Publications by authors named "B A McCracken"

Article Synopsis
  • Student engagement in learning medical terminology is difficult in health science courses, but a role-play activity was created to make it more interactive and relevant compared to traditional lectures.
  • This role-play centers around interpreting published patient case studies in healthcare team roles, allowing students to practice essential skills and build community through active learning.
  • Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive, with 92% to 99% expressing that the course's pedagogy was valuable for learning medical terminology, highlighting the effectiveness of this engaging approach across different course formats.
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Background: Blood flow to the brain is a critical physiological function and is useful to monitor in critical care settings. Despite that, a surrogate is most likely measured instead of actual blood flow. Such surrogates include velocity measurements in the carotid artery and systemic blood pressure, even though true blood flow can actually be obtained using MRI and other modalities.

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Background: Recent studies describe an emerging role for percutaneous left ventricular assist devices such as Impella CP® as rescue therapy for refractory cardiac arrest. We hypothesized that the addition of mechanical chest compressions to percutaneous left ventricular assist device assisted CPR would improve hemodynamics by compressing the right ventricle and augmenting pulmonary blood flow and left ventricular filling. We performed a pilot study to test this hypothesis using a swine model of prolonged cardiac arrest.

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Background: It remains unclear if percutaneous left ventricular assist device (pLVAD) reduces post-cardiac arrest myocardial dysfunction.

Methods: This is a prespecified analysis of a subset of swine that achieved return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in a study comparing pLVAD, transient aortic occlusion (AO), or both during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Devices were initiated after 24 minutes of ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest (8 min no-flow and 16 min mechanical CPR).

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Aim: To evaluate coagulofibrinolytic abnormalities and the effects of ART-123 (recombinant human thrombomodulin alpha) in a porcine model of cardiac arrest and prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR).

Methods: Fifteen pigs ( = 5 per group) underwent 8 minutes of no-flow CA followed by 50 minutes of mechanical CPR, while 2 pigs underwent sham arrest. CA/CPR animals were randomized to receive saline or 1 mg/kg ART-123 pre-arrest (5 minutes prior to ventricular fibrillation) or post-arrest (2 minutes after initiation of CPR).

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