Abstract
IntroductionBlunt abdominal trauma (BAT) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Rapid diagnosis and treatment with the Advanced Trauma Life Support guidelines are vital, leading to the development of Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (FAST). MethodsA retrospective study carried out from January 2007–2008 on all patients who presented with BAT and underwent FAST scan. All patients subsequently had a CT scan within 2 h of admission or a laparotomy within two days. The presence of intra-peritoneal free fluid was interpreted as positive. Results100 patients with BAT presented; 71 had complete data. The accuracy of FAST in BAT was 59.2%; in these 31 (43.7%) were confirmed by CT and 11 (15%) by laparotomy. There were 29 (40.8%) inaccurate FAST scans, all confirmed by CT. FAST had a specificity of 94.7% (95% CI: 0.75–0.99) and sensitivity of 46.2% (95% CI: 0.33–0.60). Positive Predictive Value of 0.96 (0.81–0.99) and Negative Predictive Value of 0.39 (0.26–0.54). Fisher's exact test shows positive FAST is significantly associated with Intra-abdominal pathology (p = 0.001). Cohen's chance corrected agreement was 0.3. 21 out of 28 who underwent laparotomies had positive FAST results indicating accuracy of 75% (95% CI: 57%–87%). ConclusionPatients with false negative scans, requiring therapeutic laparotomy is concerning. In unstable patients FAST may help in triaging and identifying those requiring laparotomy. Negative FAST scans do not exclude abdominal injury. Further randomised control trials are recommended if the role of FAST is to be better understood.
Highlights
Autophagy is well known as one of the biogenic responses against various stresses, which possesses the beneficial roles for survival, but little is known about the dynamics and its significance during the septic condition
community-acquired pneumonia (CAP)-mediated antiinflammatory signals in vagal efferent nerve fibers result in the release of acetylcholine, which interacts with innate immune cells that express the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit α7 (α7nAChR)
The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the α7nAChR-agonist cdp-choline on microcirculatory alterations during experimental endotoxemia
Summary
Autophagy is well known as one of the biogenic responses against various stresses, which possesses the beneficial roles for survival, but little is known about the dynamics and its significance during the septic condition. Conclusion The assessment of routine biomarkers (bilirubin, white blood cells and hemoglobin) may be a helpful tool in the decisionmaking process at the bedside, for the evaluation of early ICU admission of recoverable patients, as indicators of inflammatory response, organ dysfunction or catabolism level, and their significant predictive value on mortality. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the prognostic value of proadrenomedullin (pADM), measured in all patients admitted to the ICU of our hospital with a diagnosis of severe sepsis or septic shock during 1 year. The aim of the study is to evaluate life quality after trauma and to identify the most important needs of the patients, in order to improve the level of care after an ICU stay and to implement a faster and more effective reintegration into the active and productive society. We report the results of the baseline phase of this trial
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