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Biomedical subjects

A Larcan

Publications and source records attributed to A Larcan.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Hemodynamic and metabolic effects of rapid correction of hypophosphatemia in patients with septic shock.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the hemodynamic and metabolic short-term effects of hypophosphatemia correction in patients with septic shock receiving catecholamine therapy. DESIGN: Prospective, single cohort study. SETTING: ICU, university hospital. PATIENTS: Ten patients with septic shock and hypophosphatemia below 2 mg/dL. INTERVENTIONS: Infusion of glucose-1-phosphate solution (20 mmol of elemental phosphorus) for 60 min. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Hemodynamic, oxygen-derived, acid-base, and electrolyte parameters before and immediately after phosphate infusion. Left ventricular stroke work index increased significantly (22%) from a mean low value of 24 +/- 10 g/m2 without changes in filling pressures. Systolic arterial pressure improved by 12%. Arterial pH improved slightly but significantly. Ionized calcium level slightly decreased within the normal range values. Other parameters remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Severe hypophosphatemia may be considered as a superimposed cause of myocardial depression, inadequate peripheral vasodilatation, and acidosis in septic shock. A rapid correction of hypophosphatemia is well tolerated and may have both myocardial and vascular beneficial effects. The magnitude of the response, however, is variable and unpredictable on the basis of serum phosphorus levels.

Adult↗

Prognosis of stroke patients undergoing mechanical ventilation.

OBJECTIVE: to determine the outcome of stroke patients undergoing mechanical ventilation. DESIGN: retrospective chart review and follow-up telephone interview. SETTING: medical ICU in a multidisciplinary university hospital. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: 199 stroke patients from 1984-1989 where the final diagnosis was stroke. INTERVENTIONS: all patients were admitted for the need of mechanical ventilation. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: demographic information, previous relevant diseases, stroke type, general clinical and neurological data, biochemical variables, severity of illness were recorded for the first 24 h following ICU admission. A 1-year follow-up was performed, including mortality and functional status of survivors. Of 170 eventually analyzable patients, 123 (72.4%) died during their ICU stay and 156 (91.8%) during the first year. Three variables were independently associated with one-year mortality: Glasgow score < 10 (p < 0.03), bradycardia (p < 0.001), absence of brainstem reflexes (p < 0.0004). CONCLUSION: overall prognosis of stroke needing mechanical ventilation is poor, strongly linked to symptoms of neurological impairment.

Brain Ischemia↗

Effects of sodium bicarbonate on striated muscle metabolism and intracellular pH during endotoxic shock.

The effects of HCO3Na load on acid-base balance and muscle intracellular bioenergetics have been investigated using 31P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy in an experimental model of endotoxinic shock. Anesthetized, mechanically ventilated, and paralyzed rats (n = 16) were given an intravenous bolus of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (15 mg/kg). When shock was established they were randomly assigned to receive either HCO3Na intravenously (2 mmol/kg in 2 min) or an equimolar saline injection. Lipopolysaccharide induced a significant decrease in the levels of mean arterial pressure (58 +/- 6 vs. 120 +/- 8 mmHg), arterial pH (7.20 +/- .03 vs. 7.35 +/- .01), intracellular pH (6.86 +/- .04 vs. 7.08 +/- .01), a marked hyperlactatemia (7 +/- 3 vs. 1.2 +/- .2 mmol/L) and a drop in the phosphocreatine-inorganic phosphate ratio. In the bicarbonate-loaded rats, mean arterial pressure further decreased whereas it remained unchanged in the saline group. Bicarbonate increased arterial pH and PaCO2 transiently. In the saline group, arterial pH decreased and PaCO2 remained stable. In both groups, intracellular pH and high energy phosphates had a similar evolution. In this model of septic shock, partial correction of arterial pH using HCO3Na did not reduce the metabolic cellular injury in skeletal muscle. Based on these results, HCO3Na may be of limited therapeutic value in severe septic metabolic acidosis.

Acidosis, Lactic↗

[Absence of mitral valve prolapse during panic attacks induced by sodium lactate].

