B-type natriuretic levels in critically ill patients: critically misleading?

B-type natriuretic levels in critically ill patients: critically misleading?

Although B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been used for the diagnosis of congestive heart failure in many clinical settings, its diagnostic role in critically ill patients remains uncertain. The body of literature suggests that BNP and N-terminal pro-BNP levels are not useful for the diagnosis of systolic or diastolic heart failure in the critically ill, including in patients with brain hem...

Nutritional Assessment in Critically Ill Patients

Background: Malnutrition is an important factor in the survival of critically ill patients. The purpose of the present study was to assess the nutritional status of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) on the days of admission and discharge via a detailed nutritional assessment. Methods: Totally, 125 patients were followed up from admission to discharge at 8ICUs in Shiraz, Iran. The patien...

In critically ill patients the procalcitonin level can be misleading

ree recently published articles in Critical Care concerning the usefulness of procalcitonin (PCT) in critically ill patients elicited this cautionary comment of the present article’s title [1-3]. PCT has been introduced as a test with high sensitivity and specifi city for bacterial infection in patients in the emergency department. Th e test’s negative predictive value is thought to be suffi ci...

B-type natriuretic peptide predicts long-term prognosis in a cohort of critically ill patients

B-type natriuretic peptide is an important prognostic marker in heart failure. However, there are limited data for its value in non-cardiac intensive care unit patients, namely regarding long-term prognosis. We investigated the long-term prognostic value of BNP in a cohort of critically ill patients. This was a prospective and observational study, conducted in a tertiary university hospital 20-...

probiotics in critically ill patients