Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Critical illness is commonly complicated by hyperglycaemia caused by mediators of stress and inflammation. Severity of disease is the main risk factor for development of hyperglycaemia, but not all severely ill develop hyperglycemia and some do even in mild disease. We hypothesised that acute disease only exposes a latent disturbance of glucose metabolism which puts those patients at higher risk for developing diabetes. ⋯ Patients with hyperglycaemia during acute illness who are not diagnosed with diabetes before or during the hospitalization should be considered a population at increased risk for developing diabetes. They should, therefore, be followed-up, in order to be timely diagnosed and treated.
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A pilot observational study by Weber-Carstens and colleagues contributes to a mechanistic explanation of the puzzling and complex phenomena of ICU-acquired weakness (ICU-AW). The authors suggest systemic, inflammatory-mediated pathology is the most significant risk factor for ICU-AW. While this finding is somewhat equivocal, it provides important direction for future investigations and illustrates the challenges of interpreting significance in small observational studies.
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Pulse-pressure variation (PPV) due to increased right ventricular afterload and dysfunction may misleadingly suggest volume responsiveness. We aimed to assess prediction of volume responsiveness with PPV in patients with increased pulmonary artery pressure. ⋯ Both early after cardiac surgery and in septic shock, patients with increased pulmonary artery pressure respond poorly to fluid administration. Under these conditions, PPV cannot be used to predict fluid responsiveness. The frequent reduction in right ventricular EF when SV did not increase suggests that right ventricular dysfunction contributed to the poor response to fluids.
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Neuroendocrine deficiencies may affect recovery after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I) regulates neuronal growth and apoptosis in ischemic stroke. Our study was designed to a) characterize the behavior of serum IGF-I and growth hormone (GH) in the acute and late phases after aSAH reflecting possible pituitary gland function and b) evaluate the association between IGF-I and morbidity assessed by Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with aSAH. ⋯ IGF-I concentrations are low during acute aSAH, which may have an impact on morbidity.
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Antifibrinolytic agents are commonly used during cardiac surgery to minimize bleeding. Because of safety concerns, aprotinin was withdrawn from the market in 2007. Since then, tranexamic acid (TXA) has become the antifibrinolytic treatment of choice in many heart centers. The safety profile of TXA has not been extensively studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate safety and efficiency of TXA compared with aprotinin in cardiac surgery. ⋯ The use of high-dose TXA is questioned, as our data suggest an association between higher mortality and minor efficiency while the safety profile of this drug is not consistently improved. Further confirmatory prospective studies evaluating the efficacy and safety profile of TXA are urgently needed to find a safe dosage for this antifibrinolytic drug.