Predicting the Need for Fluid Therapy-Does Fluid Responsiveness Work?

Fluid overdose can be harmful in critically ill patients. Since central venous pressure (CVP) is currently considered to be an inappropriate indicator of preload, much attention is being given to predicting fluid responsiveness, i.e.

Geraniol, E-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadien-1-ol, as the alarm pheromone of the sycamore lace bug Corythucha ciliata (Say).

Although adult sycamore lace bugs Corythucha ciliata (Say) show no sign of aggregation, nymphs at all developing stages are gregarious. When an individual nymph in the center of a colony was squashed with a needlepoint, proximate nymphs showed evasive behavior. The same evasive reaction was produced by exposing aggregated nymphs to nymph hexane extract.

[Experience of ultrasound-guided popliteal sciatic nerve block and femoral nerve perineural catheter placement in a morbidly obese patient undergoing total knee arthroplasty].

A 60-year-old morbidly obese woman (150 cm, 112 kg, BMI 49.8) underwent total knee replacement under general anesthesia combined with sciatic nerve block and continuous femoral nerve block. Following induction of general anesthesia and tracheal intubation, the sciatic nerve was blocked using the popliteal approach with the patient in the supine position.

Pregnancy does not enhance volatile anesthetic sensitivity on the brain: an electroencephalographic analysis study.

Backgrounds: Parturients are thought to be more sensitive to inhalational anesthetics because their minimum alveolar concentration is decreased. However, this conventional theory may be wrong, because, according to recent animal studies, minimum alveolar concentration indicates anesthetic effect on the spinal cord but not on the brain. The aim of this electroencephalographic study was to investigate the differences in the hypnotic effect of sevoflurane on parturients and nonpregnant patients.

[Controversial issues regarding general anesthesia for cesarean section].

Although, general anesthesia for cesarean section still seems to be the method of choice in extremely urgent settings, past anesthetic evidence has shown that general anesthesia is with increased risk of anesthesia-related maternal mortality. The major disadvantage with general anesthesia is the risk of aspiration of gastric contents and a "cannot ventilate, cannot intubate" situation. Awareness is another concern.

Incidence of embolic events during acetabular prosthesis insertion in total hip arthroplasty, and effect of intramedullary decompression in preventing embolism: higher risk of embolism with one-piece type prosthesis.

Purpose: In total hip arthroplasty (THA), there is a high risk of bone marrow embolism during femoral prosthesis insertion. However, the incidence during acetabular prosthesis insertion has received less attention. The first goal of this study was to determine the incidence of bone marrow embolism associated with acetabular prosthesis insertion.

Involvement of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in podocyte injury induced by excessive protein accumulation.

Background: An imbalance between protein load and folding capacity is referred to as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. As a defense mechanism, cells express ER stress inducible chaperons, such as oxygen-regulated proteins 150 (ORP150) and glucose-regulated proteins (GRPs). While ER stress is important in various diseases, a pathophysiologic role for ER stress in kidney disease remains elusive.

Circulating mature adrenomedullin is related to blood volume in full-term pregnancy.

Plasma adrenomedullin concentration increases during pregnancy. We measured blood volume and mature adrenomedullin concentration in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid and examined whether mature adrenomedullin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid was associated with increasing blood volume during pregnancy. We enrolled 47 women undergoing surgery with spinal anesthesia in this study.

Determination of the standard value of circulating blood volume during anesthesia using pulse dye-densitometry: a multicenter study in Japan.

Purpose: The standard value for circulating blood volume (BV) during anesthesia was determined by a multicenter study in Japan. The significance of BV on the reduction of blood pressure after the induction of anesthesia was also examined.

Methods: The study included 184 patients from eight university hospitals.

Electroencephalographic bicoherence is sensitive to noxious stimuli during isoflurane or sevoflurane anesthesia.

Background: The authors previously reported changes in electroencephalographic bicoherence during isoflurane anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia. Here, they examined the influence of noxious stimuli on electroencephalographic bicoherence as well as on the Bispectral Index (BIS) and the 95% spectral edge frequency (SEF95).

Methods: The authors enrolled 48 elective abdominal surgery patients (aged 22-77 years; American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I or II).

Transcriptional regulation of a mesangium-predominant gene, megsin.

The cDNA of a new human mesangium-predominant gene, megsin, a novel member of the serpin superfamily, has recently been cloned. This study investigates the regulatory mechanisms of megsin gene expression. A genomic clone of the human megsin gene was obtained by screening bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library with the megsin cDNA.