Journal of critical care
-
Journal of critical care · Oct 2012
Lower serum endocan levels are associated with the development of acute lung injury after major trauma.
Endocan is a proteoglycan expressed by endothelial cells in the lung that may inhibit leukocyte recruitment and thus prevent the development of acute lung injury (ALI). We tested the association of serum endocan levels with subsequent development of ALI after major trauma. ⋯ Lower levels of serum endocan on admission are associated with subsequent development of ALI in trauma patients. These observations may be explained by endocan-mediated blockade of leukocyte recruitment in the lung.
-
Journal of critical care · Oct 2012
Early prediction of acute kidney injury in patients with acute myocardial injury.
Previous studies have revealed that acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with acute kidney injury (AKI), about 17%, is strongly related to long-term mortality and heart failure. The dynamic changes in renal function during AMI are strongly related to long-term mortality and heart failure. ⋯ In conclusion, the worse TIMI flow and high plasma cystatin C can be used to predict AKI after AMI. Moreover, IL-6 can also be used as a 30-day major cardiovascular event indicator after AMI. A larger prospective and longitudinal study should follow the relationship between AKI predictors after AMI.
-
Journal of critical care · Oct 2012
Plasma C-reactive protein levels are associated with mortality in elderly with acute lung injury.
The plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) level is considered to be a predictor of severity in both hospital- and community-acquired pneumonias, whereas recent reports have shown that higher CRP levels lead to better outcomes in patients with acute lung injury (ALI). To explain this discrepancy, we evaluated the relationship among plasma CRP levels, etiology, affectors of CRP production, and mortality in patients with ALI. ⋯ The plasma CRP level may be a predictor of mortality in elderly patients with ALI.
-
Journal of critical care · Oct 2012
The association between vital signs and major hemorrhagic injury is significantly improved after controlling for sources of measurement variability.
Measurement error and transient variability affect vital signs. These issues are inconsistently considered in published reports and clinical practice. We investigated the association between major hemorrhagic injury and vital signs, successively applying analytic techniques that excluded unreliable measurements, reduced transient variation, and then controlled for ambiguity in individual vital signs through multivariate analysis. ⋯ Techniques to reduce variability in vital sign data can lead to significantly improved diagnostic performance. Failure to consider such variability could significantly reduce clinical effectiveness or confound research investigations.