Long-term prognostic value of functional status and delirium in emergency patients with decompensated heart failure.

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is prevalent in older adults and is associated with impaired physical and cognitive function. However, these factors are rarely included in studies about long-term prognosis of HF. The aim of the study was to determine whether functional status and delirium at admission (prevalent delirium) would predict 1-year mortality in patients with decompensated HF (DHF).

Evaluation of periodic breathing in respiratory flow signal of elderly patients using SVM and linear discriminant analysis.

Aging population is a major concern that is reflected in the increase of chronic diseases. Heart Failure (HF) is one of the most common chronic diseases of elderly people that is punctuated with acute episodes, which result in hospitalization. The periodic modulation of the amplitude of the breathing pattern is proved to be one of the multiple symptoms of an acute episode, and thus, the features extracted from its characterization contribute in the improvement of the first diagnosis of the clinical practice.

Assessment of respiratory flow cycle morphology in patients with chronic heart failure.

Breathing pattern as periodic breathing (PB) in chronic heart failure (CHF) is associated with poor prognosis and high mortality risk. This work investigates the significance of a number of time domain parameters for characterizing respiratory flow cycle morphology in patients with CHF. Thus, our primary goal is to detect PB pattern and identify patients at higher risk.

Prognostic value and risk factors of delirium in emergency patients with decompensated heart failure.

Objective: Patients with heart failure (HF) seen at the emergency department (ED) are increasingly older and more likely to present delirium. Little is known, however, about the impact of this syndrome on outcome in these patients. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value and risk factors of delirium at admission (prevalent delirium) in ED patients with decompensated HF.

Analysis of the breathing pattern in elderly patients using the Hurst exponent applied to the respiratory flow signal.

Due to the increasing elderly population and the extensive number of comorbidities that affect them, studies are required to determine future increments in admission to emergency departments. Some of these studies could focus on the relation between chronic diseases and breathing pattern in elderly patients. Variations in the fractal properties of respiratory signals can be associated with several diseases.

Study of the oscillatory breathing pattern in elderly patients.

Some of the most common clinical problems in elderly patients are related to diseases of the cardiac and respiratory systems. Elderly patients often have altered breathing patterns, such as periodic breathing (PB) and Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR), which may coincide with chronic heart failure. In this study, we used the envelope of the respiratory flow signal to characterize respiratory patterns in elderly patients.

Characterization of the respiratory pattern variability of patients with different pressure support levels.

One of the most challenging problems in intensive care is still the process of discontinuing mechanical ventilation, called weaning process. Both an unnecessary delay in the discontinuation process and a weaning trial that is undertaken too early are undesirable. In this study, we analyzed respiratory pattern variability using the respiratory volume signal of patients submitted to two different levels of pressure support ventilation (PSV), prior to withdrawal of the mechanical ventilation.

SVM-based feature selection to optimize sensitivity-specificity balance applied to weaning.

Classification algorithms with unbalanced datasets tend to produce high predictive accuracy over the majority class, but poor predictive accuracy over the minority class. This problem is very common in biomedical data mining. This paper introduces a Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based optimized feature selection method, to select the most relevant features and maintain an accurate and well-balanced sensitivity-specificity result between unbalanced groups.

Performance of respiratory pattern parameters in classifiers for predict weaning process.

Weaning trials process of patients in intensive care units is a complex clinical procedure. 153 patients under extubation process (T-tube test) were studied: 94 patients with successful trials (group S), 38 patients who failed to maintain spontaneous breathing and were reconnected (group F), and 21 patients with successful test but that had to be reintubated before 48 hours (group R). The respiratory pattern of each patient was characterized through the following time series: inspiratory time (T(I)), expiratory time (T(E)), breathing cycle duration (T(Tot)), tidal volume (V(T)), inspiratory fraction (T(I)/T(Tot)), half inspired flow (V(T)/T(I)), and rapid shallow index (f/V(T)), where ƒ is respiratory rate.

Analysis of roots in ARMA model for the classification of patients on weaning trials.

One objective of mechanical ventilation is the recovery of spontaneous breathing as soon as possible. Remove the mechanical ventilation is sometimes more difficult that maintain it. This paper proposes the study of respiratory flow signal of patients on weaning trials process by autoregressive moving average model (ARMA), through the location of poles and zeros of the model.

