Anesthesiology
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Review Meta Analysis
N-terminal pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptides' Prognostic Utility Is Overestimated in Meta-analyses Using Study-specific Optimal Diagnostic Thresholds.
N-terminal fragment B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) prognostic utility is commonly determined post hoc by identifying a single optimal discrimination threshold tailored to the individual study population. The authors aimed to determine how using these study-specific post hoc thresholds impacts meta-analysis results. ⋯ Post hoc identification of study-specific prognostic biomarker thresholds artificially maximizes biomarker predictive power, resulting in an amplification or overestimation during meta-analysis of these results. This effect is accentuated in small studies.
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Despite widespread use, there is limited information to guide perioperative management of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). ⋯ Postoperative delay in resuming ARB is common, particularly in patients who are frail after surgery. Withholding ARB is strongly associated with increased 30-day mortality, especially in younger patients, although residual confounding may be present.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Disruption of Cortical Connectivity during Remifentanil Administration Is Associated with Cognitive Impairment but Not with Analgesia.
The authors investigated the effect of remifentanil administration on resting electroencephalography functional connectivity and its relationship to cognitive function and analgesia in healthy volunteers. ⋯ Remifentanil disrupts the functional connectivity network properties of the electroencephalogram. The findings give new insight into how opioids interfere with the normal brain functions and have the potential to be biomarkers for the sedative effects of opioids in different clinical settings.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Methylprednisolone Does Not Reduce Persistent Pain after Cardiac Surgery.
Persistent incisional pain is common after cardiac surgery and is believed to be in part related to inflammation and poorly controlled acute pain. Methylprednisolone is a corticosteroid with substantial antiinflammatory and analgesic properties and is thus likely to ameliorate persistent surgical pain. Therefore, the authors tested the primary hypothesis that patients randomized to methylprednisolone have less persistent incisional pain than those given placebo. ⋯ Intraoperative methylprednisolone administration does not reduce persistent incisional pain at 6 months in patients recovering from cardiac surgery.
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Review
Clinical Electroencephalography for Anesthesiologists: Part I: Background and Basic Signatures.
The widely used electroencephalogram-based indices for depth-of-anesthesia monitoring assume that the same index value defines the same level of unconsciousness for all anesthetics. In contrast, we show that different anesthetics act at different molecular targets and neural circuits to produce distinct brain states that are readily visible in the electroencephalogram. ⋯ Later in part II, we discuss patient management using these electroencephalogram signatures. Use of these electroencephalogram signatures suggests a neurophysiologically based paradigm for brain state monitoring of patients receiving anesthesia care.