Plos One
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Multicenter Study
Incidence of Inadvertent Intraoperative Hypothermia and Its Risk Factors in Patients Undergoing General Anesthesia in Beijing: A Prospective Regional Survey.
Inadvertent intraoperative hypothermia (core temperature <360 C) is a recognized risk in surgery and has adverse consequences. However, no data about this complication in China are available. Our study aimed to determine the incidence of inadvertent intraoperative hypothermia and its associated risk factors in a sample of Chinese patients. ⋯ The incidence of inadvertent intraoperative hypothermia in Beijing is high, and the rate of active warming of patients during operation is low. Concern for the development of intraoperative hypothermia should be especially high in patients undergoing major operations, requiring long periods of anesthesia, and receiving un-warmed intravenous fluids.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Improving Cycling Performance: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Increases Time to Exhaustion in Cycling.
The central nervous system seems to have an important role in fatigue and exercise tolerance. Novel noninvasive techniques of neuromodulation can provide insights on the relationship between brain function and exercise performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on physical performance and physiological and perceptual variables with regard to fatigue and exercise tolerance. ⋯ EMG activity also did not differ during the test accross the different conditions. We conclude that anodal tDCS increases exercise tolerance in a cycling-based, constant-load exercise test, performed at 80% of peak power. Performance was enhanced in the absence of changes in physiological and perceptual variables.
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Cardiovascular response to passive leg raising (PLR) is useful in assessing preload reserve, but it has not been studied longitudinally during pregnancy. We aimed to investigate gestational age associated serial changes in maternal functional hemodynamics and establish longitudinal reference ranges for the second half of pregnancy. ⋯ Healthy pregnant women appear to have limited preload reserve and reduced cardiac contractility, especially in the third trimester, which makes them vulnerable to fluid overload and cardiac failure.
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Non-invasive end-points for interventional trials and tailored treatment regimes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for monitoring regionally different manifestations of lung disease instead of global assessment of lung function with spirometry would be valuable. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (1H-MRI) allows for a radiation-free assessment of regional structure and function. The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term reproducibility of a comprehensive morpho-functional lung MRI protocol in COPD. ⋯ Morpho-functional 1H-MRI can be obtained with reproducible image quality and high short-term test-retest reliability for COPD-related morphological and functional changes of the lung. This underlines its potential value for the monitoring of regional lung characteristics in COPD trials.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Serum levels of caspase-cleaved cytokeratin-18 in patients with severe traumatic brain injury are associated with mortality: a pilot study.
There have been found apoptotic changes in brain tissue samples from animals and humans after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The protein cytokeratin 18 (CK-18), present in epithelial cells, is cleaved by the action of caspases during apoptosis, and the resulting fragments are released into the blood as caspase-cleaved CK (CCCK)-18. Circulating levels of CCCK-18, as biomarker of apoptosis, have been determined in patients with different processes; however, it has not been explored in TBI patients. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between serum CCCK-18 levels and mortality and whether such levels could be used as a biomarker to predict outcomes in TBI patients. ⋯ The novel finding of our study was that serum CCCK-18 levels are associated with 30-day mortality and could be used as a prognostic biomarker in patients with severe TBI.