Articles: cations.
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2023
Protocolization of Analgesia and Sedation Through Smart Technology in Intensive Care: Improving Patient Safety.
The risk of medication errors in intensive care units is high, primarily in the drug administration phase. ⋯ Protocolization and centralization of the preparation of high-alert sedative and analgesic medications for critically ill patients and the administration of these drugs using smart pump technology decrease variability of clinical practice and intercept potentially serious medication errors.
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Pulmonary artery catheters provide important information about cardiac function, mixed venous oxygenation, and right-sided pressures and potentially provide temporary pacing ability. ⋯ The overall risk of serious complications with right heart catheter placement and manipulation is low and often outweighed by its benefits, specifically pressure monitoring and pacing.
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Homelessness is associated with high risk of acute neurotraumatic injury in the ∼600 000 Americans affected on any given night. ⋯ Homeless individuals experience longer hospital stays, more inpatient complications such as myocardial infarction, and more unplanned readmissions after discharge compared with their housed counterparts. These findings combined with limited discharge options in the homeless population indicate that better guidance is needed to improve the postoperative disposition and long-term care of this vulnerable patient population.
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Debilitating pain affects the lives of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Current pain treatment for patients with SCD fail to completely resolve acute or chronic SCD pain. Previous research indicates that the cation channel transient receptor potential vanilloid type 4 (TRPV4) mediates peripheral hypersensitivity in various inflammatory and neuropathic pain conditions that may share similar pathophysiology with SCD, but this channel's role in chronic SCD pain remains unknown. ⋯ TRPV4 blockade also reduced the mechanical sensitivity of small, but not large, dorsal root ganglia neurons from mice with SCD. Furthermore, keratinocytes from mice with SCD showed sensitized TRPV4-dependent calcium responses. These results shed new light on the role of TRPV4 in SCD chronic pain and are the first to suggest a role for epidermal keratinocytes in the heightened sensitivity observed in SCD.
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Purpose: To evaluate significant risk variables for sepsis incidence and develop a predictive model for rapid screening and diagnosis of sepsis in patients from the emergency department (ED). Methods: Sepsis-related risk variables were screened based on the PIRO (Predisposition, Insult, Response, Organ dysfunction) system. Training (n = 1,272) and external validation (n = 568) datasets were collected from Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) and Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital (BTCH), respectively. ⋯ Both calibration curves of EASE in training and external validation datasets were close to the ideal model and were well-calibrated. Conclusions: The EASE model can predict and screen ED-admitted patients with sepsis. It demonstrated superior diagnostic performance and clinical application promise by external validation and in-parallel comparison with the NEWS scoring system.