The Netherlands journal of medicine
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Despite improved treatment modalities, the mortality of HIV infected patients admitted to the intensive care unit with respiratory failure remains high. To help ICU physicians in advising HIV infected patients whether to undergo mechanical ventilation, we retrospectively investigated prognostic factors predicting hospital outcome for HIV-infected patients, admitted to a medical intensive care unit with respiratory failure before the era of highly-active anti-retroviral therapy. ⋯ The combination of mechanical ventilation and ARDS accurately predicts hospital outcome in HIV-infected patients presenting with respiratory failure before the HAART era.
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Right ventricular failure can be the result of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). A patient with eclampsia and sepsis with Staphylococcus aureus developed life-threatening right ventricular failure as a result of ARDS. She finally stabilized after treatment with inhaled nitric oxide (NO). The pathophysiology of right ventricular failure in ARDS is described.
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To elucidate whether patients with a septic shock develop pulmonary edema in a treatment protocol in which volume loading is guided by its effect on the cardiac output, rather than by preset values of pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP). ⋯ In this study, patients with septic shock did not develop pulmonary edema during the first 24 h of treatment, when their fluid regimen was guided by the effects on cardiac output.