To identify the incidence, severity and timing of hypophosphataemia in Glasgow Royal Infirmary Intensive Care Unit (ICU) [poster]

No abstract available

Investigation in haemodynamic stability during intermittent haemodialysis in the critically ill

No abstract available

An investigation into the effects of commencing haemodialysis in the critically ill

<b>Introduction:</b> We have aimed to describe haemodynamic changes when haemodialysis is instituted in the critically ill. 3 hypotheses are tested: 1)The initial session is associated with cardiovascular instability, 2)The initial session is associated with more cardiovascular instability compared to subsequent sessions, and 3)Looking at unstable sessions alone, there will be a greater proportion of potentially harmful changes in the initial sessions compared to subsequent ones. <b>Methods:</b> Data was collected for 209 patients, identifying 1605 dialysis sessions. Analysis was performed on hourly records, classifying sessions as stable/unstable by a cutoff of >+/-20% change in baseline physiology (HR/MAP). Data from 3 hours prior, and 4 hours after dialysis was included, and average and minimum values derived. 3 time comparisons were made (pre-HD:during, during HD:post, pre-HD:post). Initial sessions were analysed separately from subsequent sessions to derive 2 groups. If a session was identified as being unstable, then the nature of instability was examined by recording whether changes crossed defined physiological ranges. The changes seen in unstable sessions could be described as to their effects: being harmful/potentially harmful, or beneficial/potentially beneficial. <b>Results:</b> Discarding incomplete data, 181 initial and 1382 subsequent sessions were analysed. A session was deemed to be stable if there was no significant change (>+/-20%) in the time-averaged or minimum MAP/HR across time comparisons. By this definition 85/181 initial sessions were unstable (47%, 95% CI SEM 39.8-54.2). Therefore Hypothesis 1 is accepted. This compares to 44% of subsequent sessions (95% CI 41.1-46.3). Comparing these proportions and their respective CI gives a 95% CI for the standard error of the difference of -4% to 10%. Therefore Hypothesis 2 is rejected. In initial sessions there were 92/1020 harmful changes. This gives a proportion of 9.0% (95% CI SEM 7.4-10.9). In the subsequent sessions there were 712/7248 harmful changes. This gives a proportion of 9.8% (95% CI SEM 9.1-10.5). Comparing the two unpaired proportions gives a difference of -0.08% with a 95% CI of the SE of the difference of -2.5 to +1.2. Hypothesis 3 is rejected. Fisher’s exact test gives a result of p=0.68, reinforcing the lack of significant variance. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our results reject the claims that using haemodialysis is an inherently unstable choice of therapy. Although proportionally more of the initial sessions are classed as unstable, the majority of MAP and HR changes are beneficial in nature

Assessment of vitamin E status in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome: plasma, plasma corrected for lipids or red blood cell measurements?

<b>Background:</b> There is some evidence that the plasma vitamin E status is perturbed as part of systemic inflammatory response and correcting this with other plasma markers may not lead to reliable results. The aim of the present study was to examine the longitudinal inter-relationships between plasma and red blood cell vitamin α-tocopherol in patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. <b>Methods:</b> α-tocopherol concentrations were measured, by HPLC, in plasma and red blood cells in normal subjects (n = 67) and in critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (n = 82) on admission and on follow-up. <b>Results:</b> Plasma α-tocopherol was significantly lower in the critically ill patients compared with the controls (all p < 0.001) with 41% of patients having concentrations below the 95% confidence interval. In contrast, when corrected for cholesterol, α-tocopherol concentrations were significantly higher in the critically ill patients compared with the control group (p < 0.001, 27% above the 95% confidence interval) and when corrected for triglycerides, α-tocopherol concentrations were significantly lower in the critically ill patients compared with the control group (p < 0.001). Red blood cell α-tocopherol corrected for haemoglobin was similar (p = 0.852) in the critically ill patients compared with control subjects. The longitudinal measurements (n = 53) gave similar results. <b>Conclusions:</b> These results indicate that there is a discrepancy between vitamin E measurements in plasma, in plasma corrected for lipids and in red blood cells. Although the value of correcting vitamin E concentrations by lipids is well established in population studies, the present study indicates that such correction is unreliable in the presence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome and that vitamin E status should be assessed using red blood cell α-tocopherol measurement

