Background The guidelines recommend the use of dexamethasone 6 mg or an equivalent dose in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who require supplemental oxygen. Given that the severity of COVID-19 varies, we investigated the effect of a pulse dose of corticosteroids on the clinical course of critically ill patients with COVID-19.
Methods This single-center, retrospective cohort study was conducted between September and December 2021, which was when the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus was predominant. We evaluated the mortality and oxygenation of severe to critical COVID-19 cases between groups that received dexamethasone 6 mg for 10 days (control group) and methylprednisolone 250 mg/day for 3 days (pulse group).
Results Among 44 patients, 14 and 30 patients were treated with control steroids and pulse steroids, respectively. There was no difference in disease severity, time from COVID-19 diagnosis to steroid administration, or use of remdesivir or antibacterial agents between the two groups. The pulse steroid group showed a significant improvement in oxygenation before and after steroid treatment (P<0.001) compared with the control steroid group (P=0.196). There was no difference in in-hospital mortality (P=0.186); however, the pulse steroid group had a lower mortality rate (23.3%) than the control steroid group (42.9%). There was a significant difference in the length of hospital stay between both two groups (P=0.039).
Conclusions Pulse steroids showed no mortality benefit but were associated with oxygenation improvement and shorter hospital stay than control steroids. Hyperglycemia should be carefully monitored with pulse steroids.
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BACKGROUND Blood pressure is clinically used for monitoring shock patients and as a therapeutic indicator for them.
Non-invasive blood pressure measurement has weak points such as the use of a cuff and it is a discontinuous measurement.
A method of measuring the blood pressure by using the PWTT (pulse wave transit time) has been studied to make up for those weak points. If blood pressure monitoring can be done by using the difference of the PWTT between different points in the body, then this method will be a quite useful to monitor the BP of seriously ill patients. This study aimed to verify whether or not the PWTT has a significant correlation with the blood pressure of shock patients who received vasopressor infusion and whether this method is clinically applicable. METHODS The study subjects were 20 shock patients who were hospitalized in intensive care units and they had received vasopressor, and we measured the PWTT and we analyzed its correlation with the SBP (systolic blood pressure) and DBP (diastolic blood pressure), as measured by non-invasive monitoring. We then determined the effects of the PWTT on the SBP and DBP. RESULTS From the results of correlation analysis between the PWTT and the SBP and DBP, the SBP displayed a statistically significant negative correlation with the PWTT of 18 patients, while no significant correlation between the PWTT and DBP was observed. At the same time, from the results of the regression analysis of the blood pressures and the PWTT of each patient, it was found that the PWTT had a negative effect on the SBP of all the patients, except two. CONCLUSIONS The PWTT has a negative correlation with the SBP of the patients who received vasopressor infusion.
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Development of Blood Pressure Simulator for Test of the Arm-type Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor S.H. Kim, S.U. Yun, M.H. Cho, S.J. Lee, M.H. Lim, S.Y. Seo, G.R. Jeon Journal of Sensor Science and Technology.2015; 24(4): 239. CrossRef
BACKGROUND In hemodynamically unstable patients with spontaneous breathing activity, predicting volume responsivenss is a difficult challenge. Our objective was to test whether the respiratory changes in pulse oxymetry plethysmographic waveform amplitude (POP) and in stroke volume (deltaSV) could predict fluid responsiveness to passive leg raising (PLR) in normal volunteers. METHODS We investigated 25 normal volunteers. We assessed hemodynamic status (HR, SBP, MAP, CI and SVI) and calculated the respiratory variation in pulse oximetry plethysmographic waveform amplitude at supine and after PLR. We attached a pulse oximeter of 25 spontaneously breathing volunteers as several time points: after 1 min and 5 min in supine position and during PLR at 60degrees. Heart rate, non-invasive blood pressures (mean arterial pressure, systolic blood pressure), maximal POP (POPmax), minimal POP (POPmin) and deltaPOP defined as (POPmax-POPmin)/[(POPmax+POPmin)/2] were recorded using monitor. RESULTS Comparing to supine and PLR, systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were not different, but the change in cardiac index, stroke volume and respiratory variation in POP were significant different. In response group (> or =10% in deltaCI), the change in cardiac index, stroke volume and respiratory variation in POP were significant greater. CONCLUSION PLR induces a significant decrement of variation in POP amplitude among spontaneouely breathing volunteers.
