OBJECTIVE The trace elements selenium, copper, and zinc are essential for maintaining the oxidative balance. A depletion of antioxidative trace elements has been observed in critically ill patients and is associated with the development of multiorgan dysfunction and an increased mortality. Cardiac surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass provokes ischemia-reperfusion-mediated oxidative stress. We h...

The characteristics and outcome of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) may have changed with time. Some studies have reported that mortality is more commonly related to the development of sepsis/multiple organ failure (MOF), and others that it is related to the severity of acute respiratory failure (ARF). The present study evaluates the relative importance of the two phenomena in a large...

Acute pancreatitis is a local inflammatory process that leads to a systemic inflammatory response in the majority of cases, and sometimes leads to multiple organ failure. It is obvious that coagulation and especially the protein C system are involved in this disease. The present commentary is related to a study in patients with pancreatitis with and without multiple organ failure in which prote...

Whether the egg or the chicken came first remains debated, although the debate is not critical for those who love eating omelets. At least, it is well accepted that one needs to break eggs to fry an omelet. In some ways, there are similarities with acute kidney injury. A lot of debate arises from whether acute kidney injury is a complication of various insults and therapies or an expected conti...

In shock, organ perfusion is of vital importance because organ oxygenation is at risk. NO, the main endothelial-derived vasodilator, is crucial for organ perfusion and coronary patency. The availability of NO might depend on the balance between a substrate (arginine) and an inhibitor (asymmetric dimethylarginine; ADMA) of NO synthase. Therefore, we investigated the relationship of arginine, ADM...

We present a case of 63-year-old hematologic patient with pulmonary vaso-invasive zygomycosis Rhizomucor pusillus after second stem cell transplantation (SCT) for myelodysplastic syndrome, complicated by multi organ failure, myocardial ischemia and infarction. Zygomycosis is common in immunocompromised patients, especially hematopoietic (HSCT). Mucor species have devastating properties causing ...

There are no data on the efficacy of secondary prophylaxis against Pneumocystis pneumonia after solid organ transplantation. Therefore, we investigated the rate of recurrence of Pneumocystis pneumonia after solid organ transplantation in a retrospective cohort study. Between 2005 and 2011, a total of 41 recipients recovered from Pneumocystis pneumonia. Of these, 22 (53.7%) received secondary pr...

Presented is a patient with dyspnea and painful ulcers finally resulting in multi-organ failure. A detailed history resulted positive PCR testing for Chlamydia psittaci. We emphasize the importance of definitive establishing correct diagnosis. When clinicians observe failure, they should be aware psittacosis.

OBJECTIVE To compare the discriminative ability of the SOFA and MOD scoring systems with respect to hospital mortality and unfavorable neurologic outcome in patients with severe traumatic brain injury admitted to intensive care. METHODS We performed a prospective cohort study at Foothills Medical Centre, the sole adult tertiary care trauma center servicing southern Alberta (population approxi...