Risk factors for agitation in critically ill patients.

Objective:: To evaluate the incidence of agitation in the first 7 days after intensive care unit admission, its risk factors and its associations with clinical outcomes.

Methods:: This single-center prospective cohort study included all patients older than 18 years with a predicted stay > 48 hours within the first 24 hours of intensive care unit admission. Agitation was defined as a Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale score ≥ +2, an episode of agitation or the use of a specific medication recorded in patient charts.

Effect of induction and reperfusion with warm substrate-enriched cardioplegia on ventricular function.

Background: This study tested the hypothesis that induction and reperfusion with warm substrate-enriched (IRWSE) blood cardioplegia improves postoperative left ventricular (LV) function in patients undergoing elective coronary bypass surgery (CABG).

Methods: After giving informed consent, 67 patients scheduled for CABG surgery were randomized to either IRWSE + cold blood (CB) or CB alone. IRWSE cardioplegia consisted of 37 degrees C substrate-enriched (glutamate, aspartate, hyperkalemic) anterograde and retrograde blood cardioplegic solution followed by non-substrate-enriched cardioplegic solution given at 4 degrees C to 8 degrees C.

Changes in systolic and diastolic ventricular function with cold cardioplegic arrest in man. The Multicenter Study of Perioperative Ischemia (McSPI) Research Group.

Introduction: Most of the cardiac surgery done today is performed with aortic cross-clamping and cardioplegic arrest. Despite improvements in cardioplegic techniques, ventricular dysfunction following cardioplegic arrest is a major cause of perioperative morbidity and mortality. This experiment will quantify the changes in left ventricular systolic function with cold cardioplegia.

Cytokines and reperfusion injury.

Myocardial dysfunction following prolonged ischemia and reperfusion is at least partially dependent upon adhesion of neutrophils to myocardial and endothelial cells. Neutrophils are thought to contribute to reperfusion injury by two mechanisms: impairment of the microvasculature by physical obstruction, and secretion of products that damage microvasculature and myocardium. Cytokines have been shown to play several roles in neutrophil aggregation.

Ca2+-dependent phosphorylation of tyrosine hydroxylase in PC12 cells.

Ca2+-dependent protein phosphorylation has been detected in numerous tissues and may mediate some of the effects of hormones and other extracellular stimuli on cell function. In this paper we demonstrate that a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase similar to the enzyme previously purified and characterized from rat brain is present in PC12, a rat pheochromocytoma cell line. We show that Ca2+ influx elicited by various forms of cell stimulation leads to increased 32P incorporation into tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a major phosphoprotein in these cells.