Oxygen therapy in acute hypoxemic respiratory failure: guidelines from the SRLF-SFMU consensus conference.

Introduction: Although largely used, the place of oxygen therapy and its devices in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (ARF) deserves to be clarified. The French Intensive Care Society (Société de Réanimation de Langue Française, SRLF) and the French Emergency Medicine Society (Société Française de Médecine d'Urgence, SFMU) organized a consensus conference on oxygen therapy in ARF (excluding acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and hypercapnic exacerbation of chronic obstructive diseases) in December 2023.

Methods: A committee without any conflict of interest (CoI) with the subject defined 7 generic questions and drew up a list of sub questions according to the population, intervention, comparison and outcomes (PICO) model.

Thyrotropin Levels in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019: Assessment during Hospitalization and in the Medium Term after Discharge.

Background: The objectives of this study were (1) to compare TSH levels between inpatients with critical versus non-critical coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), and (2) to describe the status of TSH levels three months after hospitalization.

Methods: We collected data on adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at Amiens University Hospital. We compared TSH levels between inpatients with critical (intensive care unit admission and/or death) versus non-critical COVID-19.

Venous return and mean systemic filling pressure: physiology and clinical applications.

Venous return is the flow of blood from the systemic venous network towards the right heart. At steady state, venous return equals cardiac output, as the venous and arterial systems operate in series. However, unlike the arterial one, the venous network is a capacitive system with a high compliance.

Norepinephrine potentiates the efficacy of volume expansion on mean systemic pressure in septic shock.

Background: Through venous contraction, norepinephrine (NE) increases stressed blood volume and mean systemic pressure (Pms) and exerts a "fluid-like" effect. When both fluid and NE are administered, Pms may not only result from the sum of the effects of both drugs. Indeed, norepinephrine may enhance the effects of volume expansion: because fluid dilutes into a more constricted, smaller, venous network, fluid may increase Pms to a larger extent at a higher than at a lower dose of NE.

Effects of Prone Positioning on Venous Return in Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Objectives: To examine the effects of prone positioning on venous return and its determinants such as mean systemic pressure and venous return resistance in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Design: Prospective monocentric study.

Settings: A 25-bed medical ICU.

Transpulmonary thermodilution detects rapid and reversible increases in lung water induced by positive end-expiratory pressure in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Purpose: It has been suggested that, by recruiting lung regions and enlarging the distribution volume of the cold indicator, increasing the positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) may lead to an artefactual overestimation of extravascular lung water (EVLW) by transpulmonary thermodilution (TPTD).

Methods: In 60 ARDS patients, we measured EVLW (PiCCO2 device) at a PEEP level set to reach a plateau pressure of 30 cmHO (HighPEEP) and 15 and 45 min after decreasing PEEP to 5 cmHO (LowPEEP and LowPEEP, respectively). Then, we increased PEEP back to the baseline level (HighPEEP).