Analysis of the respiratory pattern variability of patients in weaning process using autoregressive modeling techniques.

One of the most challenging problems in intensive care is the process of discontinuing mechanical ventilation, called weaning process. An unnecessary delay in the discontinuation process and an early weaning trial are undesirable. This paper proposes to analysis the respiratory pattern variability of these patients using autoregressive modeling techniques: autoregressive models (AR), autoregressive moving average models (ARMA), and autoregressive models with exogenous input (ARX).

Recurrence quantification analysis of heart rate variability and respiratory flow series in patients on weaning trials.

Autonomic nervous system regulates the behavior of cardiac and respiratory systems. Its assessment during the ventilator weaning can provide information about physio-pathological imbalances. This work proposes a non linear analysis of the complexity of the heart rate variability (HRV) and breathing duration (T(Tot)) applying recurrence plot (RP) and their interaction joint recurrence plot (JRP).

Spectral analysis of the RR series and the respiratory flow signal on patients in weaning process.

A considerable number of patients in weaning process have problems to keep spontaneous breathing during the trial and after it. This study proposes to extract characteristic parameters of the RR series and respiratory flow signal according to the patients' condition in weaning test. Three groups of patients have been considered: 93 patients with successful trials (group S), 40 patients that failed to maintain spontaneous breathing (group F), and 21 patients who had successful weaning trials, but that had to be reintubated before 48 hours (group R).

Patients on weaning trials classified with support vector machines.

The process of discontinuing mechanical ventilation is called weaning and is one of the most challenging problems in intensive care. An unnecessary delay in the discontinuation process and an early weaning trial are undesirable. This study aims to characterize the respiratory pattern through features that permit the identification of patients' conditions in weaning trials.

Data mining of patients on weaning trials from mechanical ventilation using cluster analysis and neural networks.

The process of weaning from mechanical ventilation is one of the challenges in intensive care. 149 patients under extubation process (T-tube test) were studied: 88 patients with successful trials (group S), 38 patients who failed to maintain spontaneous breathing and were reconnected (group F), and 23 patients with successful test but that had to be reintubated before 48 hours (group R). Each patient was characterized using 8 time series and 6 statistics extracted from respiratory and cardiac signals.

Characterization of periodic and non-periodic breathing pattern in chronic heart failure patients.

Periodic breathing (PB) has a high prevalence in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients with mild to moderate symptoms and poor ventricular function. This work proposes the analysis and characterization of the respiratory pattern to identify periodic breathing pattern (PB) and non-periodic breathing pattern (nPB) through the respiratory flow signal. The respiratory pattern analysis is based on the extraction and the study of the flow envelope signal.

Time-frequency analysis of cardiac and respiratory parameters for the prediction of ventilator weaning.

Mechanical ventilators are used to provide life support in patients with respiratory failure. Assessing autonomic control during the ventilator weaning provides information about physiopathological imbalances. Autonomic parameters can be derived and used to predict success in discontinuing from the mechanical support.

A randomized controlled trial comparing ligation and sclerotherapy as emergency endoscopic treatment added to somatostatin in acute variceal bleeding.

Background/aims: The currently recommended treatment for acute variceal bleeding is the association of vasoactive drugs and endoscopic therapy. However, which emergency endoscopic treatment combines better with drugs has not been clarified. This study compares the efficacy and safety of variceal ligation and sclerotherapy as emergency endoscopic treatment added to somatostatin.

Short- and long-term outcomes of older patients in intermediate care units.

Objective: To evaluate short- and long-term outcomes of elderly patients (>or=65 years) treated at an intermediate care unit (IMCU) and to identify outcome predictors.

Design And Setting: Prospective observational study in the IMCU of a university teaching hospital.

Participants: We studied 412 patients over 8 months, classified into three groups: under 65years (control group, n=158), 65-80 (n=186), and >80 (n=68).

Incidence, risk factors and outcome of barotrauma in mechanically ventilated patients.

Objective: To determine the incidence, risk factors, and outcome of barotrauma in a cohort of mechanically ventilated patients where limited tidal volumes and airway pressures were used.

Design And Setting: Prospective cohort of 361 intensive care units from 20 countries.

Patients And Participants: A total of 5183 patients mechanically ventilated for more than 12 h.