The mortality rate of severe respiratory failure in most centers remains 60% to 90% with conventional pulmonary support techniques. Recent advances in the physiologic management of patients with acute respiratory failure include optimizing systemic oxygen delivery as reflected by continuous mixed-venous saturation monitoring, avoidance of the damaging effects of high inflation pressures and vol...

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of blood flow plays an important role in better understanding various medical conditions, designing more effective drug delivery systems, and developing novel diagnostic methods treatments. However, despite significant advances computational technology resources, the expensive cost these simulations still hinders their transformation from a research i...

With increasing altitude, there is a fall in barometric pressure and a progressive fall in the partial pressure of oxygen. Acclimatization describes the physiologic changes that help maintain tissue oxygen delivery and human performance in the setting of hypobaric hypoxemia. These changes include a marked increase in alveolar ventilation, increased hemoglobin concentration and affinity, and inc...

The microcirculation is a series of arterioles, capillaries, and venules that performs essential functions of oxygen and nutrient delivery, customized to the unique physiologic needs of the supplied organ. The homeostatic microcirculatory response to infection can become harmful if overactive and/or dysregulated. Pathologic microcirculatory dysfunction can be directly visualized by intravital m...

Although the right to health care is not written into the U.S. Constitution, moral and ethical tenets govern the delivery of optimal medical care universally and across the life continuum. Pertaining to children, in accordance with the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924 and the United Nations Human Rights General Assembly adoption of the Rights of the Child in 1959, parents o...

Gene-based therapies for tissue regeneration involve delivering a specific gene to a target tissue with the goal of changing the phenotype or protein expression profile of the recipient cell; the ultimate goal being to form specific tissues required for regeneration. One of the principal advantages of this approach is that it provides for a sustained delivery of physiologic levels of the growth...

The obstetric patient poses exceptional challenges in the intensive care unit. Knowledge of the physiologic changes of pregnancy and specific pregnancy-related disorders is necessary for optimal management. Intensive care unit diagnoses may include preeclampsia, including the HELLP syndrome, pulmonary embolic disease, amniotic fluid embolism, status asthmaticus, respiratory infection, the acute...

Glycemic control via the use of exogenous insulin injections in diabetic patients is incomplete, resulting in multiple long-term complications, such as retinopathy, neuropathy, vasculopathy, and nephropathy. The goal of whole-pancreas and kidney transplantation is to achieve long-term insulin independence and correct uremia. The proposed benefits of pancreas and kidney transplantation are impro...

Gene transfer to the central nervous system (CNS) is complicated by the anatomic and physiologic isolation of the brain. Direct injection techniques circumvent this, and allow delivery of transgenes to specific areas of the CNS. Previously, direct transfection of cellular components of the CNS has been achieved using plasmid DNA. We report the use of cationic liposomes as a means of transfectin...

Hybrid PET/MR imaging is in early development for treatment planning. This article briefly reviews research and clinical applications of PET/MR imaging in radiation oncology. With improvements in workflow, more specific tracers, and fast and robust acquisition protocols, PET/MR imaging will play an increasingly important role in better target delineation for treatment planning and have clear ad...