The Angiopoietin-2/Angiopoietin-1 ratio increases early in burn patients and predicts mortality.

Background: Angiopoietin-2 (Angpt-2) is involved in the pathogenesis of the capillary leak syndrome in sepsis and has been shown to be associated with worse outcomes in diverse critical illnesses. It is however unclear whether Angpt-2 plays a similar role in severely burned patients during the early phase characterized by massive capillary leakage. Our aim was to analyze the Angiopoietin-2/Angiopoietin-1 ratio (Angpt-2/Angpt-1 ratio) over the first two days in critically ill burn patients and examine its association with survival and further clinical parameters.

Response of routine inflammatory biomarkers and novel Pancreatic Stone Protein to inhalation injury and its interference with sepsis detection in severely burned patients.

Background: Inhalation of thermal and chemical products of combustion evokes an immune response measurable at a systemic level. Inhalation injury related kinetics of currently available inflammatory biomarkers and novel Pancreatic Stone Protein (PSP) as well as their interference with septic events has not been addressed to literature yet.

Methods: Analysis of the influence of inhalation injury and ARDS on biomarker kinetics (PSP, procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive Protein (CRP), white blood cells (WBC)) in 90 patients admitted to Zurich Burn Center between May 2015 and October 2018 with burns ≥15% total body surface area (TBSA) over 14 days.

Clinical practice guidelines in Brazil - developing a national programme.

In Brazil, governmental and non-governmental organisations develop practice guidelines (PGs) in order to optimise patient care. Although important improvements have been made over the past years, many of these documents still lack transparency and methodological rigour. In order to conduct a critical analysis and define future steps in PG development in Brazil, we carried out a structured assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) for the development of a national guideline programme.

Expression of Pancreatic Stone Protein is Unaffected by Trauma and Subsequent Surgery in Burn Patients.

Background: Altered levels of pro-inflammatory markers secondary to trauma or surgery present a major problem to physicians in being prone to interfere with the clinical identification of infectious events.

Methods: Patients admitted to Zurich Burn Center between May 2015 and October 2018 with burns ≥10% total body surface area (TBSA) and without infection. Longitudinal analysis of the time course of PSP and routine inflammatory biomarkers [procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cells (WBC)] over two days after (a) trauma with initial debridement and (b) subsequent burn surgeries was performed.

Binary millisecond pulsar discovery via gamma-ray pulsations.

Millisecond pulsars, old neutron stars spun up by accreting matter from a companion star, can reach high rotation rates of hundreds of revolutions per second. Until now, all such "recycled" rotation-powered pulsars have been detected by their spin-modulated radio emission. In a computing-intensive blind search of gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (with partial constraints from optical data), we detected a 2.