Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2001
Incidence and type of cardiac arrhythmias in critically ill patients: a single center experience in a medical-cardiological ICU.
To determine the frequency and types of significant, sustained arrhythmias in a mixed ICU. ⋯ Only one-fifth of patients in this mixed ICU had significant arrhythmias, taking a contemporary definition of arrhythmias. Ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation were the most frequent arrhythmias.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2001
Effects of bystander first aid, defibrillation and advanced life support on neurologic outcome and hospital costs in patients after ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest.
To evaluate the effects of basic life support, time to first defibrillation and emergency medical service arrival time on neurologic outcome and expenses for hospital care in patients after cardiac arrest. ⋯ In contrast to intubation, bystander basic life support and time to first defibrillation were significantly associated with good neurologic outcome and resulted in fewer expenses spent on in-hospital efforts.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2001
Evaluating the prognosis of multiple, severely traumatized children in the intensive care unit.
To assess the Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score and to identify other prognosis factors in severe, multiple trauma in children. ⋯ PRISM is a reliable tool for evaluating the prognosis of multiple, severely traumatized children. Its relative simplicity and the fact that it is extremely widespread as a general prognosis score in PICUs represent other arguments for its use. Due to the leading influence of head trauma on mortality, GCS, a score even simpler than PRISM, showed identical accuracy regarding survival prediction.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2001
Acute cor pulmonale in massive pulmonary embolism: incidence, echocardiographic pattern, clinical implications and recovery rate.
The indications for the use of thrombolytic agents in massive pulmonary embolism (MPE) remain controversial and it has been suggested that transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) examination, which is able to detect an associated right ventricular dysfunction, may cast light on this question. The goal of this study was to examine the incidence of acute cor pulmonale (ACP) in MPE, diagnosed on the basis of TTE criteria, its clinical implications and its resolution rate. ⋯ Because none of the TTE measurements in ACP could be used to stratify the severity of MPE, TTE was of no help in deciding on medical thrombolysis. However, depending on its severity, metabolic acidosis could justify a large cooperative study to assess the impact of thrombolytic therapy on mortality rate in this specific group.