TheAASM, ATS, andACCP agree that there is an enormous need for research to improve the understanding and treatment of sleep disorders. Thus, the three societies strongly advocate for increased research support in this critical area. In addition, the societies support initiatives to enhance the number of wellqualified researchers in the broad area of sleep medicine. The societies have agreed to ...

The aims of this study were to determine the presence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and to assess the clinical features of the disease in infants with acute low respiratory tract infection hospitalized at pediatric intensive care units (PICU) of two university teaching hospitals in São Paulo State, Brazil. Nasopharyngeal secretions were tested for the RSV by the polymerase chain reaction...

Any strategy which may reduce the need for sedative drugs in intensive care is welcomed. The benefi ts of sedation are compromised by the negative effects, such as hypotension, longer periods of ventilation and contribution to delirium. In this edition, Zheng and colleagues present evidence that using the bispectral index (BIS) as a depth of sedation measure, electroacupuncture at two Chinese a...

In order to control a process, especially in a computer and instrumented assisted way, as in Brain Intensive Therapy (IT), a model of its behavior is needed. In order to do that, one must first be able to select the best set of a few (thus understandable and manageable) truly relevant variables. In manufactured systems, also used in Brain IT, physics is in fact often quite known, with a managea...

The use of intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to maintain blood glucose level below 8.3 mmol/L is recommended for management of severe sepsis by the Surviving Sepsis guidelines. The recent trials reporting reduced morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients treated with IIT require careful examination, including the subsequent post-hoc analyses. An understanding of the molecular and metabol...

standards an expert group needs to be established to instigate their initiation and implementation. It becomes essential to examine the beliefs and values underpinning these standards and to ask whether they cohere with clinical practice. Within our own clinical area, it is particularly pertinent that an agreed understanding is met regarding treatment. This has clearly been shown during the rec...