Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common and serious problem that develops after more than 48 hours of mechanical ventilation. Improving the activity of immune system with vitamin D, and its consequent impact on prognostic biomarkers of VAP was studied in the current study. A randomized double blind placebo controlled clinical trial was designed. A total of 46 patients with VAP, who w...

BACKGROUND Respiratory dysfunction associated with severe sepsis is a serious condition leading to poor prognosis. Activation of coagulation is a consequence of and contributor to ongoing lung injury in severe sepsis. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of recombinant human soluble thrombomodulin (rhTM), a novel anticoagulant agent, for treating patients with sepsis-induced di...

Objectives: To evaluate the association between magnesium levels, morbidity and mortality in critically ill elderly patients admitted in ICU. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Geriatrics department at a University Hospital over 1.5 years period. Data collected included patients demographics and medical history, length of stay ...

Materials and methods Design: analysis of a prospectively collected database. Setting: mixed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in an University Hospital. Patients: A total of 70 patients (ASA II-IV) aged >65 submitted to cardiac surgery. They were evaluated on 24,48 and 72 hours after ICU admission. All post-operative ASA IV-E (E= emergency) and all ICU patients with different diagnosis were excluded f...

BACKGROUND The use of novel sepsis biomarkers has increased in recent years. However, their prognostic value with respect to illness severity has not been explored. In this work, we examined the ability of mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) in predicting mortality in sepsis patients with different degrees of organ failure, compared to that of procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and lactat...

Sepsis is a syndrome consisting of physiological, pathological and biochemical anomalies caused by infectious agents. It causes clinical organ dysfunction, which identified an acute increase in the Sequential (sepsis-related) Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score two or more points. SOFA three components that can be easily used at bedside to track status patient while on admission, these are al...

Despite a potentially effective therapy for adult respiratory failure, a general agreement on venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) has not been reached among institutions due to its invasiveness and high resource usage. To establish consensus on the timing of intervention, large ECMO organizations have published the respiratory extracorporeal membrane oxygenation survival pr...

Early diagnosis and patient stratification may improve sepsis outcome by a timely start of the proper specific treatment. We aimed to identify metabolomic biomarkers of sepsis in urine by (1)H-NMR spectroscopy to assess the severity and to predict outcomes. Urine samples were collected from 64 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in the ICU for a (1)H NMR spectra acquisition. A supervise...