OBJECTIVE Children with tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary atresia, and major aortopulmonary collaterals (TOF/PA/MAPCAs), who undergo unifocalization surgery are at risk for prolonged postoperative respiratory failure. We sought to identify risk factors that are associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation in this population. DESIGN We collected preoperative and operative data from medical re...

Mechanical dyssynchrony is a common phenomenon in patients with congestive heart failure, which usually identified by noninvasive cardiac imaging tools such as echocardiography. It demonstrates electromechanical delay in some regions of the failing heart which in turn contributes to further impairment of cardiac function. The diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic values of mechanical dyssynchr...

Difficult weaning from mechanical ventilation is a major problem in critically ill patients. The pathophysiology of weaning failure is complex and multiple causes for difficult weaning may exist in any single patient. We have recently developed a structural framework (‘ABCDE’) for the assessment and treatment of difficult-to-wean patients. In this article, we present the case of a difficult-to-...

Acute severe bronchospasm is an emergency situation and sometimes these children may fail to respond to conventional treatment and deteriorate rapidly to respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. We present a case of 2-year-old girl, who presented with severe bronchospasm resulting in respiratory failure not responding to conventional management including mechanical ventilation and ...

Although life-saving, mechanical ventilation is associated with numerous complications. These include pneumonia, cardiovascular compromise, barotrauma, and ventilator-induced lung injury. Recent data from animal studies suggest that controlled mechanical ventilation can cause dysfunction of the diaphragm, decreasing its force-generating capacity--a condition referred to as ventilator-induced di...

BACKGROUND Success of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is generally assessed by the objective improvement in peak volume of inhaled oxygen (VO2) measured by cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX). However, cardiac mechanical efficiency and ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC) are the other important dimensions of the heart failure pathophysiology, which are not included in CPX-derived data. The effect o...

nanoindentation techniques are widely used for the study of nanomechanical properties of thin nanocomposite coatings. theoretical concepts and practical use of nanoindentation method are summarized with reporting the applications of these tests in characterization of some particular thin nanocomposite hybrid coatings prepared by sol-gel process. the better mechanical properties can be obtained ...

existence of cracks in industrial structures is one of the important causes of their failure, especially when they are subjected to important axial compressive forces that might lead to buckling. therefore, it must be considered in stress analysis and designing and loading of such structures. in this paper, the buckling and post-buckling behaviors of stainless-steel cracked plates under axial c...

BACKGROUND: We sought to identify risk factors for mechanical ventilation in patients with malignancies and acute respiratory failure (ARF). METHODS: We analyzed data from a previous randomized controlled trial in which nonintubated oncology and hematology subjects with ARF were randomized to early bronchoalveolar lavage or routine care in 16 ICUs in France. Consecutive patients with malignanci...