Trying to move your unseen static arm modulates visually-evoked kinesthetic illusion.

Although kinesthesia is known to largely depend on afferent inflow, recent data suggest that central signals originating from volitional control (efferent outflow) could also be involved and interact with the former to build up a coherent percept. Evidence derives from both clinical and experimental observations where vision, which is of primary importance in kinesthesia, was systematically precluded. The purpose of the present experiment was to assess the role of volitional effort in kinesthesia when visual information is available.

Suffering among carers working in critical care can be reduced by an intensive communication strategy on end-of-life practices.

Purpose: Burnout syndrome (BOS) has frequently been reported in healthcare workers, and precipitating factors include communication problems in the workplace and stress related to end-of-life situations. We evaluated the effect of an intensive communication strategy on BOS among caregivers working in intensive care (ICU).

Methods: Longitudinal, monocentric, before-and-after, interventional study.

Impact of an intensive communication strategy on end-of-life practices in the intensive care unit.

Purpose: Since the 2005 French law on end of life and patients' rights, it is unclear whether practices have evolved. We investigated whether an intensive communication strategy based on this law would influence practices in terms of withholding and withdrawing treatment (WWT), and outcome of patients hospitalised in intensive care (ICU).

Methods: This was a single-centre, two-period study performed before and after the 2005 law.

Serum procalcitonin for the early recognition of nosocomial infection in the critically ill patients: a preliminary report.

Background: The usefulness of procalcitonin (PCT) measurement in critically ill medical patients with suspected nosocomial infection is unclear. The aim of the study was to assess PCT value for the early diagnosis of bacterial nosocomial infection in selected critically ill patients.

Methods: An observational cohort study in a 15-bed intensive care unit was performed.

Procalcitonin kinetics within the first days of sepsis: relationship with the appropriateness of antibiotic therapy and the outcome.

Introduction: Management of the early stage of sepsis is a critical issue. As part of it, infection control including appropriate antibiotic therapy administration should be prompt. However, microbiological findings, if any, are generally obtained late during the course of the disease.