Circulating levels of KL-6 in acute respiratory distress syndrome sepsis or traumatic brain injury in critically ill children.

KL-6 is a high molecular weight glycoprotein that is expressed on the apical borders of normal secretary alveolar epithelial cells. The aim of our study was to elucidate the potential role of circulating levels of KL-6, related to C-reacting protein (CRP), disease severity (PRISM, TISS), length of stay (LOS) or mechanical ventilation (LOMV), and outcome, in children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, or traumatic brain injury (TBI). KL-6 concentrations were monitored using solid phase sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in plasma of nine patients with ARDS and compared to nine patients with TBI, nine with sepsis, and nine ventilated patients with cancer of matched illness severity on days 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10.

Temporal nutritional and inflammatory changes in children with severe head injury fed a regular or an immune-enhancing diet: A randomized, controlled trial.

Objective: To analyze the effect of an immune enhancing (IE) diet on infection and metabolic indices in children with severe head injury fed either an IE or a regular formula.

Design: : Randomized, blinded, controlled study.

Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit in a university hospital.

Current trends of clinical and genetic characteristics influencing the resource use and the nurse-patient balance in an intensive care setting.

Purpose: To determine the impact of resource use on the nurse/patient ratio in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). To examine the longitudinal influence of chronic or genetically influenced diseases on this interrelation.

Materials And Methods: Overall, 1586 patients admitted to the PICU through various modes of admission during a 5-year period were prospectively studied.

Early enteral administration of immunonutrition in critically ill children: results of a blinded randomized controlled clinical trial.

Objectives: In a blinded, prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial, we compared nitrogen balance (NB), nutritional indices, antioxidant catalysts, and outcome in critically ill children given an immune-enhancing formula (I) or conventional early enteral nutrition (C).

Methods: Fifty patients, 103 +/- 7 months old, with disorders prompting admission to the pediatric intensive care unit, including sepsis, respiratory failure, and severe head injury, were enrolled in the study. Within 12 h of admission, patients were randomized to receive I (n=25) or C (n=25).