Minerva anestesiologica
-
Minerva anestesiologica · Nov 2020
Validity of presepsin for the diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis in elderly patients admitted to the intensive care unit.
Preliminary reports suggested that presepsin was a powerful biomarker for sepsis in a general population. However, presepsin levels change with age. This study aimed to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of presepsin among elderly patients with sepsis in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ The presepsin level was significantly higher in elderly patients with sepsis compared with the non-infection and infection groups. Presepsin has a reliable early diagnostic ability for sepsis comparable to that of PCT. However, it cannot be defined as a perfect biomarker for prognosis of 30-day mortality in elderly patients. An overall and continual assessment of all the clinical indexes for sepsis during the course of the disease is necessary.
-
Minerva anestesiologica · Oct 2020
Regional intratidal gas distribution in acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome--assessed by electric impedance tomography.
Regional tidal volume distribution and end-expiratory lung volume (EELV) distribution in patients with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI, ARDS) have previously been investigated using computed tomograpy and electric impedance tomography (EIT). In the present study, we utilized the high temporal resolution of EIT to assess intratidal gas distribution. ⋯ On-line intratidal gas distribution monitoring offers additional information on recruitability and optimal PEEP.