Greet Hermans

..Intensive insulin therapy reduces morbidity and mortality in patients in surgical intensive care units (ICUs), but its role in patients in medical ICUs is unknown...

..A blood glucose target <110 mg/day was most effective but also carried the highest risk of hypoglycemia...

..Besides controlling risk factors, no specific prevention or treatment exists. Recently, intensive insulin therapy prevented critical illness polyneuropathy in a surgical intensive care unit...

..Potential underlying mechanisms derived from experimental studies and from the analysis of biopsy samples harvested from critically ill patients or patients suffering from other catabolic states are discussed...

..Controversy exists about the timing of the initiation of parenteral nutrition in critically ill adults in whom caloric targets cannot be met by enteral nutrition alone...

..A recent large multicenter study, NICE-SUGAR, compared a similar age-normal with an intermediate glucose target and found the intermediate target superior. These results require explanation...

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..The diagnosis of IA remains difficult and is often established too late. Galactomannan (GM) is an exo-antigen released from Aspergillus hyphae while they invade host tissue...

..These guidelines differ particularly in the timing of initiating parenteral nutrition (PN) in patients for whom enteral nutrition (EN) does not reach caloric targets...

..In the present study, we investigated whether these effects are also present in daily clinical practice when IIT is implemented outside of a study protocol...

..We hypothesize that intensive insulin therapy also prevents severe coagulation abnormalities thereby contributing to less organ failure and better survival...

..Early parenteral nutrition to supplement insufficient enteral feeding during intensive care (early PN) delays recovery as compared with withholding parenteral nutrition for 1 week (late PN)...

..We hypothesized that invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a frequent complication in critically ill patients with H1N1 virus infection and that CS may contribute to this complication...

..Secondary objectives are to quantify muscle weakness, to evaluate distribution of muscle weakness, and to evaluate gender-related differences in muscle strength...

..Also, conflicting evidence concerning the neuromuscular effects of corticosteroids exists. A systematic review of the available literature on the optimal approach for preventing CIP/CIM seems warranted...

..We aimed to evaluate the repeatability of TwPdi BAMPS in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients and to describe the relation between TwPdi and the duration of mechanical ventilation...

..Overweight and obese critically ill patients may have a lower risk of death than lean patients, suggestive of a protective role for adipose tissue during illness...

..Treating patients during the ECMO period with antifungals is difficult. Loss in the ECMO circuit can potentially result in sub-therapeutic levels...

..The scope of the review is to discuss recent developments in application of assessment tools and rehabilitation in critically ill patients within an interdisciplinary approach...

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..Although there was no difference in pH at onset of ECMO, blood gas analysis at 48 h revealed pH as an independent predictor of survival...

..This may have had detrimental effects by further complicating tissue oxygenation. We recommend that COHb should routinely be checked in ECMO patients...

..Volumetric filling parameters and transmural filling pressures are clearly superior to classical cardiac filling pressures in the assessment of cardiac preload during elevated IAP...

..No evidence is available concerning the effectiveness of an early exercise training intervention to prevent these detrimental complications...

..The primary tumor was not found on autopsy. The patient was at increased risk for malignancy due to his renal transplantation 16 years before...

..The Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System (MARS) is a novel extracorporeal technique for liver support. We report the clinical results in the first 13 patients with severe liver failure treated at our institution...