Metabolic Disorders and Critically Ill Patients

Nutritional Assessment in Critically Ill Patients

Background: Malnutrition is an important factor in the survival of critically ill patients. The purpose of the present study was to assess the nutritional status of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) on the days of admission and discharge via a detailed nutritional assessment. Methods: Totally, 125 patients were followed up from admission to discharge at 8ICUs in Shiraz, Iran. The patien...

probiotics in critically ill patients

Diagnosis of metabolic acid-base disturbances in critically ill patients.

We compare two commonly used diagnostic approaches, one relying on plasma bicarbonate concentration and "anion gap," the other on "base excess," with a third method based on physicochemical principles, for their value in detecting complex metabolic acid-base disturbances. We analyzed arterial blood samples from 152 patients and nine normal subjects for pH, PCO(2), and concentrations of plasma e...

Transcriptional reprogramming of metabolic pathways in critically ill patients

BACKGROUND Critical illness causes a shift away from mitochondrial metabolism towards a greater dependence on glycolysis. This metabolic shift is thought to be associated with lactic acidosis, organ dysfunction and poor clinical outcomes. The current paradigm is that low oxygen supply causes regional hypoxia, which in turn drives such a metabolic shift. In this study, we evaluated whether the s...

Other aspects of metabolic monitoring in critically ill patients.

Cardiopulmonary monitoring remains the mainstay of intensive-care unit utilization of clinical chemistry resources. Its focus has been on the restoration and maintenance of oxygen transport. Metabolic monitoring, a relatively new area of application for clinical chemistry technology, focuses on cell metabolism and on cell-cell interaction as a mechanism of metabolic regulation. This latter appl...