Pediatric cardiac critical care patients should be cared for by intensivists.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jerry J Zimmerman.
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OBJECTIVE: To review nonmortality outcome measures in clinical trials of therapies to treat sepsis in children. DATA SOURCE: Literature review using the search word terms "sepsis" + "surrogate markers," "sepsis" + "biomarkers," or "sepsis" + "outcomes." STUDY SELECTION: Articles were generally categorized as those dealing with review of patient-centered outcomes, characteristics of good surrogate markers, resolution of organ dysfunction, morbidity and functional status, quality-of-life measures, intensive care unit costs, and biomarkers. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Information potentially relevant for development of surrogate markers for pediatric sepsis trials was extracted and organized as noted above. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple potential surrogate markers are being actively investigated for their potential validity and utility in pediatric clinical trials of sepsis and increasingly for adult sepsis trials. This is important because as mortality decreases, it becomes an impractical primary end point. Surrogate end points that address patient-related morbidity and intensive care unit costs may also be quantified. Treatment of sepsis and corresponding end points for clinical trials should be aimed at both the duration and the quality of survival.
OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to document the incidence of impaired cerebral autoregulation in children with traumatic brain injury using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and to examine the relationship between autoregulatory capacity and outcome in children following traumatic brain injury. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Harborview Medical Center (level I pediatric trauma center) in Washington state. PATIENTS: Thirty-six children <15 yrs old with traumatic brain injury: Glasgow Coma Scale score <9 (n = 12, group 1), Glasgow Coma Scale score 9-12 (n = 12, group 2), and Glasgow Coma Scale score 13-15 (n = 12, group 3). INTERVENTIONS: Cerebral autoregulation testing was conducted during extracranial surgery. Mean middle cerebral artery flow velocities were measured using transcranial Doppler as mean arterial pressure was increased to whichever variable was greater: 20% above baseline or a set value (80 mm Hg for <9 yrs and 90 mm Hg for 9-14 yrs). Autoregulatory capacity was quantified by the Autoregulatory Index. Autoregulatory Index <0.4 was considered impaired cerebral autoregulation. Discharge outcome using the Glasgow Outcome Scale score was considered good if the Glasgow Outcome Scale score was > or =4. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-four (67%) of 36 children had an Autoregulatory Index > or =0.4. The incidence of impaired cerebral autoregulation was 42% (five of 12) in group 1, 42% (five of 12) in group 2, and 17% (two of 12) in group 3. Ten (42%) of the 24 children with intact cerebral autoregulation had a good outcome compared with only one of 12 (8%) children with impaired cerebral autoregulation (p =.04). Six of 12 (50%) children with impaired cerebral autoregulation had hyperemia compared with one of 24 (4%) children with intact cerebral autoregulation (p <.01). Hyperemia was associated with poor outcome (p =.01). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of impaired cerebral autoregulation was greatest following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Impaired cerebral autoregulation was associated with poor outcome. Hyperemia was associated with impaired cerebral autoregulation and poor outcome.
OBJECTIVE: To introduce to the pediatric critical care medicine community a new program in pediatric critical care medicine at the National Institutes of Health. DATA SOURCE: Summary of literature review and conference proceedings. DATA SYNTHESIS: At the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a new program in pediatric critical care and rehabilitation research has been established in the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research. The program is directed by a pediatric intensivist and is focused on developing research directed toward improving long-term outcomes in pediatric critical care and on incorporating pediatric rehabilitation medicine as a partner in this goal. To provide strategic direction for the new program, the NICHD sponsored a planning conference May 3-4, 2002, at the NICHD in Bethesda, MD. The conference invitees represented a broad range of pediatric critical care medicine clinical and research interests, expertise, and career stages. It also included individuals with expertise in rehabilitation research. CONCLUSION: The composition of the new program, including its link to physical medicine and rehabilitation, is discussed. In addition, recommendations by the conference participants and program director are provided to foster the development of more randomized, controlled clinical trials and to develop successful clinician scientists in pediatric critical care medicine.
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An intact and well-functioning pulmonary surfactant system is critical for normal respiration and protection from lung infection. Surfactant is comprised of phospholipids that reduce surface tension and greatly reduce the work of breathing. The other major component consists of surfactant-associated proteins, which optimise the biophysical function of phospholipids and/or play an important role in host defence by acting as collectins. Alteration of surfactant composition and function occurs with various inflammatory disorders that affect the airways or the lung parenchyma including asthma, infant respiratory distress syndrome/bronchopulmonary dysplasia, cystic fibrosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and interstitial lung disease. Although surfactant replacement therapy is indicated for infant respiratory distress syndrome, there is no well-proven role for exogenous surfactant in the treatment of inflammatory lung disorders at the present time.
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