Hyponatremia in neurological patients: cerebral salt wasting versus inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion.

Objective: To assess whether hyponatremia in acute neurological patients is associated with the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH) or with the cerebral salt-wasting syndrome (CSWS).

Design: Clinical, controlled, prospective study.

Setting: Department of intensive care of a tertiary care academic hospital.

Albumin administration improves organ function in critically ill hypoalbuminemic patients: A prospective, randomized, controlled, pilot study.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that administration of albumin to correct hypoalbuminemia might have beneficial effects on organ function in a mixed population of critically ill patients.

Design: : Prospective, controlled, randomized study.

Setting: Thirty-one-bed, mixed medicosurgical department of intensive care.

Septic shock of early or late onset: does it matter?

Study Objectives: To determine possible differences in morbidity and mortality between early and late onset of septic shock in ICU patients.

Design: Systematic data collection.

Setting: Thirty-one-bed, mixed, medicosurgical ICU in a university hospital.