Persistent Outpatient Hypertension Is Independently Associated with Spinal Cord Dysfunction and Imaging Characteristics of Spinal Cord Damage among Patients with Cervical Spondylosis.

Objective: Hypertension and cervical spondylosis are diseases of the adult population that are approaching near pandemic proportions. However, the interactions between these two disease processes are poorly understood. We set out to determine the associations among systemic hypertension, clinical status, and imaging findings of spinal cord damage for patients with cervical stenosis.

Trauma-associated pneumonia in adult ventilated patients.

Background: The clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) are 2 tools that have been validated to diagnose pneumonia in critically ill patients. However, the role of the CPIS in diagnosing trauma-associated pneumonia (TAP) remains in question.

Methods: This prospective observational study included all trauma patients who were ventilated for longer than 48 hours from September 2008 to September 2009.