Regional ventilation in spontaneously breathing COVID-19 patients during postural maneuvers assessed by electrical impedance tomography.

Background: Gravity-dependent positioning therapy is an established concept in the treatment of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and improves oxygenation in spontaneously breathing patients with hypoxemic acute respiratory failure. In patients with coronavirus disease 2019, this therapy seems to be less effective. Electrical impedance tomography as a point-of-care functional imaging modality for visualizing regional ventilation can possibly help identify patients who might benefit from positioning therapy and guide those maneuvers in real-time.

Dynamic relative regional strain visualized by electrical impedance tomography in patients suffering from COVID-19.

Respiratory failure due to SARS-CoV-2 may progress rapidly. During the course of COVID-19, patients develop an increased respiratory drive, which may induce high mechanical strain a known risk factor for Patient Self-Inflicted Lung Injury (P-SILI). We developed a novel Electrical Impedance Tomography-based approach to visualize the Dynamic Relative Regional Strain (DRRS) in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients and compared these findings with measurements in lung healthy volunteers.

Current clinical use of intravenous fosfomycin in ICU patients in two European countries.

Purpose: In Europe, intravenous fosfomycin (IV) is used particularly in difficult-to-treat or complex infections, caused by both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens including multidrug-resistant strains. Here, we investigated the efficacy and safety of intravenous fosfomycin under real-life conditions.

Methods: Prospective, multi-center, and non-interventional study in patients with bacterial infections from 20 intensive care units (ICU) in Germany and Austria (NCT01173575).

Conductance catheter measurement and effect of different anesthetics in a rat model of postresuscitation myocardial dysfunction.

We demonstrate the usefulness of left ventricular pressure-volume (PV) loops generated by the use of conductance catheter measurements and investigate the influence of the type of general anesthesia on postresuscitation myocardial dysfunction in a rat model of cardiac arrest (CA) and subsequent cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A total of 42 Wistar-Han rats were randomized to receive general anesthesia with sevoflurane and resuscitation after CA, general anesthesia with pentobarbital intraperitoneally and resuscitation after CA, or general anesthesia with pentobarbital without CA (sham group). Myocardial function, assessed by analysis of PV loops, was measured continuously and in real-time by using a PV-conductance catheter.

Endothelial progenitor cell mobilization by preoperative exercise: a bone marrow response associated with postoperative outcome.

Background: Preoperative anaemia is associated with increased morbidity in patients undergoing major surgery. Whether erythrocytes are the only bone-marrow-derived cell lineage that associates with increased surgical complications is unknown. This prospective observational trial studied the mobilization of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in response to exercise in association with postoperative complications.