Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
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J Clin Monit Comput · Oct 2009
Comparative StudyThe mean machine; accurate non-invasive blood pressure measurement in the critically ill patient.
Accurate indirect prehospital blood pressure measurement in the critically ill patient remains an important challenge to both patient management and prehospital research. Ambulatory blood pressure measuring devices have not been trialled for prehospital use in critically ill patients. Prior to prehospital validation where conditions are suboptimal, we aimed to test under favourable conditions in the Intensive Care Unit, a selection of ambulatory devices that may be suitable for use in the field. ⋯ In the Intensive Care Unit, the performance of one device, the Oscar 2, surpassed the others and fulfilled the AAMI protocol criteria for mean pressure measurement. This device is suitable for prehospital validation.
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J Clin Monit Comput · Oct 2009
Clinical TrialA novel electronic algorithm for detecting potentially insufficient anesthesia: implications for the prevention of intraoperative awareness.
A recent clinical trial compared a minimum alveolar concentration (MAC)-based protocol to an electroencephalography (EEG)-based protocol for the prevention of intraoperative awareness. One limitation of this study design is that MAC-based protocols are not sensitive to the use of intravenous agents, while EEG-based protocols are. Our objective was to develop a MAC alert that incorporates intravenous agents. ⋯ Our novel electronic alerting system incorporates both age-adjusted MAC and intravenous anesthesia, and triggers with a higher frequency in cases of awareness. These data suggest the potential for our system to alert clinicians to insufficient anesthesia.