Early mortality in spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage.

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage is a severe, frequent, and poorly understood condition. Despite the publication of 12 randomised controlled trials on this subject, the role of surgery remains controversial and no treatment has proved to be effective. We report on a ten year prospective cohort study based on a defined population treated with or without surgery and their outcome in terms of early survival. METHODS: Population based, ten year prospective observational study directed to patients consecutively admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a tertiary centre with spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage. Patients were distributed in five groups according to the Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) at admission. Haemorrhages were classified as deep-seated or superficial. All patient received standard medical care, and additionally surgery if it was found indicated by the duty neurosurgeon. Primary endpoint was early mortality defined as dead occurred by any cause during the admission in the ICU. FINDINGS: During the ten year period, 1.485 patients were admitted to our centre with primary intracerebral haemorrhage. Of these, 376 were admitted to the intensive care unit and 285 sustained supratentorial haemorrhages. Low GCS was strong predictor of early mortality. Despite the larger size of haematomas in patients undergoing surgical evacuation, surgery was associated with lower early mortality in all GCS subgroups. Maximal benefit was observed in patient with admission GCS of 4-8. Superficial haematomas were operated on more often, and were associated with lower mortality rate than deep-seated cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that craniotomy for haematoma evacuation may reduce early mortality in patients with primary supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage. Surgery seems specially useful in patients with admission GCS between 4 and 8, and in those with superficial haemorrhages.

EBSD characterization of a hot worked 304 austenitic stainless steel under strain reversal.

Monotonic and strain reversal hot torsion tests were performed on a 304 austenitic stainless steel, this led to changes in microstructures depending on the strain path. electron backscatter diffraction was used as the tool for characterizing the microstructures. It was possible to find some intragranular microstructural changes due to the reversal of the strain by means of several local and global misorientation-related parameters. Sigma3 boundaries also showed sensitivity to strain reversal.

Efficacy of intravenous alfacalcidol in the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients on hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND: Secondary hyperparathyroidism remains a serious problem in hemodialysis patients. The therapy of renal osteodystrophy is mainly based on lowering phosphate levels and administering vitamin D(3) metabolites and calcimimetic agents. METHODS: An observational, prospective, multicenter study was made to evaluate the efficacy of alfacalcidol in 185 chronic hemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (i-PTH >150 pg/ml). Patients with a CaxP product >70 were excluded. Intermittent therapy with intravenous alfacalcidol was observed for 6 months. RESULTS: The mean dose of alfacalcidol per week was 3.63 +/- 1.71 microg. Patients previously treated with vitamin D(3) metabolites needed higher doses of alfacalcidol (4.0 +/- 1.7 vs. 3.2 +/- 1.6; p = 0.01). Only 50.8% of the patients had received vitamin D(3) metabolites prior to the start of the study and at baseline they had higher i-PTH levels (600.3 +/- 360.5 vs. 489.9 +/- 292.6, p = 0.02). i-PTH levels decreased from 546 +/- 332.6 to 332.4 +/- 274.5 pg/ml (p < 0.001). 60.5% of the patients had i-PTH < 300 pg/ml at the last observation. Serum calcium increased (9.4 +/- 0.8 to 9.97 +/- 1.0 mg/l, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Alfacalcidol reduced the levels of i-PTH and produced a slight increase in serum calcium and phosphate levels. In mild or moderate hyperparathyroidism the doses needed were lower than in severe hyperparathyroidism.

Antibiotic prescription for community-acquired pneumonia in the intensive care unit: impact of adherence to Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines on survival.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of our study was to analyze prognostic factors associated with mortality for patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). METHODS: We conducted a prospective multicenter study including all patients with CAP admitted to the intensive care unit during a 15-month period in 33 Spanish hospitals. Admission data and data on the evolution of the disease were recorded. Multivariate analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical package (SPSS). RESULTS: A total of 529 patients with severe CAP were enrolled; the mean age (+/-SD) was 59.9+/-16.1 years, and the mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score (+/-SD) was 18.9+/-7.4. Overall mortality among patients in the intensive case unit was 27.9% (148 patients). The rate of adherence to Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines was 57.8%. Significantly higher mortality was documented among patients with nonadherence to treatment (33.2% vs. 24.2%). Multivariate analysis identified age (odds ratio [OR], 1.7), APACHE II score (OR, 4.1), nonadherence to IDSA guidelines (OR, 1.6), and immunocompromise (OR, 1.9) as the variables present at admission to the intensive care unit that were independently associated with death in the intensive care unit. In 15 (75%) of 20 cases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, the antimicrobial treatment at admission was inadequate (including 8 of 15 cases involving patients with adherence to IDSA guidelines). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR, 17.9), malignancy (OR, 11.0), previous antibiotic exposure (OR, 6.2), and radiographic findings demonstrating rapid spread of disease (OR, 3.9) were associated with P. aeruginosa pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS: Better adherence to IDSA guidelines would help to improve survival among patients with severe CAP. Pseudomonas coverage should be considered for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, malignancy, or recent antibiotic exposure.

