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Biomedical subjects

J J Guardiola

Publications and source records attributed to J J Guardiola.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Hypercoagulability in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been linked to cardiovascular complications such as stroke and myocardial infarction. Previous studies demonstrate that OSA patients show elevated fibrinogen levels and increased platelet aggregation that are reversed with 1 night of nasal continuous positive airway pressure treatment (NCPAP). Questioning overall coagulability in OSA, we examined whole blood coagulability in 11 chronically NCPAP treated OSA subjects, 22 previously untreated OSA subjects, and in 16 of these after 1 night of NCPAP treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: During full polysomnography, subjects from each group had blood drawn prior to bedtime (21:00 h) and upon waking in the morning (07:00 h). RESULTS: Untreated OSA patients had faster P.M. clotting times than chronically treated OSA patients (3.33+/-0.31 versus 6.12+/- 0.66 min, P<0.05 by ANOVA). A.M. values showed similar results (4.31+/- 0.34 min versus 7.08+/-0.52 min, P<0.05 by ANOVA) for the respective groups. One overnight treatment with nasal CPAP did not produce a significant change in A.M. whole blood coagulability (4.35 +/-0.43 to 5.31+/-0.53 min; n=16; P=0.1) in 16 treated subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate a relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and blood hypercoagulability status that appears to be reversed by chronic NCPAP treatment. These data suggest that NCPAP might protect against the development of cardiovascular complications in OSA patients.

Journal Article↗

Pulmonary edema develops after recurrent obstructive apneas.

There are anecdotal reports of pulmonary edema after a night of recurrent obstructive apneas (OAs) in humans, but no data on lung water, gas exchange, filling pressure, or cardiac output (Q) exist in these patients. By clamping the endotracheal tube of eight intubated, anesthesized dogs, we created repetitive OAs of 45-s duration at 30-s intervals, for 8 h. Five additional dogs without apneas, but identically instrumented, were studied simultaneously, serving as nonapneic controls. Sa (O(2)) was measured by intraarterial catheter, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (Pcw), continuous cardiac output (Q), and mixed venous oxygen saturation (Sv(O(2))) were measured by flotation catheter. Basal and hourly hemodynamics and blood gases (arterial and venous) under steady state respiration were measured. Venous admixture (Q S/Q T) was calculated by standard equations. Pa(O(2)) from the beginning to the end of the experiment fell from 89.6 to 82.8 mm Hg in apneic animals and from 92.2 to 85.5 mm Hg in controls. The Q S/Q T increased in both groups but more so in the apnea group (3.3 to 19.4%) than in nonapneic controls (3.1 to 7.9%). Neither Q nor Pcw changed significantly in either group. Lung wet/dry weight was 5.40 +/- 0.93 in apneic animals and 5.00 +/- 0.67 in controls. Light microscopy showed gross alveolar fluid in three apneic dogs, and electron microscopy showed interstitial fluid in two additional apneic dogs. One of the lung edema dogs expired of acute heart failure in the seventh hour of the experiment. Worsening of gas exchange and histology suggest that lung edema can result from recurrent OAs.

Animals↗

Assessment of the prognosis of coronary patients: performance and customization of generic severity indexes.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the prognostic performance of general severity systems (APACHE II [acute physiology and chronic health evaluation], simplified acute physiology score [SAPS II], and mortality probability models [MPM II]) in coronary patients and to derive new customized indexes for coronary patients using a reduced number of variables. DESIGN: Inception cohort. SETTING: Adult medical and surgical ICUs in 17 hospitals in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. PATIENTS: Four hundred fifty-six patients with acute myocardial infarction. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The APACHE II, SAPS II, and MPM II variables and survival status at hospital discharge have been collected. Performance of the severity systems was assessed by evaluating calibration and discrimination. Logistic regression was used to customize the MPM II(24) and SAPS II indexes. Discrimination was high enough for all of the models. However, calibration of the MPM II(24) was not as satisfactory as for the other models. The MPM II(24) and SAPS II were both reduced to five variables (MPM II(24 cor:) age, PaO2, continuous vasoactive drugs, urinary output, and mechanical ventilation; SAPS II(cor:) age, PaO2/FI(O2) ratio, systolic BP, Glasgow coma score, and urinary output). Both models showed better calibration and discrimination than the original ones. CONCLUSIONS: Prognostic indexes developed for multidisciplinary patients show good performance when applied to patients with acute myocardial infarction, but customization can reduce the number of variables necessary to compute them without a loss of, and a possible improvement in, prognostic accuracy.

Acute Disease↗

Percutaneous dilatational cricothyroidotomy: outcome with 44 consecutive patients.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the value of the percutaneous dilatational technique in elective cricothyroidotomy. DESIGN: Forty-four consecutive patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. SETTING: The general 14-bed intensive care unit of a university hospital. INTERVENTIONS: Fourty-four percutaneous dilatational cricothyroidotomies using a multiple-dilator wire-guided procedure. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The average duration for the procedure was 11 min in 37 patients. No significant complications occurred intraoperatively except for one paratracheal cannula insertion. Postoperative complications were one case of stoma infection, three cases of transient phonatory changes, two cases of a small peristomal granuloma, and one case of persistent stoma. Of 21 decannulated patients, 16 survived to discharge. Long-term follow-up was possible in 14 surviving patients. All were asymptomatic several months after decannulation. CONCLUSIONS: Percutaneous dilatational cricothyroidotomy can be a quick, safe technique, as good as the percutaneous subcricoidal approach in ventilated, critically ill patients.

Adolescent↗

Statistical modeling of prognostic indices for evaluation of critically ill patients.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the most predictive association of variables from the usual indices of severity of illness by statistical objective analysis. DESIGN: Logistic regression analysis of the different variables of the most important indices. SETTING: A general critical care medicine group practice in a university hospital. PATIENTS: A total of 630 critical care patients age 12 to 87 yrs were evaluated. The most important indices of severity of illness and the corresponding variables were recorded and the patient's course was followed for 3 months after ICU admission. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: One of our hypotheses was that the inclusion of an excessive number of variables to obtain the most common prognostic indices of mortality in critical care patients results in an underestimation of mortality and a redundancy of prognostic information. We performed a logistic regression analysis using the variables of the currently used indices of critical care prognosis: Acute Physiology Score, Simplified Acute Physiology Score, Acute Physiology Score-II, and Mortality Prediction Model. This mathematical approach resulted in a model of five variables: organ system failure, blood glucose, serum calcium, serum prothrombin activity, and serum osmolality. The score obtained from this model gave accurate prognostic criteria:sensitivity 91.2% and specificity 90%, using a cutoff point of 0.7; sensitivity 86% and, specificity 94%, using a cutoff point of 0.5. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that suitable statistical management of the discriminant prognostic variables allows reduction of the number of variables of the severity indices currently used, obtaining five more predictive variables.

Adolescent↗