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The assessment of the nutritional status of patients in the intensive care unit is recommended in current guidelines and should include the assessment of muscle status. A suitable method is the analysis of routine computed tomography (CT) scans, which are frequently performed in critically ill patients. With the help of special software, individual CT slices are processed and various parameters such as muscle area, muscle density or even the percentage of adipose tissue are displayed and quantified. It has been shown that cross-sectional acquisition of skeletal muscle in the lumbar spine correlates very well with total body muscle. There are defined, albeit population-based, cut-off values that can be used to establish diagnosis of sarcopenia. Monitoring of individualized nutritional therapy can be accomplished by assessment of repetitive CT examinations. The steadily growing body of data confirms that the method can make a valuable contribution to the assessment of body composition in intensive care medicine. Most of the currently available software requires time-consuming processing of the CT. Automated programs, which are now occasionally available and eliminate the need for most manual processing, may make the method even more attractive in the future. Ultimately, the risk of intensive transport to the CT or radiation exposure may be only justified for medical indications. Nevertheless, whenever CT is available for medical reasons, it should also be exploited for composition analysis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

High and Intensive Care is a relatively new care model in Dutch mental health care for clinical admissions. One of the goals is to keep the admission short. For some patients, this goal is not realized, which results in a long-term admission. Often, this is experienced as a disruption. Disruptions in care processes are frequently defined in terms of patient characteristics. Yet, it may be that other factors play a role. The aim of this study is to gain better insight into the perceptions of care professionals of what is characteristic for disruptions at High and Intensive Care wards and how professionals can deal with these. Qualitative research was performed by means of semi-structured interviews and a focus group with professionals. Results show that a focus on patient characteristics is too narrow and that other factors also play an important role. These factors include challenges in the relation between professionals and the patient, a divided team, and a lack of collaboration with ambulatory care. In order to deal with these factors, professionals should invest in the relationship with the patient, identify destructive team processes early, and improve communication with ambulatory care. It is recommended to develop a monitoring tool that includes all these factors. Another recommendation is to organize structured reflection on dilemmas experienced in care. In conclusion, this study shows the importance of going beyond patient characteristics in order to better understand, identify, and deal with disruption at High and Intensive Care wards., (© 2020 The Authors. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.)

Objective: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) undergo acute increases in metabolic and cardiopulmonary demands in response to routine care interventions, such as chest physical therapy. This study examined whether the short-acting drug, propofol, could blunt the responses to chest physical therapy., Design: Prospective, randomized, crossover (placebo vs. drug) study., Setting: University hospital surgical ICU., Patients: Postoperative ICU patients being ventilated in the synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation mode., Interventions: Two groups of 16 patients were studied. Each patient received two successive sessions of chest physical therapy. In random fashion, one was preceded by the administration of placebo and the other by an intravenous bolus of propofol (0.75 mg/kg in one group and 0.35 mg/kg in the other group). Each session was preceded and followed by a period of rest., Measurements and Main Results: The increases in oxygen uptake, CO2 elimination, oxygen delivery, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure associated with chest physical therapy were attenuated with the low dose and suppressed with the high dose of propofol. The Paco2 concentration was slightly increased during both placebo and drug administration., Conclusions: Propofol, in the doses administered in this study, significantly reduced the hemodynamic and metabolic stresses caused by chest physical therapy.

Measurements of VO2 and VCO2 can be used to calculate REE, which can be used to determine the caloric requirements and metabolic state of critically ill patients. These measurements are made using the gas exchange method--measuring the minute ventilation and the differences between the inspired and expired concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Mechanical ventilation provides a challenging environment in which to make these measurements because of elevated oxygen concentrations, fluctuating airway pressures, and humidity. Careful attention must be paid to details to ensure accurate measurements under these conditions.

We continually monitored components of the Fick equation (oxygen consumption, arterial and mixed venous oxygen saturation) simultaneously in ten hemodynamically stable, mechanically ventilated postoperative patients in order to evaluate our ability to continually calculate cardiac output (Qc) from its Fick determinants. Qc underestimated (p less than 0.001) cardiac output calculated from intermittent CO-oximeter measurements (6.2 vs 6.4 L/min) with good correlation (r = .96), while it consistently overestimated (p less than 0.05) thermodilution cardiac output (Qtd) (6.2 vs 5.9 L/min, r = .84). Measured oxygen consumption correlated with Qtd (r = .78) nearly as well as did Qc, while mixed venous oxygen saturation correlated poorly with Qtd (r = -.10). Trends of multiple Fick variables were helpful in interpreting changes in a single parameter. We conclude that continual trending of Fick variables in critically ill patients is both feasible and useful and that Qc agrees well with both traditional Fick cardiac output computed from CO-oximetry data and thermodilution measurements. Finally, measured oxygen consumption, available continuously, correlates well with changes in cardiac output in this subset of critically-ill patients.

