Since the inception of the ASA Closed Claims project, adverse respiratory events have constituted the single largest source of injury4. Just three mechanisms of injury accounted for nearly three fourths of all claims for adverse respiratory events. These mechanisms are inadequate ventilation (38%), esophageal intubation (18%) and difficult tracheal intubation (17%). Most of these adverse respir...

Objective To investigate the phenotypic relationships between aortic stiffness and left ventricular (LV) stroke volume (SV) and modes of deformation (longitudinal LD and radial -RD) at rest and stress, with preserved and compromised contractile capacity. Background Increased aortic stiffness, measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV), is linked to a range of cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and act...

REVIEW QUESTION/OBJECTIVE Does the use of capnography versus pulse oximetry increase the early detection of respiratory compromise and improve safety in non-intubated patients undergoing moderate sedation for gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures?Respiratory compromise will be detected by alveolar hypoventilation/hyperventilation (EtCO2 < 35 mmHg/EtCO2 > 50 mmHg), arterial oxygen desaturation (...

We describe an energy-partition diagnostic based on integrating sphere principle for measuring absorption and scattering in plasma-mediated ablation by a high repetition-rate (133 MHz), pulsetrain-burst ultrafast-pulse laser. The system time-resolves the partition of elastically scattered laser light into specular reflection, diffuse reflection, and transmission, giving access to per-pulse abso...

We have studied response times of 30 anaesthetists to a standardized episode of arterial oxygen desaturation in a simulated patient, randomized to the use of either a fixed or variable pitch pulse oximeter. We wished to determine if a variable auditory signal was important in detecting adverse events. A variable pitch pulse signal had a shorter time to recognition of desaturation (P < 0.0001), ...

BACKGROUND Routine monitoring of postoperative patients with pulse oximetry-based surveillance monitoring has been shown to reduce adverse events. However, there is some concern that pulse oximetry is limited in its ability to detect deterioration quickly enough to allow for intervention in patients receiving supplemental oxygen. To address such concerns, this study expands on the current limit...

As it passes from the proximal aorta to the periphery, the normal pulse undergoes striking changes, mainly due to peripheral reflections, which result in it becoming sharper and increased in amplitude (Kroeker and Wood, 1955; McDonald and Taylor, 1959). The abnormal pulse is also subject to change, and alterations in the central pulse may, as a result, become either more or less obvious in the ...

The method of conventional probability-weighted moments (PWMs) and the principle of minimum cross entropy were combined to derive an analytical form of quantile function [Pandey, 2001]. This method is extended and improved in the present paper by utilizing the concept of self determined probability weighted moments (SD-PWMs). Minimum cross entropy principle and SD-PWMs from sample data were use...

A digital method for the discrimination of neutron and -ray events from an organic scintillator has been investigated by using frequency gradient analysis (FGA) based on the Fourier transform. Since the scintillation process and the photomultiplier tube (PMT) anode signal are often very noisy, most pulse-shape discrimination methods in a scintillation detection system (e.g., the charge comparis...

There are limited data on the evolution of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) during continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy and whether this treatment is required every night. 125 OSA patients with an original oxygen desaturation index (ODI) >10 events per hour, established on CPAP, were asked to withdraw CPAP for four nights and performed ambulatory nocturnal pulse oximetry on the four...