Predictive equations over-estimate the resting energy expenditure in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients who are dependent on invasive ventilation support

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a form of degenerative motor neuron disease. At the end stage of the disease artificial feeding is often required. Nevertheless, very little is known about the energy demand of those ALS patients who are chronically dependent on tracheostomy intermittent positive pressure ventilation. The objective of our study was to clarify the resting energy expenditure (REE) in mechanically ventilated ALS patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We measured the REE of five ALS patients (four men, one female) twice during a 12 month-period using indirect calorimetry with two sampling flow settings (40 L/min and 80 L/min). The measured REEs (mREE) were compared with values calculated using five different predictive equations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean (± SD) of all mREEs was 1130 ± 170 kcal/d. The measurements with different flow settings and at different time instances provided similar results. The mean of mREEs was 33.6% lower, as compared to the mean calculated with five different predictive equations REE (p < 0.001). Each of the predictive equations over-estimated the REE.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The mREE values were significantly lower for every patient than all the predicted ones. Determination of daily nutrition with predictive equations may therefore lead in mis-estimation of energy requirements. Because ALS patients may live years with artificial ventilation their nutritional support should be based on individual measurements. However, further study is needed due to the small number of subjects.</p

Is the effect of non-invasive ventilation on survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis age-dependent?

Background Hypoventilation due to respiratory muscle atrophy is the most common cause of death as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Patients aged over 65&nbsp;years and presenting bulbar symptoms are likely to have a poorer prognosis. The aim of the study was to assess the possible impact of age and treatment with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) on survival in ALS. Based on evidence from earlier studies, it was hypothesized that NIV increases rates of survival regardless of age. Methods Eighty-four patients diagnosed with ALS were followed up on from January 2001 to June 2012. These patients were retrospectively divided into two groups according to their age at the time of diagnosis: Group 1 comprised patients aged&thinsp;&le;&thinsp;65&nbsp;years while Group 2 comprised those aged&thinsp;&gt;&thinsp;65&nbsp;years. Each group included 42 patients. NIV was tolerated by 23 patients in Group 1 and 18 patients in Group 2. Survival was measured in months from the date of diagnosis. Results The median age in Group 1 was 59&nbsp;years (range 49 &ndash; 65) and 76&nbsp;years in Group 2 (range 66 &ndash; 85). Among patients in Group 1 there was no difference in probability of survival between the NIV users and non-users (Hazard Ratio&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.88, 95% CI 0.44 &ndash; 1.77, p&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.7). NIV users in Group 2 survived longer than those following conventional treatment (Hazard Ratio&thinsp;=&thinsp;0.25, CI 95% 0.11 &ndash; 0.55, p &lt;0.001). ALS patients in Group 2 who did not use NIV had a 4-fold higher risk for death compared with NIV users. Conclusions This retrospective study found that NIV use was associated with improved survival outcomes in ALS patients older than 65&nbsp;years. Further studies in larger patient populations are warranted to determine which factors modify survival outcomes in ALS. &nbsp;</p

Elämää ylläpitävän pitkäaikaisen invasiivisen hengitystukihoidon esiintyvyys Suomessa

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Renal effects of dexmedetomidine during coronary artery bypass surgery : a randomized placebo-controlled study

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Highly variable pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine during intensive care: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Dexmedetomidine is a selective and potent alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist licensed for use in the sedation of patients initially ventilated in intensive care units at a maximum dose rate of 0.7 μg/kg/h administered for up to 24 hours. Higher dose rates and longer infusion periods are sometimes required to achieve sufficient sedation. There are some previous reports on the use of long-term moderate to high-dose infusions of dexmedetomidine in patients in intensive care units, but none of these accounts have cited dexmedetomidine plasma concentrations.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We describe the case of a 42-year-old Caucasian woman with severe hemorrhagic pancreatitis following laparoscopic cholecystectomy who received dexmedetomidine for 24 consecutive days at a maximum dose rate of 1.9 μg/kg/h. Samples for the measurement of dexmedetomidine concentrations in her plasma were drawn at intervals of eight hours. On average, the observed plasma concentrations were well in accordance with previous knowledge on the pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine. There was, however, marked variability in the concentration of dexmedetomidine in her plasma despite a stable infusion rate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine appears to be highly variable during intensive care.</p

Acute pain intensity monitoring with the classification of multiple physiological parameters

Current acute pain intensity assessment tools are mainly based on self-reporting by patients, which is impractical for non-communicative, sedated or critically ill patients. In previous studies, various physiological signals have been observed qualitatively as a potential pain intensity index. On the basis of that, this study aims at developing a continuous pain monitoring method with the classification of multiple physiological parameters. Heart rate (HR), breath rate (BR), galvanic skin response (GSR) and facial surface electromyogram were collected from 30 healthy volunteers under thermal and electrical pain stimuli. The collected samples were labelled as no pain, mild pain or moderate/severe pain based on a self-reported visual analogue scale. The patterns of these three classes were first observed from the distribution of the 13 processed physiological parameters. Then, artificial neural network classifiers were trained, validated and tested with the physiological parameters. The average classification accuracy was 70.6%. The same method was applied to the medians of each class in each test and accuracy was improved to 83.3%. With facial electromyogram, the adaptivity of this method to a new subject was improved as the recognition accuracy of moderate/severe pain in leave-one-subject-out cross-validation was promoted from 74.9 ± 21.0 to 76.3 ± 18.1%. Among healthy volunteers, GSR, HR and BR were better correlated to pain intensity variations than facial muscle activities. The classification of multiple accessible physiological parameters can potentially provide a way to differentiate among no, mild and moderate/severe acute experimental pain.</p

Sedation options for the morbidly obese intensive care unit patient: a concise survey and an agenda for development

BACKGROUND: We offer some perspectives and commentary on the sedation of obese patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). DISCUSSION: Sedation in morbidly obese patients should conform to the same broad principles now current in ICU practice. These include a general presumption against benzodiazepines as first-line agents. Opioids should be avoided in any situation where spontaneous breathing is required. Remifentanil is the preferred agent where continuous stable opioid levels using an infusion are required, because of its lack of context-sensitive accumulation. Volatile anaesthetics may be an option for the same reason but there are no substantial, controlled demonstrations of effectiveness/safety in short-term use in the ICU setting. Propofol is a valuable resource in the morbidly obese patients but the duration of continuous sedation should not exceed 6 days, in order to avoid propofol infusion syndrome. Alpha-2 agonists offer a range of theoretically positive features for the sedation of morbidly obese patients, but at present there is a lack of pharmacokinetic data and a critical mass of high-grade clinical data. Dexmedetomidine has the attraction of not causing respiratory depression or obstructive breathing during sedation and its sympatholytic effects should help deliver stable blood pressure and heart rate. Ketamine has a poor tolerability profile in adults so its use in the ICU context is largely confined to paediatrics. CONCLUSION: None of the agents currently available is ideal for every situation encountered in the management of morbidly obese patients. This article identifies additional research needed to place sedation practice of obese patients on a more systematic footing.status: publishe