Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Jan 1995
Pentoxifylline does not prevent microvascular injury in normotensive, septic rats.
To determine if treatment with pentoxifylline would decrease the tissue injury that occurs in a normotensive model of sepsis. ⋯ Normotensive sepsis is accompanied by increased vascular permeability in the diaphragm and intra-abdominal organs. Pentoxifylline appears to attenuate some of the systemic manifestations of sepsis. However, pentoxifylline did not prevent the development of protein-rich tissue edema.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1994
Joint position statement: essential provisions for critical care in health system reform. Society of Critical Care Medicine. American Association of Critical Care Nurses.
Production of a statement defining the essential provisions of health system reform as determined by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). This document is the only nurse-physician joint statement to result from the 1994 health system reform debate. ⋯ SCCM and AACN agreed that health system reform should ultimately achieve universal coverage, access, control cost, and should improve the quality of care. SCCM and AACN endorsed improved access to and coverage for preventive care services. Recognizing that critical illness and injury cannot be prevented entirely, SCCM and AACN agreed that a reformed system must foster improved care of the critically ill and injured as described below.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1994
Comparative StudyPeak systolic pressure/end-systolic volume ratio, a load-independent measure of ventricular function, is reversibly decreased in human septic shock.
To evaluate left ventricular performance in patients with septic shock, using a load-independent measure of left ventricular systolic function, the peak systolic pressure/end-systolic volume index ratio. ⋯ This study confirms that survivors and nonsurvivors of septic shock have significant depression of myocardial performance as measured by a load-independent technique. Survivors have greater depression of myocardial performance than nonsurvivors, and, with recovery, the ventricular performance in survivors increases toward normal values.
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Critical care medicine · Dec 1994
Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical TrialMulticenter trial of a new thoracic electrical bioimpedance device for cardiac output estimation.
To evaluate the capacity of a new thoracic electric bioimpedance system to estimate cardiac output compared with the conventional thermodilution method. ⋯ The new bioimpedance system satisfactorily estimated cardiac output as measured by the thermodilution technique. The difference between the two estimations is more than made up for by the continuous noninvasive capability of the impedance system.