Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Observational Study
Catecholamines as outcome markers in isolated traumatic brain injury: the COMA-TBI study.
Elevated catecholamine levels might be associated with unfavorable outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI). We investigated the association between catecholamine levels in the first 24 h post-trauma and functional outcome in patients with isolated moderate-to-severe TBI. ⋯ Elevated circulating catecholamines, especially Epi levels on hospital admission, are independently associated with functional outcome and mortality after isolated moderate-to-severe TBI.
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Review Meta Analysis
Can body mass index predict clinical outcomes for patients with acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome? A meta-analysis.
The effects of body mass index (BMI) on the prognosis of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are controversial. We aimed to further determine the relationship between BMI and the acute outcomes of patients with ARDS. ⋯ Obesity and morbid obesity are associated with lower mortality in patients with ARDS.
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In brain-injured patients intracranial pressure (ICP) is monitored invasively by a ventricular or intraparenchymal transducer. The procedure requires specific expertise and exposes the patient to complications such as malposition, hemorrhage or infection. As inner-ear fluid compartments are connected to the cerebrospinal fluid space, ICP changes elicit subtle changes in the physiology of the inner ear. Notably, we previously demonstrated that the phase of cochlear microphonic potential (CM) generated by sound stimuli rotates with ICP. The aim of our study was to validate the monitoring of CM as a noninvasive method to follow ICP. ⋯ Reference methods to measure ICP require the surgical placement of a pressure transducer. Noninvasive CM-based monitoring of ICP might be beneficial to early management of brain-injured patients with initially preserved consciousness and to the diagnosis of neurological conditions, whenever invasive monitoring cannot be performed.