions. Therefore, MET introduction may lead to improved outcomes for hospitalized patients in a country with limited medical resources.
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Journal of critical care · Aug 2011
Quality of life 9 years after an intensive care unit stay: a long-term outcome study.
The purpose of the study was to assess long-term mortality after an intensive care unit (ICU) stay and to test the hypotheses that (1) quality of life improves over time and (2) predictions of outcome made by caregivers during an ICU stay are reliable. ⋯ Mortality is high 9 years after ICU stay. Quality of life may deteriorate for some individuals; however, overall quality of life for most survivors remains acceptable and may even improve. Long-term outcome predictions made by caregivers during the ICU stay seem accurate.
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Journal of critical care · Aug 2011
Cross-validation of a modified score to predict mortality in cancer patients admitted to the intensive care unit.
The aim of this study was to cross-validate an automated and customized severity of illness score as a means of predicting death among adult cancer patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ The modified Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score is a good and valid predictor of cancer patients' risk of dying in the ICU and/or hospital despite the modifications needed to automate the score using existing electronic data.
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Journal of critical care · Aug 2011
Comparative StudyComparison of 3 different multianalyte point-of-care devices during clinical routine on a medical intensive care unit.
Multianalyte point-of-care (POC) devices are important to guide clinical decisions in critical care. However, the use of different devices in one hospital might cause problems. Therefore, we evaluated 3 commonly used POC devices and analyzed accuracy, reliability, and bias. ⋯ Although POC devices are of high standard and overall comparability between devices is high, there might be a clinically relevant bias between devices, as found in our study for pO2, BE(B), hemoglobin, and hematocrit. This can be of importance when interpreting results of the same patient obtained from different POC devices, as it could happen when a patient is transferred within a hospital where different devices are used.
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Journal of critical care · Aug 2011
Prediction of stroke volume by global left ventricular longitudinal strain in patients undergoing assessment for cardiac transplantation.
Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) is a novel technique that can be used for assessment of left ventricular (LV) longitudinal deformation dynamics. Using cardiac catheterization as the reference standard, the aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) assessed by STE and LV stroke volume in patients undergoing assessment for cardiac transplantation. ⋯ In a group of patients referred for cardiac transplant assessment, LV longitudinal deformation analysis by STE closely correlates with LVSVI, suggesting that, in this particular clinical setting, this new parameter may help provide an accurate, noninvasive, and quantitative assessment of LV function.