Evaluation of intragranular misorientation parameters measured by EBSD in a hot worked austenitic stainless steel.

An extensive characterization of hot deformed austenitic stainless steel was carried out using the electron backscatter diffraction technique. Special emphasis was given to the misorientation parameters related to different length scales. These parameters show a behaviour that is sensitive to the amount of applied strain and also lead to increasing values for both the strain and the scale length. At the same time, the use of different thresholds and scan steps in the evaluation of the parameters were analyzed in order to assess the validity of the results.

Early mortality in spontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage

Background. Spontaneous supratentorial intracerebralhaemorrhage is a severe, frequent, and poorlyunderstood condition. Despite the publication of 12 randomisedcontrolled trials on this subject, the role of surgeryremains controversial and no treatment has proved to beeffective. We report on a ten year prospective cohort studybased on a defined population treated with or without surgeryand their outcome in terms of early survival.Methods. Population based, ten year prospective observationalstudy directed to patients consecutively admittedto the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a tertiary centre withspontaneous supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage.Patients were distributed in five groups according to theGlasgow Coma Score (GCS) at admission. Haemorrhageswere classified as deep-seated or superficial. All patientreceived standard medical care, and additionally surgeryif it was found indicated by the duty neurosurgeon. Primaryendpoint was early mortality defined as dead occurredby any cause during the admission in the ICU.Findings. During the ten year period, 1.485 patientswere admitted to our centre with primary intracerebralhaemorrhage. Of these, 376 were admitted to theintensive care unit and 285 sustained supratentorialhaemorrhages. Low GCS was strong predictor of earlymortality. Despite the larger size of haematomas inpatients undergoing surgical evacuation, surgery wasassociated with lower early mortality in all GCS subgroups.Maximal benefit was observed in patient withadmission GCS of 4-8. Superficial haematomas wereoperated on more often, and were associated with lowermortality rate than deep-seated cases.Conclusions. Our findings suggest that craniotomyfor haematoma evacuation may reduce early mortalityin patients with primary supratentorial intracerebralhaemorrhage. Surgery seems specially useful in patientswith admission GCS between 4 and 8, and in those withsuperficial haemorrhages (AU)

Introducción. La hemorragia intracerebral supratentorialespontánea es un proceso frecuente, gravey poco comprendido. A pesar de la publicación de 12ensayos clínicos controlados sobre el tema, la indicaciónquirúrgica es controvertida y ningún tratamiento se hamostrado efectivo. Presentamos los resultados de unestudio prospectivo de cohortes desarrollado a lo largo dediez años en una población definida. Los pacientes recibierontratamiento quirúrgico o conservador y su evoluciónse describe en términos de mortalidad temprana.Material y métodos. Estudio prospectivo y observacionalbasado en una población definida en el que se incluyeronconsecutivamente todos los pacientes que ingresaron a lolargo de diez años en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos(UCI) de un centro terciario. Los pacientes fueron clasificadosen cinco grupos de acuerdo al puntaje en la escalade coma de Glasgow (GCS) al ingreso. Las hemorragiasfueron clasificadas en superficiales y profundas. Todoslos pacientes recibieron el tratamiento médico estándary cirugía de acuerdo con la indicación del neurocirujanode guardia. El punto final del análisis fue la mortalidadtemprana, definida como muerte por cualquier causaocurrida durante el ingreso en UCI.Resultados. Un total de 1.485 pacientes con hemorragiaintracerebral espontánea fueron ingresados ennuestro centro durante los diez años del estudio. De (..) (AU)