Home » Critical Care and Shock » Volume 9

Critical Care and Shock, February 2006, Volume 9, No. 1

20060115113849

Cardiac troponin I elevation in subarachnoid hemorrhage: Should we worry?

Article ID:
20060315223738
Authors:
Joanna Molina, Joseph Varon, Robert E. Fromm, Jr

Troponin I can be used as a marker not only for cardiac outcome in patients with SAH; but also as predictive for complications such as DCI, hypotension and pulmonary edema. More over it can be used as a prognostic factor in terms of functionality.

Hyperglycemia after trauma: Physiologic and tolerable or a possible threat that needs to be corrected?

Article ID:
20060315223517
Authors:
Gloria Salazar, Joseph Varon

Admission hyperglycemia is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality in the critically ill trauma population studied by Sung and coworkers. There are a variety of mechanisms involved and attempts to control the glycemic index should become routine in the management of these patients.

Demyelinating disease of the brain presenting as ring enhancing lesions in a critically ill patient

Article ID:
20060315223152
Authors:
Salim Surani, Robert Ortiz Garcia, Fabricio Zuniga, Joseph Varon

A 26-year-old Latin-American woman with a history of alcohol and cocaine abuse was brought to the emergency department with the complaint of fever, altered mental status and weakness of 3-day duration. Her initial vital signs included a blood pressure of 80/40 torr, heart rate 140/min, respiratory rate 32/min, SaO2 96% on room air, temperature 41oC. Aggressive fluid resuscitation was started, blood cultures obtained, and empiric antibiotics started. A lumbar puncture revealed six white blood cells per field with normal glucose levels.

IABP deployment in critical care

Article ID:
20060315222601
Authors:
Hafil B. Abdulgani, Dicky A. Wartono

The Intra Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) is an established support in addition to pharmacologic treatment of the failing heart after myocardial infarction, unstable angina, cardiac surgery and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The indication for IABP in acute myocardial infarction expanded to include support of severely ill patient during acute cardiac catheterization and myocardial revascularization both percutaneous and surgical. An international randomized trial, SHould we emergently revascularized Occluded Coronaries for cardiogenic shocK?

Delayed neutrophil apoptosis in patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome

Article ID:
20060315222152
Authors:
Noha El Sakka, Helen F. Galley, Ola Sharaki, Myriam Helmy, Salah Marzouk, Shafik Azmy, Mona Sedrak, Nigel R. Webster

Aged neutrophils undergo spontaneous apoptosis and delayed apoptosis is associated with persistence of inflammatory disorders through release of toxic metabolites. We evaluated spontaneous apoptosis of neutrophils in patients with multiorgan dysfunction syndrome and neutrophil respiratory burst activity. Neutrophil apoptosis was assessed at study enrollment and after 24 hours incubation in culture medium by annexin-V assay, morphology and DNA fragmentation. Respiratory burst activity was measured using dihydrorhodamine.