How do we know when patients sleep properly or why they do not?

Editorial Material: How do we know when patients sleep properly or why they do not?

Editorial Material: How do we know when patients sleep properly or why they do not

How do we know when patients sleep properly or why they do not?

The importance of adequate sleep for good health and immune system function is well documented as is reduced sleep quality experienced by ICU patients. In the previous issue of Critical Care, Elliot and co-workers present a well done, largest of its kind, single-center study on sleep patterns in critically ill patients. They base their study on the 'gold standard', the polysomnography technique...

Do We Know What We Do not Know? A Response to Celine Bonnet

Glucocorticoids: do we know how they work?

It is not known to what extent glucocorticoid hormones cause their anti-inflammatory actions and their undesirable side effects by the same or different molecular mechanisms. Glucocorticoids combine with a cytoplasmic receptor that alters gene expression in two ways. One way is dependent on the receptor's binding directly to DNA and acting (positively or negatively) as a transcription factor. T...

Diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for dermatologists: What shall we do when we don’t know what to do?

What shall we do when we have done everything we could for the diagnosis and treatment of a patient, but were not successful? What shall we do when there is no definite treatment for a patient? What shall we do when we have no diagnosis or treatment for a patient? Some useful suggestions are presented here to get rid of these situations.