Year in review 2011: Critical Care - neurocritical care

Year in review 2011: Critical Care - neurocritical care

Contributions from the neurosciences to Critical Care in 2011 covered an array of topics. We learned about potential biomarkers for, and the effect of cerebral oxygen metabolism on, delirium, in addition to treatment of the latter. A group of investigators studied surface cooling in healthy awake volunteers, and incidence of infection associated with therapeutic hypothermia. The effects of stat...

Year in review 2010: Critical Care - neurocritical care

In 2010 Critical Care published a large number of articles on critical care aspects of neurologic and neurosurgical conditions. These aspects included investigation of diagnostic criteria for bacterial meningitis, critical illness myopathy and their relationship to systemic inflammation. A number of studies investigated the biology of sepsis-related delirium, its biomarkers, its relationship to...

Year in review 2011: Critical Care - infection

Year in review 2011: Critical Care - respirology

Pathogenesis of acute respiratory distress syndrome Damage-associated DNA and microparticles Cell-free DNA is detected in blood in many diseases and can originate from necrotic cells or apoptotic processes to refl ect the extent of cellular damage. ARDS is associated with several acute diseases that may cause cell death and release of DNA into the bloodstream [1]. Okkonen and colleagues [2] per...

Year in review 2011: Critical Care - cardiology

We review key research papers in cardiology and intensive care published during 2011 in Critical Care and quote related studies published in other journals whenever appropriate. Papers are grouped into the following categories: cardiovascular therapies, mechanical therapies, biomarkers, prognostic markers, hemodynamic monitoring, cardiovascular diseases, microcirculation, hypertension in critic...