Critical care explorations
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Detecting instantaneous stroke volume change in response to altered cardiac preload is the physiologic foundation for determining preload responsiveness. ⋯ In healthy volunteers, both carotid velocity time integral and carotid corrected flow time measured by a wireless Doppler patch were useful to track changes in stroke volume induced by a preload-modifying maneuver with high sensitivity and specificity.
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Restrictive transfusion policies have been adopted in critical care, although these have not included patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. We aimed to assess survival outcomes, adverse events related to RBC transfusion, and cost implications following a change from a "liberal" to a "restrictive" RBC transfusion practice in patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. ⋯ These results suggest that the adoption of a more restrictive approach to RBC transfusion during venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is more cost-effective and associated with similar survival outcomes, than when compared with a more liberal approach.