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This prospective 10-year study of 7356 patients with ST-elevation MI who presented in cardiogenic shock showed once again that early mechanical revascularization (as recommended by current guidelines) substantially increases survival; it also suggests that adherence to the guidelines needs to be further improved.
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Airway Management is an integral and frequent component of care of the critically ill.
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In a randomized, controlled trial, patients with stroke or head injury who required mechanical ventilation were less likely to develop ventilator-associated pneumonia if they underwent early percutaneous gastrostomy for nutritional support than if they continued to be fed via nasogastric tube.
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Both intra-abdominal hypertension and evidence for its adverse physiologic effects were common in this retrospective series of ICU patients with severe acute pancreatitis, although there was no association with mortality, and 3 of 4 patients subjected to decompressive laparotomy died.
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When study data were used to perform a formal analysis of costs associated with use of erythropoietin, the total cost to avoid one transfusion-related adverse event was $4.7 million.
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The 79 CC and 46 AA alleles studied were found to be high long term survival, further validating pharmacogenetic targeting of b blocker therapy for improving ACS results.
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Women have a higher risk than men for atrial fibrillation related thromboembolism that is independent of the presence of other risk factors.
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Lithium can unmask latent Brugada syndrome by blockade of susceptible cardiac sodium channels.
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An early invasive strategy did not result in an expected differential in the primary end point.
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Volume outcome data for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) was largely collected and reported in the balloon angioplasty era. Thus, this report from New York state's PCI reporting system from 1998 to 2000 is of interest. This database of over 100,000 cases, which can be adjusted for severity of illness, was interrogated for 3 outcomes: in-hospital mortality, same-day coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), and same-stay CABG.