Thiamine Levels During Intensive Insulin Therapy in Critically Ill Patients

Introduction: Thiamine is an essential cofactor in carbohydrate metabolism, and deficiency can therefore cause various organ dysfunctions. Little is known about the prevalence and possible worsening of thiamine deficiency in critically ill patients. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of thiamine deficiency at admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and hypothesized that intensive insulin therapy, aimed at regulating glucose levels, increases thiamine utilization and therefore might cause or worsen deficiency in patients with limited thiamine stores. Materials and Methods: An observational prospective cohort study was carried out in a medical-surgical ICU in a general teaching hospital in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. All adults who were treated during that time with intensive insulin therapy were included. Deficiency was defined as a thiamine level <100 nmol/L. No thiamine supplementation was administered except for normal amounts present in standard enteral feeding. Results: A total of 58 patients were available for analysis. Median thiamine level at admission was 111 nmol/L. Deficiency was present in 39.7% of patients and was significantly associated with the presence of gastrointestinal pathology and with recent surgery. Thiamine levels increased a median of 14 nmol/L in 48 hours. Only 3.4% of patients showed a predefined relevant decline in thiamine levels. Conclusion: Intensive insulin therapy does not appear to cause or worsen thiamine deficiency. However, based on the high prevalence of deficiency at admission, it might be warranted to supplement thiamine in all patients admitted to the ICU, especially when there is an underlying gastrointestinal disease or recent surger

The effect of acute kidney injury on long-term health-related quality of life:a prospective follow-up study

<p>Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious complication in critically ill patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We hypothesized that ICU survivors with AKI would have a worse health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcome than ICU survivors without AKI.</p><p>Methods: We performed a long-term prospective observational study. Patients admitted for > 48 hours in a medical-surgical ICU were included and divided in two groups: patients who fulfilled RIFLE criteria for AKI and patients without AKI. We used the Short-Form 36 to evaluate HRQOL before admission (by proxy within 48 hours after admission of the patient), at ICU discharge, hospital discharge, 3 and 6 months following ICU discharge (all by patients). Recovery in HRQOL from ICU-admission onwards was assessed using linear mixed modelling.</p><p>Results: Between September 2000 and January 2007 all admissions were screened for study participation. We included a total of 749 patients. At six months after ICU discharge 73 patients with AKI and 325 patients without AKI could be evaluated. In survivors with and without AKI, the pre-admission HRQOL (by proxy) and at six months after ICU discharge was significantly lower compared with an age matched general population. Most SF-36 dimensions changed significantly over time from ICU discharge. Change over time of HRQOL between the different AKI Rifle classes (Risk, Injury, Failure) showed no significant differences. At ICU discharge, scores were lowest in the group with AKI compared with the group without AKI for the physical functioning, role-physical and general health dimensions. However, there were almost no differences in HRQOL between both groups at six months.</p><p>Conclusions: The pre-admission HRQOL (by proxy) of AKI survivors was significantly lower in two dimensions compared with the age matched general population. Six months after ICU discharge survivors with and without AKI showed an almost similar HRQOL. However, compared with the general population with a similar age, HRQOL was poorer in both groups.</p>

Health-related quality of life in critically ill patients: how to score and what is the clinical impact?

Purpose of review Traditionally, the assessment of critical care has focused largely on mortality. However, in the last few years, there is more attention on the quality of survival. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important issue for both patients and family. The purpose of this review is to describe HROOL scoring in critically ill patients and to discuss the clinical impact on HRQOL. Recent findings Studies on the effect of critical illness on HRQOL show contradicting results. Several studies found that HRQOL at the time of discharge from hospital was impaired and that a gradual improvement occurred during follow-up, in some cases to preadmission hospital levels. Others show a full recovery to preadmission HRQOL. Summary In this article, we reviewed the methods and description of measurement instruments used in critically ill patients. The most recently used instruments to measure HRQOL, how to score HRQOL before ICU admission and the impact of critical illness on HRQOL are discussed. Assessment of HRQOL can improve the answers given by critical care physicians and nurses about the prospects of their patients. To get insights in these issues regarding the impact of ICU treatment, we should incorporate not only short-term outcomes, for example length of stay and mortality, but also HRQOL

Quality of dying and death in the ICU. The euroQ2 project

Purpose: Knowledge of families' perspective of quality of intensive care unit (ICU) care is important, especially with regard to end-of-life (EOL) care. Adaptation of the US-developed "Quality of dying and death questionnaire" (QODD) to a European setting is lacking. The primary aim of this study is to examine the euroQODD's usability and its assessments of EOL care in a cohort of Danish and Dutch family members. Methods: Family members of patients dying in an ICU after a stay of at least 48 h were sent the euroQODD three weeks after the patient died. Selected patient characteristics were obtained from hospital records. A total of 11 Danish and 10 Dutch ICU's participated. Results: 217 family members completed the euroQODD part of the euroQ2 questionnaire. Overall rating of care was high, a median of 9 in Netherlands and 10 in Denmark on a 0-10 scale (p <0.001). The Danish were more likely to report adequate pain control all or most of the time (95% vs 73%; p <0.001). When decisions were made to limit treatment, the majority of family members agreed (93%). Most (92%) reported some participation in the decision-making, with half (50%) making the decision jointly with the doctor. About 18% would have preferred greater involvement. Factor analysis identified a six-indicator unidimensional quality of dying and death construct with between-country measurement invariance. However, in its current form the euroQODD instrument requires modeling the six items as reflective (or effect) indicators, when they are more accurately conceived as causal indicators. Conclusions: The majority of family members were satisfied with the quality of EOL care and quality of dying and death. They agreed with decisions made to limit treatment and most felt they had participated to some extent in decision-making, although some would have preferred greater participation. Addition of items that can be accurately treated as effect indicators will improve the instrument's usefulness in measuring the overall quality of dying and death. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc