Vital Sign Variables Research Articles

Decision tool for the early diagnosis of trauma patient hypovolemia

We present a classifier for use as a decision assist tool to identify a hypovolemic state in trauma patients during helicopter transport to a hospital, when reliable acquisition of vital-sign data may be difficult. The decision tool uses basic vital-sign variables as input into linear classifiers, which are then combined into an ensemble classifier. The classifier identifies hypovolemic patients with an area under a receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.76 (standard deviation 0.05, for 100 randomly-reselected patient subsets). The ensemble classifier is robust; classification performance degrades only slowly as variables are dropped, and the ensemble structure does not require identification of a set of variables for use as best-feature inputs into the classifier. The ensemble classifier consistently outperforms best-features-based linear classifiers (the classification AUC is greater, and the standard deviation is smaller, p < 0.05). The simple computational requirements of ensemble classifiers will permit them to function in small fieldable devices for continuous monitoring of trauma patients.

Efficacité et sécurité de l’inhalation de MEOPA pour la pratique d’actes invasifs à visée diagnostique en neuropédiatrie

Aim. – We studied the use of premixed nitrous oxide and oxygen in 80 patients with neurologic diseases. Patients and methods. – Mean ages ranged 10 ± 5 yrs. Twenty-three patients (29%) were mentally retardated among which 17 of them presented with severe epilepsy. Painful procedures consisted of: lumbar punctures (80%), intravenous access (7), gastric endoscopy (6), skin biopsy (4), gastrostomy tube management (3). High-risk children were continuously monitored using ECG, non invasive blood pressure and transcutaneous oxygen saturation. We studied acceptation of the inhalation, vital signs, satisfaction of children, parents, medical and nursing staffs; side effects were compared with a group of healthy children undergoing venous access before induction of anesthesia. Results and discussion. – Acceptation increased with age. No significant changes in vital signs variables were observed. Satisfaction rate regarding the method was 88% for all children, parents, physicians and nurses. No serious undesirable event (as respiratory depression, seizure, inhalation of gastric content) occurred in these patients. The more frequent side-effects were : drowsiness during and after inhalation (35 and 9% respectively in the handicapped patients); nausea and vomiting (8%), headaches (3%), were more frequent than reported in literature but there were 25% of meningitis among our patients. Conclusion. – Premixed nitrous oxide and oxygen was effective for reducing procedural pain and anxiety in children with neurological disorders, even in severely handicapped patients, with minor side-effects.