The pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx regulates neutrophil adhesion and lung injury during experimental sepsis.

Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response to infection, commonly progresses to acute lung injury (ALI), an inflammatory lung disease with high morbidity. We postulated that sepsis-associated ALI is initiated by degradation of the pulmonary endothelial glycocalyx, leading to neutrophil adherence and inflammation. Using intravital microscopy, we found that endotoxemia in mice rapidly induced pulmonary microvascular glycocalyx degradation via tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-dependent mechanisms.

The response to methylene blue in patients with severe hypotension during liver transplantation.

Methylene blue is a useful therapy for catecholamine-resistant vasoplegic shock. Three cases of methylene blue administration for the treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension during orthotopic liver transplantation are presented.

Standard subcutaneous dosing of unfractionated heparin for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in surgical ICU patients leads to subtherapeutic factor Xa inhibition.

Purpose: To assess coagulation status and factor Xa inhibition in surgical intensive care unit (ICU) patients administered prophylactic unfractionated heparin for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, single-blind study at a tertiary academic medical center. Included were patients 18 years and older admitted to the surgical ICU directly after major abdominal surgery.

Variables associated with feeding tube placement in head and neck cancer.

Objective: To identify clinical factors associated with enteral feeding tube placement in a head and neck cancer population.

Design: A self-administered survey was given to patients being treated for head and neck cancer while they were waiting to be seen in 1 of 4 otolaryngology clinics. The post hoc analysis presented here combines survey and chart review data to determine clinical and demographic variables associated with feeding tube placement.

Laryngeal paraganglioma in a patient with multiple head and neck paragangliomas.

Paragangliomas of the larynx are rare neuroendocrine tumors, with fewer than 70 cases reported in the literature. 1 Typically, laryngeal paragangliomas are not found in patients with multicentric or familial paragangliomas. Only 1 case of laryngeal paraganglioma has been reported in a patient with a synchronous lesion elsewhere (carotid body tumor).

Eotaxin/CCL11 is a negative regulator of neutrophil recruitment in a murine model of endotoxemia.

Eotaxin/CCL11 is a chemokine that has been primarily characterized with respect to its eosinophil chemoattractant activity. However, the broad tissue expression of eotaxin/CCL11 suggests that it may have other unknown activities. We have used a murine model of endotoxemia to study the role of eotaxin/CCL11 in neutrophil recruitment.

Eotaxin/CCL11 suppresses IL-8/CXCL8 secretion from human dermal microvascular endothelial cells.

The CC chemokine eotaxin/CCL11 is known to bind to the receptor CCR3 on eosinophils and Th2-type lymphocytes. In this study, we demonstrate that CCR3 is expressed on a subpopulation of primary human dermal microvascular endothelial cells and is up-regulated by TNF-alpha. We found that incubation of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells with recombinant eotaxin/CCL11 suppresses TNF-alpha-induced production of the neutrophil-specific chemokine IL-8/CXCL8.