Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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The primary role of the right ventricle (RV) is to deliver all the blood it receives per beat into the pulmonary circulation without causing right atrial pressure to rise. To the extent that it also does not impede left ventricular (LV) filling, cardiac output responsiveness to increased metabolic demand is optimized. Since cardiac output is a function of metabolic demand of the body, during stress and exercise states the flow to the RV can vary widely. ⋯ Owning to the irreversible nature of most forms of pulmonary hypertension, when the pulmonary arterial elastance greatly exceeds the adaptive increase in RV systolic elastance, due to RV dilation, progressive pulmonary vascular obliteration, or both, end stage cor pulmonale ensues. If associated with cardiogenic shock, it can effectively be treated only by artificial ventricular support or lung transplantation. Knowing how the RV adapts to these stresses, its sign posts, and treatment options will greatly improve the bedside clinician's ability to diagnose and treat RV dysfunction.
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Many aspects of left ventricular function are explained by considering ventricular pressure-volume characteristics. Contractility is best measured by the slope, Emax, of the end-systolic pressure-volume relationship. Ventricular systole is usefully characterized by a time-varying elastance (ΔP/ΔV). ⋯ Without matching, the fraction of energy expended without mechanical work increases and energy is lost during ejection across the aortic valve. Ventricular function curves, derived from ventricular pressure-volume characteristics, interact with venous return curves to regulate cardiac output. Thus, consideration of ventricular pressure-volume relationships highlight features that allow the heart to efficiently respond to any demand for cardiac output and oxygen delivery.
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Volume infusions are one of the commonest clinical interventions in critically ill patients yet the relationship of volume to cardiac output is not well understood. Blood volume has a stressed and unstressed component but only the stressed component determines flow. It is usually about 30 % of total volume. ⋯ This is the equivalent of an auto-transfusion. It is worth noting that during exercise in normal young males, cardiac output can increase five-fold with only small changes in stressed blood volume. The mechanical characteristics of the cardiac chambers and the circulation thus ultimately determine the relationship between volume and cardiac output and are the subject of this review.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common clinical syndrome with poor prognosis. The insensitivity and non-specificity of traditional markers of renal dysfunction prevent timely estimation of the severity of renal injury, and the administration of possible therapeutic agents. Urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (uKIM-1) is a marker of epithelial injury of renal tubules. Different uKIM-1 levels are associated with various degrees of renal injury. This study sought to evaluate uKIM-1 as a predictor of renal prognosis by analyzing uKIM-1 levels in patients with AKI. ⋯ uKIM-1 levels sensitively predict the renal prognosis of patients with AKI, and they may be used as early screening indicators for poor renal prognosis.