Publications by authors named "Sebastian Voicu"

Introduction: The haemodynamic effects veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) remain inadequately understood. We investigated invasive left ventricular (LV) haemodynamics in patients who underwent treatment with an intensive care strategy involving extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR).

Methods: We conducted invasive haemodynamic assessments on 15 patients who underwent ECPR and achieved return of spontaneous circulation.

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Background: Cardiac arrest remains a global health issue with limited data on long-term outcomes, particularly regarding recurrent cardiovascular events in patients surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. (OHCA). We aimed to describe the long-term occurrence of major cardiac event defined by hospital admission for cardiovascular events or death in OHCA hospital survivors, whichever came first.

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Background: We assessed the effect of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) on mortality and length of stay after high flow nasal oxygenation (HFNO) failure among patients with severe hypoxemic COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods: In this multicenter, retrospective study, we enrolled COVID-19 patients admitted in intensive care unit (ICU) for severe COVID-19 pneumonia with a HFNO failure from December 2020 to January 2022. The primary outcome was to compare the 90-day mortality between patients who required a straight intubation after HFNO failure and patients who received NIV after HFNO failure.

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Aim: To assess the hemodynamic effects of head elevation on cerebral perfusion during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in a porcine model of cardiac arrest.

Methods: VF was induced in eight 65 kg pigs that were treated with CPR after five minutes of no flow. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) was measured at the descending thoracic aorta.

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Aim: To assess the impact of body mass index (BMI) on survival to hospital discharge of patients presenting with refractory ventricular fibrillation treated with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We hypothesize that due to limitations in pre-hospital care delivery, people with high BMI have worse survival after prolonged resuscitation and ECPR.

Methods: This study is a retrospective single-centre study that included patients suffering refractory VT/VF OHCA from December 2015 to October 2021 and had a BMI calculated at hospital admission.

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In toxicology, screenings are routinely performed using chromatographic methods coupled to detection systems such as high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR/MS). The increase in specificity and sensitivity of HRMS is responsible for the development of methods for alternative samples such as Volumetric Adsorptive Micro-Sampling. Whole blood overloaded with 90 drugs was sampled with 20 µL Mitra to optimize the pre-analytical step as well as to determine the identification limits of drugs.

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Metabolomics in clinical toxicology aim at reliably identifying and semi-quantifying a broad array of endogenous and exogenous metabolites using dedicated analytical methods. Here, we developed a three-step-based workflow to investigate the metabolic impact of the antidepressant drug venlafaxine in a poisoned patient who developed life-threatening cardiac failure managed with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Both targeted quantitative and untargeted semi-quantitative metabolomic analyses using liquid chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry were performed to determine the plasma kinetics of venlafaxine, -desmethyl-venlafaxine, and -desmethyl-venlafaxine and to identify sixteen different venlafaxine-derived metabolites including one unknown (, venlafaxine conjugated to a hexosyl-radical), respectively.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study called the NUTRIREA-3 trial explored whether lower calorie and protein intake during the early treatment of critically ill patients could lead to better outcomes compared to standard nutrition guidelines.
  • Conducted in 61 ICUs across France, the trial involved over 3,000 patients who received either low or standard nutrition after being put on mechanical ventilation for shock.
  • Results showed no significant difference in 90-day mortality rates but indicated that patients on the low nutrition plan had a slightly quicker ICU discharge time and experienced fewer gastrointestinal issues and liver dysfunction.
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  • ECLS (Extracorporeal Life Support) can enhance circulation in severe cases of cardiac dysfunction or arrest, particularly in patients poisoned by cardiotoxic substances.
  • The review focused on specific drugs, especially antiarrhythmics and aluminium phosphide, analyzing literature from the past 30 years and finding mostly single case reports with limited controlled studies.
  • While ECLS showed better survival rates in refractory cardiovascular failure (about 80%) compared to cardiac arrest (25%-66%), clearer selection criteria for its use in poisoned patients are needed due to the low-to-moderate evidence quality.
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  • ICU admission decisions for elderly COVID-19 patients are complex, influenced by potential patient-centered benefits and often involve discussions about limiting therapeutic efforts (LTE), which have been understudied.
  • A study was conducted with 82 patients aged 70 and above, highlighting that 27% had early LTE discussions, which were more common in older and frailer patients; however, this did not correlate with higher in-hospital mortality rates.
  • Early LTE discussions led to significantly reduced use of invasive procedures and shorter ICU stays, suggesting that such discussions may optimize care for elderly patients without increasing mortality risks, but further research is necessary to confirm these findings.
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  • Many young people who have sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and die in the hospital don’t have a clear reason why it happened.
  • Researchers looked at over 4,000 patients and found that a lot of tests weren't done to figure out the cause in those young patients.
  • Doing more early tests can help doctors understand SCA better and could prevent similar cases in families.
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Context: Since recovery or death is generally observed within a few days after intensive care unit (ICU) admission of self-poisoned patients in the developed countries, reasons for the prolonged ICU stay are of interest as they have been poorly investigated. We aimed to identify the characteristics, risk factors, outcome, and predictors of death in self-poisoned patients requiring prolonged ICU management.

