Articles: sepsis.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2008
Multicenter StudyIncidence of and mortality due to sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock in Italian Pediatric Intensive Care Units: a prospective national survey.
The objective was to assess the incidence of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock and their mortality in Italian Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs). ⋯ The descriptor is pediatrics.
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2008
Multicenter StudyCentral venous to mixed venous blood oxygen and lactate gradients are associated with outcome in critically ill patients.
Blood O(2) saturation and lactate concentration gradients from superior vena cava (SVC) to pulmonary artery (PA) occur in critically ill patients. These gradients (DeltaSO(2) and Delta[Lac]) may be positive or negative. We tested the hypothesis that positive DeltaSO(2) and Delta[Lac] are associated with improved survival in critically ill patients. ⋯ A strong association exists between positive DeltaSO(2) and Delta[Lac] and survival in critically ill patients. Whether therapy aimed at increasing DeltaSO(2) and Delta[Lac] results in improved ICU survival remains to be determined.
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Intensive care medicine · Aug 2008
Multicenter StudyDevelopment and simultaneous application of multiple care protocols in critical care: a multicenter feasibility study.
To test the feasibility of and interactions among three software-driven critical care protocols. ⋯ Multiple software-driven treatment protocols can be simultaneously applied with high acceptance and rapid achievement of primary treatment goals. Time to reach these primary goals may provide a performance indicator.
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Multicenter Study
The use of rapid diagnostic test of procalcitonin serum levels for the postmortem diagnosis of sepsis.
Because serum Procalcitonin is reported to be a valid postmortem marker of sepsis, this prospective study was carried out to determine whether the semi-quantitative PCT-Q((R))-Test (B. R. A. ⋯ The results show, that a high NPV for prevalences ranging from 3% to 30% can be reached using a 2 ng/ml cut-off point, whereas a cut-off of 10 ng/ml ensures a high PPV for the respective prevalences in the absence of exclusion criteria. The study provides strong evidence that the introduction of rapid diagnostic test (RDTs) of postmortem PCT serum levels may be useful in achieving rapid distinction between sepsis and non-sepsis-related causes of death, especially in conjunction with the medical case history and further autopsy results. In addition, the use of RDTs enables clinicians to conduct an evidence-based validation of clinical diagnosis, thus facilitating future clinical decision-making.
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Increased concentrations of cell-free DNA have been found in plasma of septic and critically ill patients. We investigated the value of plasma DNA for the prediction of intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital mortality and its association with the degree of organ dysfunction and disease severity in patients with severe sepsis. ⋯ Cell-free plasma DNA concentrations were significantly higher in ICU and hospital nonsurvivors than in survivors and showed a moderate discriminative power regarding ICU mortality. Plasma DNA concentration was an independent predictor for ICU mortality, but not for hospital mortality, a finding that decreases its clinical value in severe sepsis and septic shock.