The association between increasing fluid balance, acute kidney injury and mortality in patients with sepsis and septic shock: A retrospective single center audit.

Purpose: To determine whether a positive fluid balance is associated with AKI and mortality in sepsis and septic shock patients.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of 482 patients treated for sepsis or septic shock. Patients were stratified according to quartiles of cumulative fluid balance on days 1 and 3.

A case report: septic shock due to (tropical) pyomyositis and multiple metastatic embolisms caused by Panton Valentine Leukocidin-positive methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus in a 12-year-old boy.

Case Report: A 12-year-old boy, of Congolese roots and without medical history, first presented to our Emergency Department 3 days after blunt trauma of the left ankle. The boy represented on two more occasions in the next 3 days due to ongoing pain. On the last occasion he presented with severe hypoglycaemia.

Flexibility as a Mediator between Personality and Well-Being in Older and Younger Adults: Findings from Questionnaire Data and a Behavioral Task.

Background: Personality is a predictor of subjective well-being in older and younger adults, but less is known about the underlying mechanisms. One possible mechanism is psychological flexibility, which is the ability to keep an open mind-set in order to make flexible choices adapted to the situation at hand.

Methods: We recruited 60 younger and 60 older adults and measured personality and well-being by questionnaires.

The relationship between attentional processing of emotional information and personality: A comparison between older and younger adults.

Older adults have been found to focus more on positive and less on negative information compared to younger adults. Yet, results on this attentional positivity effect are inconsistent. Since personality has been related to attentional processing in younger adults, we explored whether (mal)adaptive personality traits are also linked to the occurrence of the positivity effect measured with eye tracking paradigms.

How is personality related to well-being in older and younger adults? The role of psychological flexibility.

Objectives: Personality is known to be a reliable predictor of well-being. However, it is rather difficult to influence the personality of individuals in order to improve their well-being. Therefore, it is important to examine possible underlying mechanisms or indirect effects.

Autonomic regulation in response to stress: The influence of anticipatory emotion regulation strategies and trait rumination.

According to the neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation, adaptively regulating emotions in anticipation of a stressful event should help individuals deal with the stressor itself. The goal of this study was twofold: first, the authors compared the influence of adaptive versus maladaptive anticipatory emotion regulation (ER) on the autonomic system during anticipation of, confrontation with, and recovery from a stressor; second, they explored whether trait rumination moderated this relationship. The authors collected data from 56 healthy female undergraduates during a public speaking task.

Resilience at Information Processing Level in Older Adults: Maintained Attention for Happy Faces when Positive Mood is Low.

Even though ageing is associated with declining cognitive capabilities, research has demonstrated an age-related improvement in affective well-being. This improvement can be related to increased resilience, developing as changes in emotion regulation at information-processing level. During negative mood, emotion regulation becomes a priority as demonstrated by an increased preference for positive over negative information in older adults.

The Role of Personality in the Assessment of Subjective and Physiological Emotional Reactivity: A Comparison Between Younger and Older Adults.

This study brings more clarity on the inconsistent findings on emotional reactivity differences between older (OA) and younger (YA) adults, by examining the influence of (mal)adaptive personality traits on emotional reactivity and by applying several assessment methods. We recruited 60 YA (25-50 years) and 60 OA (65+ years) from a nonclinical population. We used Visual Analogue Scales to measure subjective reactivity, and facial electromyography (corrugator and zygomaticus reactivity), heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin conductance level to assess physiological reactivity during happy and sad film clips.

Internal shifting impairments in response to emotional information in dysphoric adolescents.

Background And Objectives: Previous studies have suggested that internal cognitive control impairments may play an important role in the development of depression. Despite a growing body of research in adults, the ability to shift internal attention between mental representations in working memory has received little attention in younger populations. This study investigated internal shifting capacity between emotional and non-emotional information in dysphoric and non-dysphoric adolescents.

Assessment of Implicit Self-Esteem in Older Adults: The Role of Actual and Ideal Self-Esteem in Negative Mood.

The interplay between actual and ideal self-esteem may be a key component in emotional disorders. Since automatic self-evaluations are not always consciously accessible, assessment through implicit measures is necessary. Given the lack of implicit self-esteem measures in late life, we aimed to identify a reliable measure and to clarify the role of actual and ideal self-esteem in mood and depressive symptoms in older adults.

Older adults' attentional deployment: Differential gaze patterns for different negative mood states.

Background And Objectives: Older adults are characterized by an attentional preference for positive over negative information. Since this positivity effect is considered to be an emotion regulation strategy, it should be more pronounced when emotion regulation is needed. In contrast to previous studies that focused on the effects of sad mood on attention, we used a stressor to activate emotion regulation and evaluate the effects of different types of mood state changes.

Effects of cognitive control training on the dynamics of (mal)adaptive emotion regulation in daily life.

Cognitive control plays a key role in both adaptive emotion regulation, such as positive reappraisal, and maladaptive emotion regulation, such as rumination, with both strategies playing a major role in resilience and well-being. As a result, cognitive control training (CCT) targeting working memory functioning may have the potential to reduce maladaptive emotion regulation and increase adaptive emotion regulation. The current study explored the effects of CCT on positive reappraisal ability in a lab context, and deployment and efficacy of positive appraisal and rumination in daily life.