The incidence, severity, timing and circadian variation of hypophosphataemia in Glasgow Royal Infirmary Intensive Care Unit [poster]

No abstract available

Critical care provision after colorectal cancer surgery

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd largest cause of cancer related mortality in the UK with 40 000 new patients being diagnosed each year. Complications of CRC surgery can occur in the perioperative period that leads to the requirement of organ support. The aim of this study was to identify pre-operative risk factors that increased the likelihood of this occurring. Methods: This is a retrospective observational study of all 6441 patients who underwent colorectal cancer surgery within the West of Scotland Region between 2005 and 2011. Logistic regression was employed to determine factors associated with receiving postoperative organ support. Results: A total of 610 (9 %) patients received organ support. Multivariate analysis identified age ≥65, male gender, emergency surgery, social deprivation, heart failure and type II diabetes as being independently associated with organ support postoperatively. After adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, patients with metastatic disease appeared less likely to receive organ support (p = 0.012). Conclusions: Nearly one in ten patients undergoing CRC surgery receive organ support in the post operative period. We identified several risk factors which increase the likelihood of receiving organ support post operatively. This is relevant when consenting patients about the risks of CRC surgery

Acute changes in the systemic inflammatory response are associated with transient decreases in circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations following elective knee arthroplasty [POSTER]

No abstract available

Promoting Farmer occupational safety and health (OSH) services through Extension

Received: February 13th, 2021 ; Accepted: April 24th, 2021 ; Published: April 30th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] for improving OSH in European agriculture are urgently required given the high level of reported injuries and ill health in the sector. The agriculture sector in Europe is enormous in scale and diverse in production systems. A dispersed labour force is deployed in the sector, predominantly using family labour, which is self-employed. Accordingly, a large proportion of the agricultural workforce is outside the scope of EU directives on occupational safety and health (OSH).The aim of this paper is to examine the role and engagement of the discipline of agricultural extension in promoting OSH in agriculture and consider methodologies that this discipline can use most effectively to gain OSH adoption. The paper compares regulatory and extension approaches to consider their respective roles in promoting OSH in agriculture. EU developments related to extension and OSH are then outlined. Regarding extension engagement, findings of a survey among extension and OSH professionals throughout Europe found that OSH is considered an important topic and worthwhile for inclusion in extension but it indicates that currently the level of extension programming is limited. Irish data on OSH extension methodologies indicates that advisors consider that a range of extension approaches are available to motivate farmers on OSH adoption with TV victim testimonials, on-farm social learning discussion groups and on-farm demonstrations having the highest preferences. Data presented indicates that Irish farmers expressed good satisfaction ratings with OSH extension relevance to their farms. Overall, the study advocates giving more consideration of the role of extension in promoting agricultural OSH

To identify the incidence, severity and timing of hypophosphataemia in Glasgow Royal Infirmary Intensive Care Unit (ICU) [poster]

No abstract available

Explaining anomalous responses to treatment in the Intensive Care Unit

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) provides treatment to critically ill patients. When a patient does not respond as expected to such treatment it can be challenging for clinicians, especially junior clinicians, as they may not have the relevant experience to understand the patient’s anomalous response. Datasets for 10 patients from Glasgow Royal Infirmary’s ICU have been made available to us. We asked several ICU clinicians to review these datasets and to suggest sequences which include anomalous or unusual reactions to treatment. Further, we then asked two ICU clinicians if they agreed with their colleagues’ assessments, and if they did to provide possible explanations for these anomalous sequences. Subsequently we have developed a system which is able to replicate the clinicians’ explanations based on the knowledge contained in its several ontologies; further the system can suggest additional explanations which will be evaluated by the senior consultant