We suppose that the changes in stroke volume and the respiratory variation in pulse oximetry plethysmographic waveform amplitude induced by PLR predict fluid responsiveness in spontaneous breathing patients.
BACKGROUND The reliability of pulse oxymetry probes when applied to the finger or toes may be compromised in certain patients. Other sites less subject to mechanical interference or a pathophysiologic decrease in pulse amplitude have been sought. In the patients with moderate defect (N=20) in pulmonary function test, we examined the accuracy of buccal and digital SpO2 (oxygen saturation of pulse oxymetry) monitoring. METHODS SpO2 probe was placed firmly in the corner of the patient's mouth. Buccal and finger SpO2 and radial SaO2 (arterial oxygen saturation) were measured before the induction of anesthesia. The agreement between SaO2 and each SpO2 were calculated with the method outlined by Bland and Altman. RESULTS Buccal SpO2 was higher than finger SpO2, but finger SpO2 agreed more closely with SaO2 (buccal; 97.9+/-1.89, finger; 94.5+/-2.48, radial; 93.73+/-2.73%). CONCLUSIONS We conclude that buccal SpO2 monitoring may offer alternative when other sites aren't available. But, we suggest that buccal SpO2 should be further evaluated for the accuracy.
This case showed that pulse oximeter was helpful for early detection of pulmonary edema during Cesarean section in a parturient woman with preoperative ritodrine treatment.
Though arterial oxygen saturation ( Sp02 ) by pulse oximeter was low before the induction of anesthesia, the woman was anesthetized due to emergency situation. SpO2 was continuously low during the operation, so pulmonary edema was suspected. After the operaton, pulmonary edema was diagnosed on the chest x-ray. On the ECG, anteroseptal wall ischemia was detected. Supplementary O2 and diuretics therapy were performed. On the 3rd postoperative day, arterial blood gas analysis was within normal range. Four days after the operation, ECG was normalized and chest x-ray finding was much improved. 10 days later, chest x-ray finding was normalized.
Introduction: Oxygen delivery to tissue is of major clinical interest in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD). The use of pulse oximeter to monitor arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) is considered accurate and reliable in the range of 90% to 100%. However with desaturation, the accuracy remains controversial below 90%. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of pulse oximetry in severe hypoxemia. METHOD In 110 children with cyanotic CHD, pulse oximeter (N-200, Nellcor, USA) readings were compared with the direct measurement of SaO2 by blood gas analyser (Profile10, Stat, USA). All measurements were carried out after induction of anesthesia and devided into 4 groups according to saturation measured by pulse oximeter (SpO2). SpO2 in group I was higher than 90% (n=90), in group II between 80% and 89% (n=75), in group III between 70% and 79% (n=41), in group IV lower than 69% (n=18). Statistical analysis of paired SpO2 and SaO2 values was performed using correlation analysis and paired t-test. The other comparisons were perfomed with ANOVA. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Correlation coefficient of group I was 0.89 (p<0.01), group II was 0.67 (p<0.01), group III was 0.63 (p<0.01) and group IV was 0.41. The study demonstrate that SpO2 seems to have good correlation with SaO2 when SpO2 is higher than 70%. This results are contrary to other studies which show that SpO2 is not reliable when SpO2 is below 90%.
However, the correlation value r seems to decrease with desaturation. CONCLUSION The use of pulse oximeter in severe hypoxemic children with CHD is efficient in monitoring oxygenation, even though there is decrease in accuracy of the SpO2.