The recent identification of a new type of anxiety state, panic attack, has drawn attention to common pathways between panic disorder and cardiac somatization, particularly mitral valve collapse. A double-blind study was set up, using doppler-echocardiography during a panic attack induced by sodium lactate infusion. The results showed that there was no relationship between panic attack and mitral valve collapse, and that the lactate infusion-anxiety rate was only 35 percent.

Adolescent↗

[Factors prognostic of acute kidney insufficiencies following vascular surgery].

Acute renal failure (ARF) following vascular surgery is still associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. A retrospective study of 33 patients, admitted in ICU for ARF following the surgical treatment of aortic occlusive or aneurysmal diseases, was undertaken to determine the risk factors, clinical settings and prognosis of postoperative renal failure. There were 29 men and 4 women, with a mean age of 63 years and SAPS of 18. The surgical procedure was scheduled in more than 50% of the cases. The mortality rate was extremely high (79%); only 4 out of 33 patients were discharged without sequelae. History and clinical settings had addictive effects for the development of postoperative renal failure. Most patients who had sustained oliguria or who developed septic shock or multiple organ failure were associated with poor prognosis. The conclusion is that the prognosis of acute renal failure after vascular surgery depends more on the occurrence of multiple organ failure than the acute renal failure by itself.

Acute Kidney Injury↗

Effect of chronic potassium depletion on muscle bioenergetics in rats.

To test the hypothesis of muscle bioenergetic impairment in potassium depletion, chronic potassium-depleted rats and pair-fed control rats were studied with phosphorus 31 nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of leg muscle intracellular pH, phosphocreatine, inorganic phosphate, and adenosine triphosphate at rest and during maximal nontetanic stimulation, 48 hours after a swimming test. The potassium-depleted rats exhibited a significant hypokalemia, a metabolic extracellular alkalosis, and an intracellular acidosis. Their physical endurance was markedly reduced, and they displayed higher plasma creatine kinase levels than the control group. However, the phosphocreatine/inorganic phosphate ratio, which is a measure of the energy reserve of the cell, was similar in both groups at rest and during electrical stimulation and subsequent recovery. Resting muscle glycogen and relative intracellular acidification during stimulation did not differ in the two groups, arguing against an impairment of anaerobic metabolism in potassium depletion. These results indicate that the energy availability of muscle cell is unchanged during potassium deficiency.

Animals↗

Transient non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema following massive ingestion of ethylene glycol butyl ether.

A case of acute poisoning with ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE) is reported in a chronic alcohol abuser. On admission the 53-year-old patient was comatose with metabolic acidosis, shock, and noncardiogenic pulmonary edema confirmed by haemodynamic study. Following supportive treatment and haemodialysis the outcome was favorable. The relationship between respiratory failure and EGBE is examined.

Alcoholism↗

Respective effects of malnutrition and phosphate depletion on endurance swimming and muscle metabolism in rats.

To examine the respective roles of malnutrition and phosphate depletion on muscle exercise capacity and bioenergetics, phosphate-depleted, either underfed or partly refed rats; phosphate-supplemented, either underfed or partly refed rats; and well-nourished control animals were studied, using swim time to exhaustion and 31P NMR spectroscopy measurements of muscle phosphocreatine, inorganic phosphate, adenosine triphosphate and intracellular pH. Only partly refed rats displayed hypophosphataemia. Swim time to exhaustion was lower in non-refed rats than in controls. Among the four groups, both refeeding and phosphate depletion positively affected swim time to exhaustion (both with P less than 0.02), and swim time to exhaustion was negatively correlated with phosphataemia (P less than 0.05). At rest, the ratio of muscle phosphocreatine/inorganic phosphate was lower in the phosphate-supplemented rats than in controls, whereas muscle phosphocreatine/adenosine triphosphate and intracellular pH were comparable. After non-tetanic stimulation, the muscle phosphocreatine recovery was slower in the four groups than in controls and closely correlated with exhaustion (P less than 0.01). These findings suggest that malnutrition alters the capacity of muscular work, mainly because of a reduced cell oxidative energy availability. These patterns are improved by partial refeeding and clearly influenced by the level of phosphorus intake, whether depletion is capable of improving metabolic alterations or uncontrolled supplementation is deleterious in malnourished animals.

