Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2004
Intravenous immunoglobulin for severe infections: a survey of Canadian specialists.
To survey the opinions of Canadian critical care medicine and infectious disease specialists about the use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for the treatment of severe infections. ⋯ Specialist's beliefs surrounding the efficacy of IVIG would challenge but not preclude the conduct of future placebo controlled trials of severe streptococcal infections in Canada.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2004
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialComparison of nebulized epinephrine and terbutaline in patients with acute severe asthma: a controlled trial.
To compare the efficacy and tolerability of nebulized adrenaline and terbutaline in acute severe asthma. ⋯ Adrenaline nebulization was as effective and as well tolerated as terbutaline in acute severe asthma. No synergistic effect between terbutaline and adrenaline was observed.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2004
A content analysis of forms, guidelines, and other materials documenting end-of-life care in intensive care units.
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which data entry forms, guidelines, and other materials used for documentation in intensive care units (ICUs) attend to 6 key end-of-life care (EOLC) domains: 1) patient and family-centered decision making, 2) communication, 3) continuity of care, 4) emotional and practical support, 5) symptom management and comfort care, and 6) spiritual support. A second purpose was to determine how these materials might be modified to include more EOLC content and used to trigger clinical behaviors that might improve the quality of EOLC. ⋯ Inclusion of EOLC items on ICU formatted data entry forms and other materials capable of triggering and documenting clinician behaviors is limited, particularly for physicians. Standardized scales, protocols, and guidelines exist for many of the EOLC domains and should be evaluated for possible use in ICUs. Whether such materials can improve EOLC has yet to be determined.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2004
Comparative StudyIced versus room temperature injectate for assessment of cardiac output, intrathoracic blood volume, and extravascular lung water by single transpulmonary thermodilution.
To assess the accuracy of iced versus room (RT) temperature single transpulmonary thermodilution (STPD) measurements for cardiac output, intra-thoracic blood, volume and extravascular lung water. ⋯ CI, ITBVI, and ELWI assessed by STPD with RT injectate are well correlated with measurements by iced injectates. According to our results room temperature injectates can be used in critically ill patients for assessment of CI, ITBVI and ELWI, which is more convenient for both the patients and medical staff and is also less expensive.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2004
Impact of exclusion criteria on case mix, outcome, and length of stay for the severity of disease scoring methods in common use in critical care.
To identify the exclusion criteria for the major severity of disease scoring methods in critical care and to investigate the impact of the exclusion criteria on the case mix, outcomes and length of stay for admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. ⋯ Exclusion criteria used in critical care research are often ill-defined and poorly reported. More attention to the choice of exclusion criteria and their effect on the reported results is essential. We hope this study will raise the need for both better reporting of exclusion criteria applied in studies and promote the need for a common set of explicit exclusion criteria for these methods.