[Computerized systems for a resuscitation and intensive care center].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Proietti.
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This report describes a fatal case of toxic shock syndrome following surgical procedure of adrenalectomy. Toxic shock syndrome is a severe multisystemic illness associated with Staphylococcus Aureus infection. The disease is usually associated with menstruation and tampon usage. However, it has recently been reported in the postoperative period following simple surgical procedures. The surgical wound does not usually appear infected. The syndrome is associated with specific strains of Staphylococci producing the toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), that mainly contributes to the illness. The major clinical signs are: fever, diarrhea, cutaneous rash and hypotension. Toxic shock syndrome requires early recognition and prompt aggressive symptomatic treatment based essentially on fluids administration, appropriate intravenous antibiotics and corticosteroids.
Water and electrolyte content influences the rheology of respiratory mucus. Nasal secretions can be obtained from almost all patients and may be regarded as a possibly useful model of the electrolyte composition of lower airway secretions that are difficult to collect in most patients. Na, K, and Cl were determined from nasal secretions in 35 ICU patients. We studied the relationship of those values to the patients' water and salt states. Our study indicates that: a) lower K and Cl levels and higher Na levels than those found in plasma are common to both nasal and bronchial secretions; b) variations of electrolyte levels in nasal secretions are interrelated; c) patients with lower values of free-water clearance show lower Na and higher Cl levels in nasal secretions, possibly due to increased epithelial transport; d) the amount of K in nasal secretions appears correlated with its urinary fractional excretion (this could be explained by the variations in intracellular K levels); and e) in hyperchloremic patients, plasma/secretion differences of Na are decreased, possibly due to decreased epithelial transport.
Na, K and Cl levels and pH were determined in 26 samples of nasal secretum and plasma obtained from orally intubated intensive care unit patients. In nasal secretum K and Cl were higher and Na lower than in plasma: pH was higher in secretum than in plasma, probably because of the fall of CO2, which freely diffuses to the air. The epithelial activities of lowering pH, secreting K, and reabsorbing Na appeared closely linked together. The chloride difference (DCl) probably balanced the decrease of other anions, such as bicarbonate. Finally, some influences of plasmatic values on ion active transport rates may be hypothesized on the ground of the correlations of chloride and potassium values in nasal secretion and plasma.
Spectral EEG analysis has been successfully utilized in previous studies on migraine patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate, by means of EEG mapping, potential correlations between the efficacy of flunarizine treatment in migraine patients and the EEG pattern recorded after chronic flunarizine therapy. Flunarizine was found to modify the non-specific EEG abnormalities of our migraine patients as well as evoke a positive clinical response.
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In contrast to lymphocytes and skeletal muscle cells, erythrocyte electrolytes may be easily determined. In this study Na, K, and Mg concentrations in plasma and erythrocytes of 100 consecutive ICU patients were compared to evaluate their potential clinical usefulness. The predictive indices of electrolyte changes in plasma vs. those in erythrocytes were low for all of the electrolytes studied. The erythrocyte Mg assessment was particularly useful for the high frequency of abnormalities observed, because it was less affected than plasma Mg by such transitory clinical states as hemodilution or lipolysis. The erythrocyte K was less frequently altered; no patient with a high K deficit was studied, excluding one patient with Crohn's disease. Finally, abnormally high erythrocyte Na levels correlated closely with some pathologic status, in particular respiratory failure.
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At the beginning of their discovery informatic technique procedures and methodologies generated a great wave of hopes for progress in theoretical and practical fields of human activity, but when passing to concrete application, an ebb phase followed. Recent theoretical and technical progress, however, has generated an enormous new up-surge of interest for applications of informatic processing in all fields of science. Medicine in the last three decades has gone through the same phases observed in other disciplines. In the ICU the potentiality of exploitation of the informatic techniques appeared enormous, however, initially from a practical point of view it found only limited, sectorial experimentation and implementation, but afterwards a limited and slow process of parcellar infiltration, the high tide of informatic, has broken the dam and deeply advanced in its territory, obliging the staff to a great effort of cultural and technical updating to cope with it. After recalling some of the history of Computer Science or Informatic, even if history was only yesterday, we will present some examples of the hand made experience of an ICU, (namely ours) with limited economical resources, and whose interest in this field arises from actual needs, personal interest and enthusiasm of a staff who works, on its free time, after fulfilling its stressing routine.
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The anticatabolic properties of branched chain amino acids enriched protein solutions in 22 patients with multiple trauma have been evaluated. Nitrogen balance, nitrogen output, the daily change of blood urea nitrogen, plasma albumin and total protein levels were recorded daily. Each 2 days free amino acids and 3-methyl histidine urinary concentrations were measured. The results obtained in the study suggest that in trauma patients high ratios of essential amino acids/total nitrogen are needed and that amino acid solutions enriched in branched chain amino acids are most effective in preventing muscle catabolism and promoting protein synthesis.
The nutritional value of regimes enriched with branched chain amino acids has been evaluated in 22 adult patients suffering from acute post-traumatic renal failure. The study was carried out for 12 days. The following data were recorded and compared daily: nitrogen balance, daily blood urea nitrogen (BUN), BUN/creatinine ratio, and plasma albumin levels. Also after 6 days of dialysis and nutritional support, the plasma medium molecular weight compounds (uremic toxins) were studied. It was concluded that: (a) the combined use of parenteral and oral nutrition appears most adequate in this type of patient; (b) the nitrogen intake should provide an essential amino acid/total nitrogen ratio of greater than or equal to 4 and a branched chain essential amino acid ratio of greater than or equal to 0.5; and (c) caution is still necessary in interpreting analyses of middle molecular weight compounds in this type of patient.
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