There is much interest in the relationship between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in the critically ill patient. This interest is occasioned by the observation that patients with sepsis and the adult respiratory distress syndrome have a linear or "supply-dependent" relationship instead of the normally observed biphasic or "supply-independent" relationship. These relationships are only valid when subjects are at rest, since during exercise, as VO2 increases, so do DO2 and the oxygen extraction ratio (ER, VO2/DO2). We examined the VO2-DO2 relationship in a group of 16 mechanically-ventilated surgical ICU patients while they were at rest and during activities that increase VO2. At low levels of activity, where mean VO2 increased from 207 +/- 38 (SD) ml/min at rest to 241 +/- 44 ml/min, there were significant increases in mean DO2 but not mean ER. With the greater (greater than 50 percent) increases in VO2 seen with chest physical therapy, there were increases in both DO2 and ER. When the VO2-DO2 relationship during low levels of exercise and rest are plotted, a linear pattern emerges that could be misinterpreted as a "supply dependent" pattern. Therefore, it is important to pay close attention to the activity state of a patient when examining the VO2-DO2 relationship.

The alterations in metabolic (oxygen consumption [VO2] and carbon dioxide production [VCO2]) and hemodynamic (heart rate and blood pressure) parameters caused by various common intensive care activities were examined in a group of 23 mechanically-ventilated critically-ill patients. The observed variations in metabolic rate can be classified into four categories as follows: (a) the lowest energy expenditure, which was associated with sleeping in the majority (83 percent) of instances; (b) resting, which was defined as a state where the patient was lying motionless with eyes open and responding to surrounding events, where VO2 and VCO2 averaged 9.1 +/- 7.5(SD) percent and 7.5 +/- 7.3 percent, respectively, above the lowest values; (c) a variety of routine daily care activities (eg, bathing, performing a physical examination) that although not particularly painful, caused arousal from the resting state. During these situations, VO2 and VCO2 averaged about 20 percent above lowest values; and (d) chest physical therapy, which was associated with metabolic increases of 35 percent above lowest values as well as increases in both heart rate and blood pressure. This study demonstrates that routine daily ICU activities can significantly alter metabolic rate, and thus, it is important to couple such measurements with astute observations of the patients' activity state. In addition, we have defined an activity state--resting--that can be used in the calculation of energy expenditure as well as for intrapatient and interpatient comparisons.

There has been increasing interest in the nutritional support of the critically ill patient. The day-to-day variation in resting energy expenditure (REE) was studied over a 3-5-day period in 17 postoperative mechanically ventilated critically ill patients to gain insight as to how often caloric intake should be reassessed, whether changes observed over 3-5 days are of sufficient magnitude to make frequent adjustments in caloric intake, and what factors are associated with large alterations in metabolic rate. REE was measured daily for 3-5 days, and the percent variation in REE [(highest REE--lowest daily REE)/(lowest daily REE) x 100] calculated. The variation ranged from 4 to 56%, and on further analysis two distinct groups were identified, one with a mean variation of 12 +/- 4% (SD) (range 4-18%) and the other with a mean variation of 46 +/- 8% (range 37-56%). The former group was clinically stable, whereas the latter was not. Clinically stable patients need less frequent measurements than those who are more ill, but when designing a nutritional regimen for them, at least 20-25% should be added to the REE, 15% to account for day-to-day variation and 5-10% for activity.

We examined cardiovascular changes in 37 patients transported to an ICU after major general or vascular surgery (n = 14), open heart surgery (n = 13), or carotid endarterectomy (n = 10). Cardiovascular variables were also measured in a control group of 11 patients transported from an ICU for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. All patients were followed for 30 min before transport until approximately 30 min after they arrived at their destinations. During this period, systolic BP and heart rate significantly increased only in patients recovering from major general/vascular surgery or carotid endarterectomy. These changes were apparently related to acute emergence from inhalational anesthesia (isoflurane plus nitrous oxide), since the other surgical patients were anesthetized with narcotic anesthesia, and the control group did not receive any anesthesia.

This study characterizes the pattern of caloric expenditure of a group of 19 mechanically ventilated critically ill patients after surgery. Continuous measurements of metabolic rate were used to examine the total energy expended over an eight-hour period (10 AM to 6 PM) on 21 occassions. This allowed for determination of the energy expended during activity, rest, and sleep. The patients were observed to be resting, defined as lying motionless with eyes open and responsive to surrounding events, for 44 +/- 4 percent (SE) of the studied period. Sleeping, a state where the patient was not aroused by surrounding events, was observed for 17 +/- 3 percent of the studied period. Total energy expenditure was 4.8 +/- 1.8 percent greater than resting energy expenditure (REE). The REE was 13.1 +/- 2.3 percent above sleeping energy expenditure (awakeness factor), while activity energy expenditure was 17.1 +/- 2.9 percent above REE (activity factor). The respiratory quotient (RQ) during activity in the 15 patients receiving infusions of physiologic saline solution or 5 percent dextrose solution was significantly less (p less than 0.02) than the RQ during rest. This appears to be due to increased fat oxidation during activity.