Validity and reliability of the DDS for severity of delirium in the ICU.

Introduction: Until now, there has been no gold standard for monitoring delirium in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. In this prospective cohort study, a new score, the Delirium Detection Score (DDS), for severity of delirium in the ICU was evaluated.

Methods: After ethical approval and written informed consent, intensive care doctors and nurses assessed 1073 consecutive patients in surgical ICUs using the DDS together with the Ramsay Sedation Scale (RSS).

Alcohol withdrawal severity is decreased by symptom-orientated adjusted bolus therapy in the ICU.

Objective: To examine the effect of bolus vs. continuous infusion adjustment on severity and duration of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS), the medication requirements for AWS treatment, and the effect on ICU stay in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

Design And Setting: Prospective randomized, double-blind controlled trial in a surgical ICU.

[Focal surgery, antibiotic therapy--and then? The role of rhAPC in sepsis].

Severe sepsis and septic shock are still the leading causes of death in the surgical ICU. The only curative therapies of sepsis are still surgery as well as antibiotic therapy to cure the focus. In addition a supportive therapy (analgesia and sedation, mechanical ventilation, titrated volume substitution and positive inotropes/vasopressor support, parenteral and enteral neutron, renal replacement therapies) should be started as early as possible.

Myocardial high energy phosphates in experimental thyrotoxicosis in guinea pigs.

Experimental thyrotoxicosis was produced in guinea pigs by daily intraperitoneal injection of 0.7 mg/kg thyroxine (T4) or 0.15 mg/kg triiodothyronine (T3), as shown by an increase of PBI over 50 gamma percent, weight reduction of 20--30 percent, and increase in heart rate of 30--50 percent.

Dose-relation of thyroxine-induced changes in myocardial energy stores.

Experimental hyperthyroidism was produced in guinea pigs by daily intraperitoneal injection of l-thyroxine (T4) in various doses (0.7, 0.35, 0.