Animals↗

[Organization of psychiatric emergencies in the general hospital].

The authors try to define the notion of psychiatric emergency "pathology covering a whole line of situations characterized by their particularly acute and dramatic behaviors, their constant dealing with human relations, the high frequency of acting out and their usually rapid resolutions" (translated from Védrinne). They make a brief overview of french psychiatric emergencies departments organization in France either in psychiatric hospitals or in general hospitals. They report the Nancy psychiatric emergencies room's experience, which was born in 1987 and is based on an agreement between the psychiatric "secteurs" and the general hospital. This agreement provides psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses 24h/24, working in a psychiatric room within the medical emergencies department. This experience agrees with the recent french law about psychiatric emergencies.

Emergency Services, Psychiatric↗

[Current status of poisoning by ingestion of caustics: apropos of a series of 49 cases].

The authors report the history of 49 patients, admitted to an intensive care unit after a caustic or corrosive ingestion. This series follows a similar one, related in 1979. An update is made for early evaluation and management, based on patients classification in three groups: severe cases, moderate cases, mild cases. Clinical and biological data, treatment and outcome for the three groups are related. The frequency and gravity of these poisonings appear to be the same as in the first series, with poor prognosis for extreme emergencies and high risk of oesophageal or gastric stricture for important forms. In this population, 20% of extreme emergencies have favorable outcome with early major surgical procedure.

Adolescent↗

Full recovery after a chloroquine suicide attempt.

The nonfatal case of a 20 year-old woman who ingested 6 grams of chloroquine in a suicide attempt is reported. After initial ventricular fibrillation, she rapidly developed a pulmonary edema with cardiogenic shock. She was successfully treated with diazepam, epinephrine, dobutamine and mechanical ventilation. Plasma chloroquine levels showed an initial peak of 36 micrograms/mL. The patient was discharged fully recovered after 19 days. The interaction between chloroquine and diazepam is discussed, as is the need for careful management of epinephrine therapy.

Adult↗

[Emergency care at the hospital].

Emergencies are very diversified: clinical setting, age, sex, circumstances, medicine, surgery, psychiatry, specialties. The admission into the specific departments depends on geographical, demographical features (distances to be covered...). They are theoretically unscheduled but sometimes out-hospital messages can be sent to improve the reception or to decide a very short circuit. Emergency rooms exist in most hospitals and are not so often appropriate. Emergency reception requires a place and a technical assistance where to get in touch with and to perform as quick as possible the formalities, first diagnosis and first aid procedures and orientation to the appropriate department. As a main frame in the network of assistance and care, emergency department ought to be a unique place with multiple disciplines (medicine, surgery, psychiatry), where universal first aid technical assistance and unified working would open to al hospital departments or a piece of hospitals. This structure relies on well dispatched areas, with easy ways, many examinations, simultaneous actions, urgent complementary tests and families reception. A hospital, practitioner must be in charge, whom speciality deals with emergency. Staff must include on-call doctors who can be helped by at-home physicians and many competent paramedics: nurses, health workers, stretcher-bearers, X-ray handlers, drivers, operators, secretaries, social workers, hostesses... Specific arrangements must be taken for special X-rays, biology and hospital reception of medico-surgical, obstetrical, psychiatric, social, medico-legal and medico-judicial emergencies. Running of that structure, mainly facing severe emergencies, must go together with out-hospital medical advises, patients admission for some time or a brief relief (control and social cases). In all cases, connection between out-hospital set-ups, various medical sittings and hospitals in the main goal which must be achieved with the S.A.M.U. Emergency medicine is universal, sequential, discontinuous with a social aspect open to a town or a district. If someone wants to be technically irreproachable, he needs to get together most of the existent structures to have a performant material and as much and efficient staff as possible.

Emergency Service, Hospital↗