The Role of Interference and Inhibition Processes in Dysphoric Early Adolescents.

Cognitive theories emphasize the importance of attentional biases in the development and maintenance of depression. Noteworthy, recent studies indicate that depression-related biases only occur in later stages of attentional processing. This is consistent with the idea that attention is a multicomponent process, consisting of at least two mechanisms: selection and inhibition.

The influence of cognitive control training on stress reactivity and rumination in response to a lab stressor and naturalistic stress.

Cognitive control impairments have been identified as an underlying mechanism for rumination, a key predictor of depression. Literature suggests that cognitive control training (CCT) targeting working memory functioning can increase effectiveness of existing antidepressant treatments to reduce rumination. However, it remains unclear whether CCT can also be implemented as a preventive intervention for depression, increasing resilience.

Attentional bias for emotional information in older adults: the role of emotion and future time perspective.

Objectives: Research suggests that older adults display a positivity bias at the level of information processing. However, because studies investigating attentional bias for emotional information in older adults have produced mixed findings, research identifying inter-individual differences that may explain these inconsistent results is necessary. Therefore, we investigated whether mood, symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety and future time perspective are related to attentional bias in older adults.

Dialysability of sugammadex and its complex with rocuronium in intensive care patients with severe renal impairment.

Background: Renal excretion is the primary route for the elimination of sugammadex. We evaluated the dialysability of sugammadex and the sugammadex-rocuronium complex in patients with severe renal impairment in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: Six patients in the ICU with acute severe renal impairment received general anaesthesia for transoesophageal echocardiography, to replace their tracheal tubes, or for bronchoscopy.

Rumination mediates the relationship between impaired cognitive control for emotional information and depressive symptoms: A prospective study in remitted depressed adults.

Impaired cognitive control may be an important vulnerability factor for depression. Moreover, impairments in cognitive control have been proposed as a crucial process underlying ruminative thinking. The present study investigates the influence of impaired cognitive control for emotional information on rumination and depressive symptoms in a prospective design with a 1 year follow up in a clinical sample.

Sugammadex rapidly reverses moderate rocuronium- or vecuronium-induced neuromuscular block during sevoflurane anaesthesia: a dose-response relationship.

Background: Sugammadex shows a dose-response relationship for reversal of neuromuscular block (NMB) during propofol anaesthesia. Sevoflurane, unlike propofol, can prolong the effect of neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs), increasing recovery time. This open-label, randomized, dose-finding trial explored sugammadex dose-response relationships, safety, and pharmacokinetics when administered for reversal of moderate rocuronium- or vecuronium-induced NMB during sevoflurane maintenance anaesthesia.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of TAK-242 for the treatment of severe sepsis.

Objective: To evaluate whether TAK-242, a small-molecule inhibitor of Toll-like receptor-4-mediated signaling, suppresses cytokine levels and improves 28-day all-cause mortality rates in patients with severe sepsis.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Setting: A total of 93 intensive care units worldwide.

Monitoring of herpes simplex virus in the lower respiratory tract of critically ill patients using real-time PCR: a prospective study.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) has increasingly been associated with pulmonary disease in critically ill patients. However, the clinical relevance of HSV is still a topic of debate. Monitoring of HSV in a quantitative way could potentially give relevant information on its role in the pathogenesis of lower respiratory tract infection.

Safety and tolerability of single intravenous doses of sugammadex administered simultaneously with rocuronium or vecuronium in healthy volunteers.

Background: Sugammadex rapidly reverses rocuronium- and vecuronium-induced neuromuscular block. To investigate the effect of combination of sugammadex and rocuronium or vecuronium on QT interval, it would be preferable to avoid the interference of anaesthesia. Therefore, this pilot study was performed to investigate the safety, tolerability, and plasma pharmacokinetics of single i.

Micafungin versus liposomal amphotericin B for candidaemia and invasive candidosis: a phase III randomised double-blind trial.

Background: Invasive candidosis is increasingly prevalent in seriously ill patients. Our aim was to compare micafungin with liposomal amphotericin B for the treatment of adult patients with candidaemia or invasive candidosis.

Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, multinational non-inferiority study to compare micafungin (100 mg/day) with liposomal amphotericin B (3 mg/kg per day) as first-line treatment of candidaemia and invasive candidosis.

Pathogens in early-onset and late-onset intensive care unit-acquired pneumonia.

Objectives: To compare the type of pathogens isolated from patients with early-onset intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired pneumonia with those isolated from patients with late-onset ICU-acquired pneumonia and to study risk factors for the isolation of pathogens that are potentially resistant to multiple drugs.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Patients admitted to the ICU of a 677-bed, university-affiliated teaching hospital in Belgium during 1997-2002.

Preinduction glycemia and body mass index are important predictors of perioperative insulin management in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Study Objective: To investigate whether preinduction glucose is an important predictor for perioperative insulin management in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Large community hospital.