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This retrospective study of more than 7000 patients from four combined medical-surgical ICUs demonstrated that ionized calcium levels are unrelated to mortality over a broad range of values but are independent predictors of mortality when levels are severely increased or decreased.
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In assessment of acute chest pain in the emergency room, a new or "presumably new" left bundle branch block (LBBB) is considered as an electrocardiographic (ECG) equivalent to ST elevation.
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Involving family members in ICU rounds improved satisfaction in some areas, such as physician communication and decision-making support, but failed to improve overall family satisfaction.
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In a hospital with high ICU bed occupancy, delays in transferring critically ill patients from the emergency department or general wards to the ICU were associated with increased mortality in comparison with immediate transfer to an ICU bed, and this increased mortality was incrementally greater with increasing delay.
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Current guidelines recommend hypothermia for comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in whom return of circulation has been achieved.
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From 1985 to 2008, all first-ever strokes in the city of Dijon, France (150,000 inhabitants) were recorded, and among those patients who were testable (3201/3948 or 81%), 20.4% had post-stroke dementia.
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A small study of the effects of acute cell phone use on brain glucose metabolism revealed significant increases in areas near the location of a phone's antenna. The findings do not imply that cell phone use causes brain damage, only that the electromagnetic fields from them do cause changes in brain function.
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Physicians often do not choose the same clinical treatments for themselves as they would recommend to their patients.
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