Patients with sepsis, severe sepsis and/or septic shock are at increased risk of death and organ dysfunction.  While morbidity and mortality of patients with severe traumatic injury, acute myocardial infarction or stroke have been significantly reduced during recent years by the implementation of well-coordinated...

Postoperative cardiovascular event including myocardial infarction or heart failure is a major cause of morbidity after non-cardiac surgery. Preoperative evaluation including estimation of the probability of perioperative cardiac event and application of non-invasive testing or beta-blocker has been developed, but...

ROC curves are frequently used to show in a graphical way the connection/trade-off between clinical sensitivity and specificity for every possible cut-off for a test or a combination of tests. In addition the area under the ROC curve gives an idea about the benefit of using the test(s) in question.  ROC curves are...

As healthcare seeks to provide better care with fewer resources, Point-of-Care Testing steps in to move key diagnostic or screening tests to the patient’s bedside. The results can have a significant impact on a patient outcome and operational costs.

The following is a copy of an article from Nursing 2007, Fall 2007 Volume 37 Number 8 - Supplement: ED Insider, Pages 14 - 16 The D-dimer level is a measure of clot formation and lysis that results from the degradation of cross-linked fibrin. Widely used as an indicator for the presence of disseminated intravascular ...

Over the years, as clinicians have learned how to utilize it, permissive hypercapnia has been finding a place in healthcare. However, it is important to bear in mind that numbers do not tell the entire story. It is imperative to understand the entire clinical picture before you act. For example, an acidic pH of 7.21...

The appropriate number of significant figures is important in order to have a meaningful level of resolving power when reporting analytical concentrations. Various methods or criteria can be used when estimating how many significant figures are needed. In most cases three significant figures (two true plus one...

PURPOSE – The purpose of this article is to discuss lean as a learning system in a hospital ward. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – Discusses lean as a learning system in a hospital ward. FINDINGS – The Toyota veterans are fond of saying, lean is about “making people before making parts” or, in the wards’ context,...

BACKGROUND: Besides actual pH, base excess (ctH⁺_B (mmol/L)) is of major importance since it is meant to reflect lactate acidosis due to fetal hypoxia; in vivo BE_B is not independent from pCO₂. Independence is achieved by using the extended extracellular fluid (Ecf) for dilution of hemoglobin (cHb_B), reducing cHb_B to ...

The following is a copy of an article from Evidence-Based Practice, 2007; 10(12):1-2. Venous thromboembolism refers to a spectrum of disease that includes both pulmonary embolus and deep-venous thrombosis (DVT). More than 250,000 people in the United States are diagnosed annually with venous thromboembolic disease;...