A body of evidence supports the use of low tidal volumes in ventilated patients without lung pathology to slow progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to ventilator associated lung injury. We undertook a retrospective chart review and tested the hypothesis that tidal volume is a predictor of mortality in cardiothoracic (medical and surgical) critical care patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation. Independent predictors of mortality in our study included: type of surgery, albumin, H, bilirubin, and fluid balance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPost-operative delirium remains a significant problem, particularly in the older surgical patient. Previous evidence suggests that the provision of supplementary visual feedback about ones environment via the use of a mirror may positively impact on mental status and attention (core delirium diagnostic domains). We aimed to explore whether use of an evidence-based mirrors intervention could be effective in reducing delirium and improving post-operative outcomes such as factual memory encoding of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment in older cardiac surgical patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: We explored the relationship between activated clotting time (ACT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) when used to monitor anticoagulation in patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.
Methods: Data obtained in patients undergoing ECMO support between October 2012 and August 2013 in a single centre were reviewed. Clinical data were extracted from our Clinical Information System and ECMO database.
Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a specific and persistent disability affecting the acquisition of written language. Prevalence is estimated to be between 5% and 17% of school-aged children; it therefore represents a major public health issue. Neurological in origin, its causes are unknown, although there is a clear genetic component.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAuditory-evoked potential (AEP)s elicited to French-language voiced stop consonant (/ba/) and voiceless stop consonant (/pa/) were studied in non-language-impaired epileptic patients and non-epileptic volunteers. First, depth AEPs recorded from the primary auditory cortex during pre-surgical exploration and scalp AEPs recordings using high resolution EEG (HR EEG-64 channels scalp EEG) were compared in the same patients. Both methods indicated that the processing of voiced and voiceless consonants was based on a temporal auditory coding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn addition to reading disorders, numerous deficits have been found to be associated with dyslexia, suggesting that various neurological factors might be involved in its etiology. In the present study, we focused on three of the deficits which have been thought to accompany and to a certain extent, to explain dyslexia: an abnormal pattern of hemispheric asymmetry, abnormal hemispheric communication, and abnormal motor control. The aim of the present study was to determine whether adults with reading difficulties perform differently from control subjects in a visuo-manual pointing task, in which the subject was required to point with the right or the left hand to targets appearing to the right or left of a central fixation point.
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