Articles: critical-care.
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The cognitive test for delirium (CTD) was recently developed to identify delirium in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting. Stepwise discriminant analyses using the original validation sample indicated that a total score formed by summing only two of the nine content scores (visual attention span and recognition memory for pictures) maintained good reliability (coefficient alpha = 0.79) and the ability to discriminate delirium from dementia, schizophrenia, and depression (p < 0.0001) and delirium from moderate to severe dementia (p < 0.0002). This abbreviated version of the CTD is more practical for use by ICU clinicians.
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Critical care medicine · Oct 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialClinical utility of hygroscopic heat and moisture exchangers in intensive care patients.
To compare the degree of bacterial circuit colonization, frequency of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), character of respiratory secretions, rewarming of hypothermic patients, disposable costs, and air flow resistance in intensive care patients ventilated using either a heat and moisture exchanger (HME) or hot water (HW) humidifier circuit. ⋯ Circuits with a bacterial-viral filtering HME are less readily colonized by bacteria. Contamination is a random event. Humidification technique has no influence on the frequency rate of VAP, the effectiveness of rewarming, nor the character of the respiratory secretions. Breathing resistance is generally low and disposable costs are reduced when an HME is used.
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Critical care medicine · Oct 1997
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyPediatric critical care training programs have a positive effect on pediatric intensive care mortality.
Comparison of severity and diagnosis-adjusted mortality rates from pediatric intensive care units (ICUs) staffed by physicians training in pediatric critical care, as well as pediatric residents, with mortality rates from pediatric ICUs staffed with only pediatric residents. ⋯ Pediatric ICUs with critical care fellowship programs are generally associated with better risk-adjusted mortality rates than pediatric ICUs without such fellowship training programs. The cause for this effect requires a more in-depth study. The presence or absence of such training programs does not guarantee superior or inferior performance.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Oct 1997
Clinical Trial[Intensity of treatment and severity of illness in the intensive care unit (ICU)].
To investigate the relationship between Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System (TISS), length of ICU stay and severity of illness. ⋯ Intensity of treatment is essentially steady and total TISS is well related to length of ICU stay. Total TISS increases with increasing risk of hospital death predicted by SAPS II and APACHE II, but it is high especially in non surviving patients with low probability of hospital mortality at the admission.