Effects of nurse delivered thoracic ultrasound on management of adult intensive care unit patients: A prospective observational study.

Background: Thoracic ultrasound is a valuable tool that helps diagnose cardiopulmonary disorders and guide management in intensive care unit patients. Intensive care unit nurses were trained to perform thoracic ultrasound examinations, after which they were named 'UltraNurses' for clinical recognizability. UltraNurses demonstrated rapid learning trajectories, but the impact on clinical-decision making remained unknown.

Effect of Low-Normal vs High-Normal Oxygenation Targets on Organ Dysfunction in Critically Ill Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Hyperoxemia may increase organ dysfunction in critically ill patients, but optimal oxygenation targets are unknown.

Objective: To determine whether a low-normal Pao2 target compared with a high-normal target reduces organ dysfunction in critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS).

Design, Setting, And Participants: Multicenter randomized clinical trial in 4 intensive care units in the Netherlands.

Hyperoxia does not affect oxygen delivery in healthy volunteers while causing a decrease in sublingual perfusion.

Objective: To determine the human dose-response relationship between a stepwise increase in arterial oxygen tension and its associated changes in DO and sublingual microcirculatory perfusion.

Methods: Fifteen healthy volunteers breathed increasing oxygen fractions for 10 minutes to reach arterial oxygen tensions of baseline (breathing air), 20, 40, 60 kPa, and max kPa (breathing oxygen). Systemic hemodynamics were measured continuously by the volume-clamp method.