Abstract
The usual diagnostic approach to patients with sepsis in an intensive care unit (ICU) or coronary care unit is based on clinical, biochemical, microbiologic and pathologic data and on radiologic imaging (radiograph, ultrasound and computed tomography), which are used to determine the most common sites of infection. In many cases, however, the site of infection is difficult to determine. Nuclear medicine provides various noninvasive scintigraphic methods for the imaging of focal sepsis, based on the intravenous administration of a radiotracer that accumulates at the site of infection or inflammation. The combined use of total body scintigraphy with ultrasound and computed tomography is considered a useful tool for the diagnosis of occult sepsis in ICU patients, and allows the targeting of aggressive measures against infections. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of technetium 99 m-white blood cell (99mTc-WBC)-labeled scintigraphy and gallium-67 citrate (67Ga) scintigraphy in the detection of focal sepsis in the ICU. We reviewed seven patients affected by sepsis of unknown origin. After the usual diagnostic approach, five patients were submitted to a total body scan using the 99mTc-WBC and two patients using 67Ga. The patients had complete clinical and instrumental data, but none of the radiological image detected the site of infection. The 99mTc-WBC scan showed typical patterns of increased tracer accumulation in six different sites. Four of these sites were studied histopathologically, confirming the infection: one case of left kidney abscess was associated with concomitant infection of the psoas muscle in the same patient, one frontoparietal osteomyelitis, and one acute cholecystitis. The other two sites corresponded to pulmonary accumulation of the tracer, which was interpreted as pneumonia. Of the two patients who underwent 67Ga scintigraphy, one had decubitus ulcerated infection associated with sacrum and left femoral osteomyelitis, and the other had clinical suspect of pulmonary vasculitis and diffuse pulmonary 67Ga accumulation.
Highlights
Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a recognized trigger of systemic inflammatory response, usually related to postoperative acute lung injury (ALI)
In 14 patients, bone marrow was harvested from iliac crest and Bone marrow-derived mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) were selected by Ficoll gradient
The objective was to evaluate the characteristics of Chest pain (CP) in patients with acute aortic dissection (AAD) admitted in a chest pain unit (CPU)
Summary
Cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a recognized trigger of systemic inflammatory response, usually related to postoperative acute lung injury (ALI). Few studies exist analysing the handling of acute respiratory insufficiency with invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and its correlation with mortality among the elderly intensive care unit (IUC) patient population. In Brazil, most patients with TBI are managed in general ICUs. The results of the treatment of patients admitted to nonspecialized ICUs must be compared with those obtained in neurosurgical ICUs. An acute confusional state (ACS) has been a frequent finding in patients undergoing cardiac surgery (CS), which, according to the literature, has resulted in a greater number of complications and in an increase in hospitalization and length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). The mortality of elderly patients who are admitted to intensive care units (ICU) has been the aim of some recent studies. Drugs that modulate such phenotypic alterations may be useful in the control of these and other clinical situations
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