Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2011
Multicenter StudyAngiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 as clinically informative prognostic biomarkers of morbidity and mortality in severe sepsis.
To determine the utility of angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 as potentially novel biomarkers of morbidity and mortality in patients with severe sepsis. ⋯ Angiopoietin-1 levels at admission and both angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 levels measured serially correlated with 28-day mortality in severe sepsis. Angiopoietin-2 levels also correlated with organ dysfunction/injury and a validated clinical sepsis score. These results suggest the use of angiopoietins as clinically informative biomarkers of disease severity and patient outcome in severe sepsis.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2011
ReviewEvidence for quality indicators to evaluate adult trauma care: a systematic review.
Multiple quality indicators are available to evaluate adult trauma care, but their characteristics and outcomes have not been systematically compared. We sought to systematically review the evidence about the reliability, validity, and implementation of quality indicators for evaluating trauma care. ⋯ Although many quality indicators are available to measure the quality of trauma care, reliability evidence, validity evidence, and description of outcomes after implementation are limited.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2011
Comparative StudyComparison of four different vascular occlusion tests for assessing reactive hyperemia using near-infrared spectroscopy.
To compare data gathered via four different types of vascular occlusion test (VOT) by using near-infrared spectroscopy. The data may support a standardized method to appropriately measure the postischemic recovery slope, which is currently emphasized as a quantitative marker of the microvascular reserve in septic patients. ⋯ The comparison of recovery slopes between volunteers and septic patients and the fact that the recovery slope was influenced by the extent of muscle tissue oxygen saturation decrease during ischemia and not by the ischemic time both support the use of a fixed minimal muscle tissue oxygen saturation target (40%) over the use of a fixed ischemic time (3 mins) for assessing reactive hyperemia by using near-infrared spectroscopy.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialThe impact of enhanced cleaning within the intensive care unit on contamination of the near-patient environment with hospital pathogens: a randomized crossover study in critical care units in two hospitals.
To determine the effect of enhanced cleaning of the near-patient environment on the isolation of hospital pathogens from the bed area and staff hands. ⋯ Enhanced cleaning reduced environmental contamination and hand carriage, but no significant effect was observed on patient acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.