Is tissue Doppler echocardiography the Holy Grail for the intensivist?

Is tissue Doppler echocardiography the Holy Grail for the intensivist?

Assessment of left ventricular diastolic function in the critically ill patient remains a difficult issue in clinical practice. Combined use of routine transmitral and pulmonary venous Doppler patterns in conjunction with tissue Doppler imaging have been claimed to allow bedside diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction. Although in the previous issue of Critical Care it was clearly demonstrated there...

Pursuing the "Holy Grail".

Over the past decade, several large, randomized trials have allowed us to better define the appropriate population for primary prevention implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (ICD) placement, saving thousands of lives every year. MADIT II (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II) and SCD-HeFT (Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial) have demonstrated a survival benefit o...

Searching for the Holy Grail?

CH2D(+), the search for the holy grail.

CH2D+, the singly deuterated counterpart of CH3(+), offers an alternative way to mediate formation of deuterated species at temperatures of several tens of Kelvin, as compared to the release of deuterated species from grains. We report a longstanding observational search for this molecular ion, whose rotational spectroscopy is not yet completely secure. We summarize the main spectroscopic prope...

The Holy Grail of Psychiatry

"Holy Grail" is a well-known metaphor for the eternal spiritual pursuit for truth and wisdom. It suggests that in order for us to find what no one has found, we must search where few have looked. In 2013, a group led by Helen Mayberg published a groundbreaking paper that sought an answer to one of the most discussed conundrums in psychiatry and neuroscience: Can specific patterns of brain activ...