Empirical Equation For Tunnel Inflow Assessment: Application to a Case History

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

New directions in cellular therapy of cancer: a summary of the summit on cellular therapy for cancer

A summit on cellular therapy for cancer discussed and presented advances related to the use of adoptive cellular therapy for melanoma and other cancers. The summit revealed that this field is advancing rapidly. Conventional cellular therapies, such as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), are becoming more effective and more available. Gene therapy is becoming an important tool in adoptive cell therapy. Lymphocytes are being engineered to express high affinity T cell receptors (TCRs), chimeric antibody-T cell receptors (CARs) and cytokines. T cell subsets with more naïve and stem cell-like characteristics have been shown in pre-clinical models to be more effective than unselected populations and it is now possible to reprogram T cells and to produce T cells with stem cell characteristics. In the future, combinations of adoptive transfer of T cells and specific vaccination against the cognate antigen can be envisaged to further enhance the effectiveness of these therapies

Strain threshold for ventilator-induced lung injury

Introduction Unphysiological lung strain (tidal volume/functional residual capacity, TV/FRC) may cause ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) [1]. Whether VILI develops proportionally to the applied strain or only above a critical threshold remains unknown. Methods In 20 healthy, mechanically ventilated pigs, FRC and lung weight were measured by computed tomography. Animals were then ventilated for up to 54 hours with a TV set to produce a predetermined strain. At the end, lung weight was measured with a balance. VILI was defi ned as fi nal lung weight exceeding the initial one. Results Lung weight either did not increase at all (no-VILI group; lung weight change \u201373 \ub1 42 g, n = 9) or markedly augmented (VILI group; 264 \ub1 80 g, n = 11). In the two groups, strain was 1.38 \ub1 0.68 and 2.16 \ub1 0.50 (P <0.01), respectively. VILI occurred only when lung strain reached or exceeded a critical threshold, between 1.5 and 2.1 (Figure 1). Conclusions In animals with healthy lungs VILI only occurs when lung strain exceeds a critical threshold. Reference 1. Gattinoni L, Carlesso E, Cadringher P, et al.: Physical and biological triggers of ventilator-induced lung injury and its prevention [review]. Eur Respir J 2003, 22(Suppl 47):15s-25s

Stress in nursing staff: a comparative analysis between intensive care units and general medicine units

It's a current belief that stress is an outstanding feature of intensive care units, in particular within nursing staff. The aim of this study was to compare some variables belonging to stress (i.e. anxiety, depression and `Burnout' syndrome) between nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs) and general medicine units (GMUs). Materials and methods We studied a population of 883 nurses working in ICUs, distributed in 79 Italian hospitals (70.1 % female) and 509 nurses working in GMUs, distributed in 35 Italian hospitals (80.2 % female). We asked them to fill in a form including: 1) general data and his/her work environment; 2) different evaluation standardized scales - the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, divided into anxiety (HAD A) and depression (HAD D) status 0-7 `non cases', 8-10 `doubtful cases', 11-21 `cases'; the S.T.A.I. scale, divided into acute anxiety (Y-1) and chronic anxiety (Y-2) status; the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI.) divided into Emotional Exhaustion (EE), 64 18 `low', 19-26 `average', 65 27 `high', Depersonalization (DP) and Personal Accomplishment (PA). We also evaluated the different reasons of anxiety through individual questions (higher value, more anxiety): A1, a critically ill patient; A2, a young patient; A3, an old patient; A4, a suicidal patient; A5, a terminal patient; A6, presence of mechanical supports; A7, relationship with patients' relatives. The comparison between the two groups was performed by the Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test and z-test; statistical significance was accepted as P<0.05. Results The results, expressed as median value, with 25th and 75th percentile in brackets, are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 also shows the proportions of nurses that had a highest value of HAD A and M.B.I. EE. Conclusions Pathologic anxiety and emotional exhaustion are more prevalent in nurses working in GMUs. Thus, contrary to a common belief, `stress' is a more distinctive peculiarity of general medicine units than intensive care units