Methods: We conducted an eight-year single-center cohort study including all self-poisoned patients who stayed at least seven days in the ICU.

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Introduction: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Patterns of inflammatory bronchoalveolar cells in COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO are not well described.

Objective: We aimed to describe inflammatory cell subpopulations in blood and bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) obtained in critically ill COVID-19 patients shortly after ECMO implementation.

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Medical imaging plays a major role in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patient diagnosis and management. However, the radiation dose received from medical procedures by these patients has been poorly investigated. We aimed to estimate the cumulative effective dose (CED) related to medical exposure in COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in comparison to the usual critically ill patients.

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Purpose: Whether epinephrine or norepinephrine is preferable as the continuous intravenous vasopressor used to treat post-resuscitation shock is unclear. We assessed outcomes of patients with post-resuscitation shock after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest according to whether the continuous intravenous vasopressor used was epinephrine or norepinephrine.

Methods: We conducted an observational multicenter study of consecutive patients managed in 2011-2018 for post-resuscitation shock.

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Background: Valproic acid (VPA) poisoning is responsible for life-threatening neurological and metabolic impairments. Despite only low-level evidence of effectiveness, L-carnitine has been used for years to prevent or reverse VPA-related toxicity. We aimed to evaluate the effects of L-carnitine used to treat acute VPA poisoning on the time-course of plasma VPA concentrations and VPA-related toxicity.

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Diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) remains unclear especially in nonimmunocompromised patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate seven mycological criteria and their combination in a large homogenous cohort of patients. All successive patients ( = 176) hospitalized for COVID-19 requiring mechanical ventilation and who clinically worsened despite appropriate standard of care were included over a 1-year period.

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(1) Background: Corticosteroids lower 28-day all-cause mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. However, the outcome of COVID-19 patients referred to the intensive care unit (ICU) for respiratory deterioration despite corticosteroids initiated during hospitalization before ICU admission has been poorly investigated. Our objective was to determine survival according to corticosteroid initiation setting.

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Background: COVID-19 may lead to refractory hypoxemia requiring venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Survival rate if ECMO is implemented as rescue therapy after corticosteroid failure is unknown. We aimed to investigate if ECMO implemented after failure of the full-recommended 10-day corticosteroid course can improve outcome.

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Background: Echocardiographic parameters have been poorly investigated for estimating cardiovascular risk in patients with sepsis and new-onset atrial fibrillation. We aim to assess the prevalence of transesophageal echocardiographic abnormalities and their relationship with cardiovascular events in mechanically ventilated patients with sepsis and new-onset atrial fibrillation.

Methods: In this prospective multicenter pilot study, left atrial/left atrial appendage (LA/LAA) dysfunction, severe aortic atheroma, and left ventricular systolic dysfunction were assessed using an initial transesophageal echocardiographic study, which was repeated after 48-72 h to detect LA/LAA thrombus formation.

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Background: The Intensive care unit (ICU) Requirement Score (IRS) has been defined as identifying poisoned patients on hospital admission who do not require ICU referral, in an effort to reduce health expenses. However, this score has been poorly validated. We aimed to evaluate the IRS in a large cohort of poisoned patients.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be complicated by life-threatening pneumonia requiring tracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation and veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vvECMO). It is not yet clear to what extent and after which delay the most severe cases of COVID-19 pneumonia are reversible. Here, we present a 39-year-old patient who developed a severe COVID-19-attributed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) resulting in complete alveolar consolidation and airway closure for several weeks.

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Background And Aims: Acetaminophen is a common cause of poisoning and liver injury worldwide; however, patient stratification is suboptimal. We aimed to assess the contribution of admission plasma procalcitonin concentration (PCT) to better identify acetaminophen-poisoned patients likely to develop liver injury.

Methods: We conducted a prospective observational cohort study including all acetaminophen-poisoned patients requiring N-acetylcysteine admitted in a toxicological intensive care unit between 2012 and 2017.

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